CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait – “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise, All medical personnel report to your stations,” echoed over the loudspeakers setting the conditions for a camp-wide mass casualty joint training exercise on Camp Buehring, Kuwait, Feb. 13.
Soldiers of 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, worked in cooperation with military police, emergency medical services, firemen and medical personal to test standard operating procedures and validate response teams.
“The goal was to make sure we exercise communication,” said Capt. Antony Hensel, brigade medical operations officer-in-charge, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Special Troops Battalion, 2nd ABCT. “We want people to know where to be in the quickest time possible.”
As first responders arrived to the scene, bodies, blood and calls for help greeted them.
“In the beginning, it was a little unorganized,” said Spc. Zachary Carmen, an infantryman and a native of Las Vegas, assigned to HHT, 2nd STB. “But towards the end, when the actual soldiers got involved, it started to figure itself out. Each level of care got increasingly more professional and capable.”
The leaders observing the training noticed one key element that would improve everyone participating.
“We identified the need to do cross training,” said Hensel. “The EMS folks may not be too familiar with our tactical vehicles. They have to know how to load them up just like our medics need to be able to load up patients in the civilian vehicles.”
Hensel watched the medics from 204th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd ABCT access the situation, take charge and work well with their counterparts.
“They reacted really quickly and were also able to take guidance from the folks that were already on the scene,” said Hensel. “Our team did very well.”
One of the medics explained what it is like to be in that situation.
“I love doing my job, said Spc. Adela Murphy, a health care specialist and native of Katy, Texas, assigned Company C, 204th BSB. “We are usually the mediator between life and death. If we don’t do our jobs, it is possible (a patient) could bleed out or stop breathing. We have to sustain them to the TMC.”
For a younger soldier, the experience was eye opening.
“I definitely see there are a lot more moving parts than what I actually thought,” said Carmen, who acted as one of 15 simulated casualties. “Now I see how much it takes to get from point A to point B.”
This was the first time the “Warhorse” Brigade participated in a camp wide MASCAL exercise, but it will not be the last with a more in-depth training exercise set for March.
“I think overall so far, the system works,” said Hensel. “We have to sit down and crank out all the numbers and the details but what we planned for was well executed and will help us in future events.”