Scenario helps military prepare for the worst
BY BRYAN DEAN
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Published: October 21, 2009
BRAGGS — Braggs may seem an unlikely place for an international health care summit, but it’s the perfect place to simulate a terrorist attack on such a gathering.
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‘It’s not just training,’ company official says
Shannon said of all the locations where the company has worked, Camp Gruber offers the best place to train troops.
"This is the only place you can go to get this experience,” Shannon said. "It’s not just training. It’s cold food. It’s the sleep missed, fatigue, long hours and boredom.”
Camp Gruber’s large area allows attacks to be simulated at many locations, along with the challenges of coordinating hundreds of troops in different areas.
At one building, the 22 members of the Oklahoma Army National Guard’s 63rd Civil Support Team practiced responding to a chemical threat. Members of the team put on heavy chemical suits to enter the building and take samples. Then they were decontaminated as they exited the building.
Lt. Col. Bob Finigan, commander of the team, said the group is similar to a civilian hazardous materials squad but with more technology.
"We have satellite communications equipment that allows us to stay in contact with civilian and military leadership,” Finigan said. "We also have a lab truck that can analyze chemicals and get results that would otherwise take days or weeks.”
Down the road, the Illinois Army National Guard’s emergency response team worked on the victims of the simulated attacks. The team is responsible for recovering victims from buildings hit by a terrorist attack.
Actors played the victims. After military personnel removed them from the buildings, they took them to a decontamination area where their clothes were cut off and they were cleaned.
"We bring them here, decontaminate them, give them some basic care and then get them to more intensive civilian care,” said Maj. Mike Legler, commander of the team.
Camp Gruber gives the military a chance to practice such disaster response while also simulating the danger of an ongoing terrorist threat to the troops and civilian responders.
Shannon said the training is a much better simulation of what the troops would actually face in a real attack.
"This is a lawless type of an event with a higher threat level,” Shannon said. "Everyone wants these things to go quickly, but it really unfolds really slowly. I thought I was never going to leave the Murrah Building site.”
Related Topics:
War and Conflict, U.S. Armed Forces Activities, Armed Forces, Terrorism, U.S. National Guard Activities, Emergency Services
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