Icemen measure response to chemical, disease disasters

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Nora Anton
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  On Sept. 26 the 354th Medical Group, assisted by many other agencies on base, conducted a tabletop exercise with the scenario focusing on disease outbreak. This was followed by a practical exercise involving a chemical accident with real-time responses evaluated.

The Air Force Surgeon General's Office mandates all Air Force installations to go through the Medical Readiness Exercise and Training (MeRET).

The MeRET was conducted by contractors from L3 Communications, a major provider of homeland defense products and services, and the medically-centric exercises were developed and evaluated by Eielson's first responder Exercise Evaluation Team.

"The exercises specifically looked at five medical allowance standards used in response to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threats, events or incidents," said Capt. Matthew Glynn, 354th Medical Group EET Chief and 354th Medical Support Squadron laboratory services chief. "In the case of the practical exercise, it was a release of a corrosive industrial chemical."

Captain Glynn said Eielson's bioenvironmental engineering flight, pharmacy, laboratory, immediate medical response team and in-place patient decontamination team were the components evaluated.

"Eielson is the first base to think outside the box and involve all levels of responders as opposed to just medical specialists," he said.

Captain Glynn stated a main obstacle in this training was overcoming cold weather.

"Eielson is unique in that most other bases will not see -40 degree weather," he said. "Much equipment utilizes water for decontamination or must operate at a set temperature not seen during Alaskan winters."

Getting people wet in the winter here is probably not the best course of action, he said. However, it hones the capabilities of our emergency responders and lets Pacific Air Forces and the Air Force Surgeon General's office see what challenges Eielson faces during the winter.

"We should exercise the way we would respond," says Maj. Gabriel Moreno-Ferguson, MeRET coordinator and 354th Medical Operations Squadron bioenvironmental engineering chief. "It makes the training more realistic and opens up channels of communication between multiple base agencies."

Overall, said Captain Glynn, these exercises went well.

"We knew some of the limiting factors we would face, and found some areas we can improve in," he said. "Also, with the involvement of wing leadership, the scope of any such contingency will be much better understood by those that may not be responders."