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www.aerotechnews.com/ntcfortirwin 19High Desert Warrior
Feacebook.com/HighDesertWarrior July 2, 2015
Your Installation
Full scale exercise opportunity to collaborate, prepare
Story and photos by Gustavo Bahena eryone [there getting the] experience
Public Affairs Office of being in the EOC and running
From a distance, the scene on a street the EOC,” Bertrand said.
here certainly appeared catastrophic.
The EOC essentially becomes a
Soldiers with apparent injuries
and smoke emanating from a large hub where its staff, led by a battle
vehicle on the side of the road gave
the impression of an industrial captain, can request support or
accident, or something deliberate
and malicious. Fortunately, it was resources from their respective unit
neither and, intentionally, the road
to the scene had been blocked from or agency and direct those resources
the public to allow a scenario to
unfold during a full-scale exercise to the incident post commander,
conducted here, May 21.
explained O’Neal. Staff utilized
The scenario involved a sus-
pect detonating explosives on a computers and a Web-based interface
fuel truck near the rotational unit
bivouac area on Outer Loop Road, to share information – including
with the explosion creating “casual-
ties.” Those casualties were role- information from the incident com-
played by Soldiers, who were fitted
with mock injuries, moulage and mand post – which would be posted
given casualty cards describing the
injury and severity. on screens at the front of the EOC.
A second exercise scenario in- Leadership monitored the EOC from
volved two armed suspects taking
two Soldiers hostage inside a one- a different room.
story building. Law enforcement
surrounded the building, established “To digital see, analyze and trans-
communications with the suspects
and eventually entered the structure fer information within the EOC –
to neutralize them.
that was a significant improvement
Responding to the situations
were law enforcement, fire, medical, from last year, because last year we
a guard force composed of Soldiers,
ground and air medical evacuation, were passing notes,” O’Neal stated.
and other personnel.
At the scenarios, first responders
Charles O’Neal – director of
Directorate of Plans, Training, went through the steps of mov-
Mobilization and Security with Fort
Irwin United States Army Garrison ing casualties, detaining suspects,
– said the exercise was designed to
challenge the emergency response performing triage, transporting
of the installation and gain insights
about its capabilities. The annual casualties by ambulance and air
exercise was observed and evaluated
by personnel from Installation Man- MEDEVAC, and securing the sites
agement Command of Fort Sam
Houston, Texas. with guard forces.
“The purpose was to practice our Casualties were taken to Weed Seen through a haze of smoke from pyrotechnics, Sgt. Robert Berlanga – a Fort Irwin military police
garrison capabilities that IMCOM Army Community Hospital, where officer – holds a “suspect” role-played by Spc. Shawn Grigss, who serves with the 11th Armored
requires us to be able to execute they underwent decontamination Cavalry Regiment.
during a natural or man-made disas- procedures before being moved inside
ter,” O’Neal said.
the facility, said Joseph Chesnut,
In addition to first responders at
the scenes, the installation emer- emergency management specialist with
gency operations center was enabled
and staffed by representatives from United States Army Medical Depart-
units, agencies and directorates of
Fort Irwin USAG, said Richard ment Activity here. Performing decon-
Bertrand – antiterrorism security
specialist with DPTMS. tamination had been requested for the
“One of the major objectives was exercise by MEDDAC leadership.
to ensure our emergency operations
center was up and running, with ev- Chesnut explained his organiza-
tion also exercised communicat-
ing with external agencies, which
would be resourced in a real-world
situation. Agencies included the
Inland County Emergency Medical
Agency, the California Governor’s
Office of Emergency Services, and
United Healthcare.
“It’s really important for us to
foster those relationships because of
our remoteness,” Chesnut said.
O’Neal said that law enforcement
from other jurisdictions had also
been contacted.
He concluded by saying that, as
with any exercise, improvements can
be made, and sustainments included
high morale and good cooperation.
“For the most part, we were
able to provide the required sup-
port to the incident commander,”
O’Neal said. Fort Irwin Fire personnel conduct a triage for “casualties” of an incident during a full-scale
See EXERCISE, page 20 exercise here.
For more information go to www.irwin.army.mil
