Train How You Fight: Mercy Sailors Suit up for CBRN-E Drills

PACIFIC OCEAN

09.27.2019

Story by Petty Officer 3rd Class Harley Sarmiento 

USNS MERCY (T-AH 19)

PACIFIC OCEAN – (Sept. 27, 2019) “The ship is entering a medical training team environment. All casualties are drill casualties unless proceeded by the words actual causality. Anyone can call a safety timeout. Only the commanding officer can resume the drill after a safety timeout has been called. The ship is entering a medical training team environment.

While conducting key resolve/foal eagle exercises with USS Benfold (DDG 65) and South Korea’s roks sejong the great miles off the coast of Incheon, South Korea, an explosion occurred at a North Korean warehouse near the DMZ releasing unknown chemicals. There were 30 South Korean military personnel and four us active duty casualties reported to have been exposed tit he chemical. Initial decontamination done and have been triaged to local hospitals. Pacific Fleet has directed USNS Mercy to render aid to the four active duty casualties for secondary DECON and treatment. 

Set CBR condition three watch section 2 warehouse off the coast of Incheon. Four casualties arriving via helicopter. All casualties received primary decontamination. ETA 10 minutes. MTF staff report to their designated CBR watch stations.”

When the announcement comes over Military Sealift Command (MSC) hospital ship USNS Mercy’s (T-AH 19) 1MC, all crew members suit up and prepare for the worst.

Service members assigned to Mercy conduct Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive materials (CBRN-E) decontamination (DECON) training during Mercy Exercise (MERCEX) 19-4. The Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen onboard treat the training as if it were actually happening in the moment.

“This drill exercised one aspect of our CBRN-E DECON capabilities,” said Lt. Nadine Harrison, Mercy operations officer. “The drill integrated all of our Military Training Facility (MTF) staffing and helped flex the coordination that we can’t do while pier side in reduced operating status.”

There are two DECON teams consisting of 30 service members each. Each member plays a vital role in the DECON process.

“Each member of the DECON team plays a vital role,” said Harrison. “The specialized rates all play their own roles according to their specific military training and those who are working out of rate really help pull everything together.”

The drill starts on the Mercy’s flight deck where the patient is received. The patient then goes through a series of initial triage screenings and a security screening before moving into one of the three DECON lanes. Once transferred to a DECON lane the patient is decontaminated and moved to a monitoring room where they wait 10 minutes to ensure complete decontamination. Once cleared by the monitor, the patient is then moved into the elevator and brought down to casualty receiving where they are triaged once again and seen by patient administration.

Once triaged, the patient is taken to the respective bay depending on their condition. Once received in the bay, the medical officer of the day (MOOD). Once their stabilized and their injuries are accessed, the MOOD and the bed side medical officer make the call on whether or not the patient needs to go to the operating room, intensive care unit, or the observation ward.

“Unlike gray hulls, Mercy has some capabilities that are specialized to the hospital ship platform,” said Chief Hospital Corpsman Lester Spence, DECON drill lead. “Unlike other ships, we transfer the little from one room to another by hand off. Patient movement on the Mercy is different in that aspect and the aspect that we move the patient in the elevator to receive further specialized care in casualty receiving, our operating rooms, or our intensive care unit.”

Speed and accuracy are important so that any exposed victims can be decontaminated, preventing further contamination.

The focus of this MERCEX was CBRN-E training, so the DECON drill pulled all the training during the week and really put it to the test.

Mercy is currently operating off the coast of San Diego for Mercy Exercise 19-4 (MERCEX). Mercy is one of two hospital ships owned and operated by Military Sealift Command. Mercy conducts operations in the Pacific area of responsibility under the guidance of U.S. Pacific Command and Commander Pacific Fleet.

• Date Taken: 09.27.2019
• Date Posted: 09.27.2019 17:45
• Story ID: 344430
• Location: PACIFIC OCEAN