Officers with the Marine Corps Police Department provide protections for fire and medical personnel from the Fire and Emergency Services Department as they extract role-playing victims during an active shooter training exercise aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., Feb. 24, 2015. The training included controllers and evaluators who rated the response capabilities and efficiency of emergency response personnel. It is an example of the teamwork required by fire and law enforcement personnel in order to effectively respond to violent incidents.
Story by Laurie Pearson
With a rise in active shooter scenarios across the united states, Greg Kunkel, chief of Emergency Medical Services and Ryan Tworek, deputy fire chief aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif. have taken on new roles, training others to train their own first responding staff on Unified Response to Violent Incidents throughout Marine Corps Installations West, as well as civilian locations in the south-western United States.
Unified Response to Violent Incidents is a course in which first responders, to include members of the law enforcement community, fire, medical and military train in a cohesive method of response to events such as active shooters and terrorist attacks, explained Kunkel. Specifically, the training addresses team coordination in areas such as Rescue Task Force, group-ingress, group-egress, and Casualty Collection Points.
A Rescue Task Force embeds fire and medical personnel with Force Protection members surrounding them so that they may enter an area, referred to as the warm zone, to extract wounded victims. Upon entry, (fire and medical personnel) are trained to evaluate and treat bleeding control, basic airway adjuncts and needle thoracotomies,” said Kunkel. “The group then retreats to a Casualty Collection Point where other personnel take victims for treatment, while the RTF goes back in.”
The training mirrors the National Incident Management System with Unified Command training which is a standardized training developed by the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“The training ensures agencies are compatible with radios, language and terminology,” said Kunkel. He further explained that this type of training allows for faster medical treatment for injured victims of tragic events, which offers an opportunity to decrease the number of fatalities and permanent injuries as a result of violent attacks.
So far, Kunkel and Tworek have gone to nearly all of the bases within MCI-West to train their trainers in this method of response to violent incidents. They have also assisted with training in local communities to include a joint training session with Barstow Unified School District, Barstow Police Department, San Bernardino County Sheriffs and Barstow Fire District. Most recently, they traveled to the Mountain Warfare Training Center located near Bridgeport, Calif. where they trained 95 students over three days. Students attending this particular training session included individuals from the California Highway Patrol, Mono County Sheriff’s Department, as well as fire fighters and medical first responders from several volunteer fire departments in Central California.
