“Vibrant Response 12”: Mass Catastrophe Exercise Takes Place in the Heartland
By Ellen Cannon
In a quiet location of southern Indiana more than 7000 U.S. Army, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Department of Defense civilian personnel are engaged in the largest catastrophic incident drill to be conducted by the U.S. Army North. Starting on August 16 and ending on August 28th, this highly complex drill aims to train troops to respond to a catastrophic domestic chemical, biological radiological or nuclear incident should it happen on American soil. This federal emergency response exercise, called Vibrant Response 12, will take place at Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex in Jennings County near Butlerville.
Muscatatuck Urban Training Center is a 1000 acre site containing a consortium of governmental, public and private entities that pool their capabilities in “order to provide the most realistic training experience for drills. This large site utilizes a 180 acre reservoir and urban infra structures consisting of 68 buildings including a school, hospital, dormitories, light industrial structures, single family type dwellings, a dining facility and administrative buildings totaling more than 859,000 square feet of floor space. The site also has an underground utility system and more than 9 miles of roads and streets. The purpose of this site is to replicate multiple “real time” scenarios that any town, or city might experience if there was a CBW attack.
The men and women involved in this exercise hope they never have to use the skills they have developed. But if need be they are prepared to assist with decontamination, medical treatment and evacuation as well as logistical missions to transport food, water, supplies to victims.
The “Vibrant Response Team 12” largely includes the activities of the 51st Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team, (CST), Michigan Army National Guard, who simulate leaving Cincinnati when “they observe the flash of light and feel the rumble of a simulated nuclear blast. The “real time” scenario begins with the CST receiving a message telling them to turn around and head back into the simulated area and to monitor radiation along a route that the police and fire fighters would use. At the same time blaring messages are sent to the residents. The message is, “This is an urgent message from the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. This is not a test. Officials confirm that a nuclear explosion has occurred in the Cincinnati area. Police and firefighters are on the ground and more help is coming”
On March 20 “Vibrant Response 11 at Muscartatuck Urban Training Center “involved soldiers and airmen who were part of the Colorado National Guard Chemical, Biological Radiological and Nuclear Enhanced Response Package (CERFP), Decontamination unit. This unit, which engaged in a highly complex simulation incident was a mixture of Air and Army Guard unit in charge of the medical well-being of victims that were role playing and training for what they needed to do in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. There starting point was to work out what an emergency response team looked like after the catastrophic incident takes place. There first actions take them to a collapsed parking garage built for the exercise. The unit hearts the voices of the role players screaming to their rescuers. The role playing victims were begging for food, begging for medical attention, and begging for water. They also begged the soldiers to help their family and friends. The soldiers and Airmen wore chemical retardant suits.
In this exercise the primary function of the military personal is search and recovery to find the victims and get them to the treatment site. They have to know exactly how to find people who may be trapped and to use tools needed to get them out. The victims are then transported to a row of medical tents “which are placed end to end and tied together to create one long medical station. After being signed in and counted, the victims are decontaminated. Every minute counts in saving the lives of victims. The military personnel help get the victims to triage on the spot.
On November 9, 2009, the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center was set up to portray a nursing home in an outlying area of Indianapolis following a nuclear blast. Fifteen role players were assigned to the building to act as residents of a nursing home who needed to be saved and cared for by Army medical personnel. Each role player was given a different injury or affliction they medical personnel had to attend to while removing victims from the contaminated area. Victims were placed into military ambulances. Many of the victim’s roles played the part of people who could not be calmed. According to Staff Sgt. Brad Staggs, “at the end of the day, the Army medics left with a much better understanding of how to deal with people who are neighbors and friends.
Dr. Arnold Herskovic, a radiation oncologist at Chicago’s Rush Medical Center and a member of the Rush Emergency Management Team, views the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center site and drill effort as “invaluable”. According to Dr. Herskovic, “Drills help to develop methodology, procedures, minimize further injury, triage when appropriate, deliver immediate care, and minimize risk to the first responders. This drill and real time catastrophic exercise program helps hospitals evaluate resources that will often be necessary in real time and allows other supporting medical facilities which are off site, to get their collective resources and individual management team to accurately respond to complex catastrophic disasters.”
Dr. Herskovic addressed the importance of knowing what kind of threat one is dealing with helps to determine the response of the hospital emergency management team. “ Knowing if we are dealing with burns from a radiation incident versus botulism or anthrax from a biological attach will allow medical services to respond accordingly and directly. This is a very big deal. For example,we might need to have a botulim anti-toxin flown in from another facility. The knowledge provided by the “real time” exercise at Nuscatatuck Urban Training Center will provide information that allows medical experts to correctly focus on how medical first responders need to accurately organize our response. We, might need to get assistance and materials from far away locations and the knowledge the military can provide during a catastrophe is invaluable in assisting us to save lives. Structures might need to be erected – such as decontamination units- which the National Guard plays a critical and essential role in erecting.
Dr. Herskovic assessed this kind of massive drill process as essential to saving lives. “Exercises and drills are beneficial to the learning process for all first responders. Police, firefighters, emergency medical teams and hospitalsand their trained staff will develop greater confidence ,skills, and learn how to better manage chaos through excellent programs such as this.”
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