By Master Sgt. Lindsay Buck
SALT LAKE CITY - In today’s environment, emergency preparation is essential. We all see the headlines about natural disasters, crime, and terrorist activities. These events affect our lives with increasing frequency. We need to prepare ourselves, our families, and our military formations against the possible hazards and threats we may encounter.
One of the ways to prepare is to participate in emergency exercises. Recently, the 807th Medical Command (Deployment Support) Headquarters led Fort Douglas through an earthquake exercise. We contributed to the over one million participants in the statewide, Great Utah Shakeout.
The exercise started with an announcement, “Exercise, exercise, exercise. This is the Great Shakeout.” Everyone followed instructions to "Drop, Cover and Hold On" by crawling under desks, tables, or other sturdy furniture.
When the announcement ended, everyone left the buildings in an orderly manner and assembled at the primary rally point. After conducting accountability, the exercise ended, having lasted only 20 minutes.
Participating in such exercises helps us prevent or reduce distractors from our main goal of readiness.
Col. Douglas Medd, chief of staff for the 807th MCDS said, “Being prepared, not just for military missions, but other emergencies here at home will help us achieve a higher state of readiness. That is why we conduct active shooter and earthquake drills here.”
We cannot allow other readiness concerns to overshadow emergency preparation because one unfortunate event can ruin months of readiness activities.
The Chief of the Army Reserve, Lt. General Charles D. Luckey, is famous for saying, “Readiness is Job number one,” but he also said, “if you can't get to the fight quickly, you don't really matter."
Don’t allow emergencies to derail your readiness. Prepare today!
| Date Taken: | 10.19.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 10.19.2017 12:26 |
| Story ID: | 252294 |
| Location: | SALT LAKE CITY, UT, US |
| Web Views: | 162 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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