General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport full-scale mass casualty exercise.

A water tender truck supplies water to an Oshkosh T1500 crash truck while simulating extinguishing a fire during an exercise at the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport in Peoria, Ill. April 22, 2017. Thirty-eight agencies and more than 200 exercise participants took part in the full-scale mass casualty exercise. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Todd Pendleton)

PEORIA, IL, UNITED STATES
06.02.2017
Courtesy Story
182nd Airlift Wing
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Our community stands ready when disaster strikes. Under a Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, or MABAS, umbrella, Peoria County agencies plan, prepare, train and respond to a multitude of incidents and emergencies all over the county.

Thirty-eight agencies and more than 200 exercise participants took part in the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport full-scale mass casualty exercise last month. Required every three years by the Federal Aviation Administration, the April 22 exercise simulated an aircraft crash with 57 passengers requiring advanced medical treatment and expedient transportation to medical care.

It certainly tested the airport’s emergency response network. Gene Olson, director of airports for the Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria, said he was pleased with the overall event.

“My thanks go especially to the 182nd Airlift Wing and its fire department and emergency response planning personnel, since they were instrumental in the planning and execution of this exercise,” he said. “I sleep better knowing that we have such dedicated professionals doing aircraft rescue firefighting at PIA.”

The 182nd Airlift Wing fire department is responsible for all emergency responses to the airport and its properties through a joint-use agreement. The exercise represented six months of coordination by the combined planning team. 182nd Fire Chief Chief Master Sgt. Clifford Otto, 182nd Emergency Manager Senior Master Sgt. Tim Foley, and Kevin Delmastro, OSF disaster preparedness coordinator for Region 2, worked diligently to synchronize the 38 agencies, 120 player participants and 107 Boy Scout troop volunteers.

The 2017 exercise was the largest in Peoria County over the last two years and was widely recognized as a success.

“I think the size and scope was great,” said Julie Leaned, the American Red Cross disaster program manager for the Central and Southern Illinois regions. “What’s most important is that we all learn from this and take that information to improve a real-life event.”

The collaboration of so many different agencies makes this particular exercise unique. City, state and federal government agencies responded to the simulation along with elected officials, airline representatives and even some from Tazewell County Emergency Management.

“It was good to see how the agencies work together…expanding to family assistance is complicated and you laid great groundwork,” said Jean Riehl, the regional Delta Airlines emergency planning and operations representative.

Division Chief Ronald Jones from the Peoria Fire Department participated in his first airport exercise and was part of the evaluation team.

“Being a part of the exercise and getting to know and work with the different agencies and fire departments, knowing what works and what doesn’t…when it does happen, we are all prepared,” he said.

A heartfelt “thank you” to the following agencies who participated in the exercise planning and execution:

182nd Airlift Wing Inspector General
182nd Civil Engineer Squadron Emergency Management
182nd Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department
182nd Maintenance Squadron
182nd Security Forces Squadron
Advanced Medical Transport
Allegiant Airlines
American Airlines
American Red Cross
Bartonville Fire Department
Brimfield Fire Department
Central Illinois Public Information Officer
City Link
Delta Airlines
Federal Aviation Administration
Illinois State Police
Limestone Fire Department
Logan-Trivoli Fire Department
OSF St. Francis Medical Center
Pekin Hospital
Peoria County Coroner
Peoria County Emergency Control Center
Peoria County Emergency Management
Peoria County Public Information Officer
Peoria County Sheriff’s Department
Peoria Emergency Management
Peoria Fire Department
Peoria International Airport Air Traffic Control
Peoria International Airport Director
Peoria International Airport Operations
Salvation Army
Tazewell County Emergency Management
Timber Hollis Fire Department
Transportation Security Administration
United Airlines
Unity Point Health-Methodist
Unity Point Health-Proctor
West Peoria Fire Department

Colorado Air National Guard Airmen team up to save a life

Courtesy Photo | Seven members of the Colorado Air National Guard 140th Wing Explosives Ordnance Disposal Flight responded to a severe car accident May 9, 2017, outside of the Buckley Air Force Base perimeter in Aurora, Colo. The Airmen provided emergency care to an unconscious individual and directed traffic to facilitate access for Aurora Fire and Ambulatory services. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sgt. Richard Gibbons)

BUCKLEY AIR FORCE BASE, CO, UNITED STATES
05.17.2017
Story by Capt. Kinder Blacke
Colorado National Guard

For one young man, it may have been a lucky day when he got into a serious car accident just outside of Buckley Air Force Base, Aurora, Colo., May 9, 2017.

Seven members of the Colorado Air National Guard 140th Wing Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight conducting training on the east side of the base witnessed a car accident and immediately ran to assist.

“We were over the fence within 30 seconds,” U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert Rich, chief of resources and EOD operator, said.

Rich and six other members – U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Dick Gibbons, the flight chief, and U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Dustin Frey, Staff Sgt. Darrell Linkus, Staff Sgt. Brandon Ulmer, Senior Airman Tom Benedict and Senior Airman Rosen Lima, all EOD operators – jumped the BAFB perimeter fence and ran to the scene of the accident.

“Everyone just kind of knew their role,” Benedict said. “We did what we knew we could do best to contribute.”

Benedict immediately called 911 and brought his battlefield first aid kit to the scene of the accident.

EOD members receive military training in basic first aid.

Linkus, an emergency medical technician and firefighter, and Rich, a former police officer who trained as an emergency first responder, immediately went to help the more seriously injured individual.

“Witnessing the accident, I knew the person in the vehicle that was struck multiple times was in bad shape,” Rich said. “He was very pale and not breathing when we got to him.”

Rich, Linkus and Frey worked together to carefully extract the young man from the vehicle, establish an airway with a nasal pharyngeal, and provided follow-on care until the Aurora Fire Department and ambulances arrived a few minutes later.

“While still unconscious, he was making visible progress as soon as we started working on him,” Rich said.

While the three Airmen tended to the most injured individual, the others worked to direct traffic away from the scene and facilitate the arrival of emergency responders.

“It was an interesting dynamic to watch each member of the team find a way to contribute,” Benedict said. “Nobody needed to be in charge; we all just found a role and filled it.”

The EOD team members said that they are used to high stress environments.

“We get really good trauma training so when the worst happens, our response is automatic: step one; step two; step three; it’s second nature,” Rich said.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of the 140th Wing EOD team., their quick response and close proximity to the scene, the patient was alive when civilian medical service personnel took over.

“The team reacted exactly as I’d expect and hoped they would,” Gibbons said. “We just hope the patient will pull through.”

Photo By 1st Sgt. Angele Ringo | Pvt. Tyreek Bennett, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear specialist with the 414th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Company, prepares to take a patient through the mass casualty decontamination line May 10, 2017 at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Ind. Bennett was among 4,100 service members from the Army Reserve, National Guard and Active component, participating in Guardian Response 17, a multi-component training exercise designed to test U.S. Army units’ ability to support the Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) in the event of a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) catastrophe. (U.S. Army Reserve photo by 1st Sgt. Angele Ringo) 

BUTLERVILLE, IN, UNITED STATES
05.10.2017
Story by 1st Sgt. Angele Ringo
215th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

BUTLERVILLE, Ind.--Signs of distress and desperation spray painted on bed sheets hang from dilapidated buildings reduced to rubble from a nuclear blast. ‘Is this hell’ reads one sign waving near a wrecked police vehicle just off a road littered with clothes and debris in every direction.

“It’s kind of hard to simulate [a] chemical [attack] but this is pretty good training,” said Sgt. Nicholas Smoak, a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist, as he looked around the mass casualty decontamination area.

His unit, the 414th CBRN Company based in Orangeburg, S.C., is part of Guardian Response 17, a multi-component training exercise designed to simulate and test the military’s ability to support civil authorities in the event of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incident. The unit specializes in CBRN reconnaissance, decontamination, and analysis. What’s different about this scenario is that their focus is on support of stateside civilian authorities as part of the CBRN Response Enterprise or CRE.

“This is a mission that most folks don’t think we’re involved in,” said Brig. Gen. Michael Dillard, 78th Training Division commanding general. “A lot of our civilian partners call upon the military to assist them with these particular incidents because we also have capability. We have transportation, we have medical, [and] we do decontamination.”

CRE units make up a set of Department of Defense forces that rapidly deploy in the event of a CBRN event. Guardian Response 17 brought nearly 4,100 members from the Army Reserve, National Guard and Active component to work with civilian authorities to save lives in the midst of chaos. The scenario was made all the more real by more than a hundred role players that members of the 414th CBRN Company and the 409th Area Support Medical Company had to assess, decontaminate, treat and transport as quickly as possible.

“This is probably the best training we’ve ever gotten because we’re working with other [military units],” said Smoak. “We’re actually getting live patients. We’re getting a better look at some things.”

414th CBRN Co. Commander, Capt. Raymond Lawson, whose unit will be on-call to support the CRE in June, said the rapid response nature of the mission requires Soldiers to maintain a higher state of readiness and that often means additional training.

“There are certifications that go into this,” said Lawson. “So, there are specialties that are mission specific that a lot of soldiers have to train up for.”

More than half of the Army’s transportation and medical units as well as 39 percent of chemical units reside in the Army Reserve.

While the entire exercise revolved around a nuclear incident, a number of mini scenarios, or injects, forced Soldiers to think on their feet and take action. They worked under the watchful eyes of observer controllers and evaluators, like Catherine Gibson with Advance Technical Education Training (ATEC), who says that incidents around the world in recent years have highlighted the need for civilian authorities to be able to tap into specific military capabilities. Gibson, who is also an Army Reserve chemical noncommissioned officer, also said communication and training have become increasingly more relevant as civilian authorities have begun to recognize military assets as a viable tool.

“You want to be able to come in and work together as a team,” she said. “Prime example [was] 9/11. Officers weren’t talking to the firefighters and the radio communication wasn’t working. That’s when this mission became important and really became big. They realized that people were getting lost, people were dying because of the fact that they couldn’t communicate together.”

CBRN Response Enterprise units remain on call for two years. As the 414th CBRN Company prepares to take on its new responsibilities in June, Lawson said his team is up for the challenge.

“For those that already have careers in emergency services, they love doing this and they love being able to do it here,” said Lawson. “For other Soldiers, it offers them the chance to do something different. It’s an exciting mission. It’s demanding, but it’s rewarding. They like to know that they can be depended on to help in case disaster strikes.”