Mass casualty exercise proves practice makes perfect Published Nov. 16, 2007 By Tech. Sgt. Phyllis Hanson 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs ALI AIR BASE, Iraq -- "Exercise ... Exercise ... Exercise" For any Air Force member exercises are a part of being an expeditionary Airman. The training back home is to prepare you for real-world situations. If you are reading this at a deployed location, you are in the middle of a real-world situation -- the war on terrorism. After last week's joint mass-casualty exercise between the Air Force, Army and coalition forces one might be asking "Why are we doing exercises here?" When the question you ought to ask is, "Am I ready?" This first mass casualty exercise of the Air Expeditionary Force 9/10 rotation was meant to test communications, self-aid and buddy care skills, and also to test how we can work as a joint-coalition team whose response procedures are unique to each service. On Ali Air Base's side, the main test happened in Bedrock, where there was an indirect fire attack. With fire and smoke, and screaming wounded casualties, it was a scene straight out of a war movie. The makeup effects, or moulage, were realistic to the point where one of the wounded Airman's legs was tied back to simulate an amputation. Other role players had injuries such as scrapes and burns. Just like at home, exercise evaluators were on scene observing the response reaction. Once folks know they are in an exercise they need to play it for real, said Master Sgt. Alton Robinson, of the 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron's Fire Department. "If you don't know how to put a tourniquet on a person, they may not make it. It's a last resort, yes but you're not gonna stop the bleeding any other way. Folks lose limbs because of IDF -- you got to know what do." Knowing how to stop the bleeding, perform CPR and treating for shock is really important, he said. "If your wingman gets hurt, it's your job to save his life -- your wingman's life depends on it," said Sergeant Robinson who is deployed from Kadena AB, Japan. Everybody jumped in and helped while waiting for medical support to arrive. "It had a slow start with a lot of confusion as any real situation may, but after a few minutes and a few orders, people jumped up and started to do what needed to be done," said Staff Sgt. Jennifer Fisher of the 407th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, who conducted self-aid and buddy care on the "wounded." "There is a real threat here. This exercise was not in any way unrealistic, said Sergeant Fisher who is deployed from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. People need to run the "what if" scenarios in their head so that they are ready for a real situation, Sergeant Fisher said. The Army Combat Surgical Hospital, the base's Fire Department first responders, the Air Force's Expeditionary Medical Squadron's doctor and medic didn't miss a beat responding to the scenario they faced. "Exercises help keep us ready. We're supposed to be ready 24/7 but if we don't use what we know, on a somewhat continual basis, we tend to forget, and that is exactly what we don't want," said Staff Sgt. Shawna Lang, who is a medic with the 407th Expeditionary Medical Squadron. She is deployed from MacDill AFB, Fla Training for the worst, is part of any Airman's job. This training is nothing if it's just on paper and never played out in reality, said Senior Master Sgt. Matthew Archuleta, the 407th ECES. "The Army has different procedures so if we didn't practice with them we'd be lost." "Lots of good things came of this," Sergeant Archuleta said. "We were able to test our secondary lines of communication, using flags and telephones, and we've had quite a few lessons learned," said Sergeant Archuleta who served as an exercise evaluation team member. Exercises are intended to "to improve our processes," he said. "Overall, the exercise did its purpose. We were able to find out what was good and what was bad procedural-wise, and those who were not in compliance made corrective behavior," he said. "Take exercises as serious as you do the real world -- keep your communications going up and down," said Sergeant Archuleta who is deployed from Cannon AFB, N.M. First responders were timely and knowledgeable with their skill sets, Sergeant Archuleta said. "The main thing is we can all rest assured that if something did happen to us we're in good hands." Another valuable practice during exercises is accountability. "Accountability is crucial," said Senior Master Sgt. Kevin Bay, of the 407th AEG Safety office. It is everyone's responsibility to contact his or her unit control center. "It's your obligation to call and say 'I'm accounted for'," he said. In the months ahead, exercises will continue to be a part of deployed life here. The EET members and observer controllers on the Army side are already making plans for another exercise.