It's as if Bush/Cheney never left.... MCM
>From Mary Magnuson: This is the second such [terror] drill we've had in less than 6 months in the Milwaukee area. 'Exercise Red Dragon' prepares military, civilians for chemical disasters BY MARCI LAEHR TENUTA [email protected] http://journaltimesonline.com/articles/2009/06/17/local_news/doc4a39351ad3744227633901.prt Wednesday, June 17, 2009 1:31 PM CDT RACINE - A dirty bomb has gone off in the city. At the time, Lisa Rauch was in a building that had its windows blown out. She was taken to the hospital for decontamination. Rauch, suffering from dizziness and a headache, was brought into a yellow tent in the parking lot of Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital, 3801 Spring St. All of her clothing was removed and put into a red bag for disposal. After donning a plastic robe, Rauch was taken into the hospital's mobile decontamination trailer. The robe was removed and she went through the unit's four compartments. She showered, rinsed, put on a new blue plastic robe, and finally was checked by medical staff. Rauch, who is actually a sergeant first class with the U.S. Army Reserve, was one of about 15 mock victims who went through two rounds of decontamination training at the hospital Wednesday with soldiers and civilians. Called "Exercise Red Dragon," the training is part of the U.S. Homeland Defense initiative, and is the first time military personnel performed the exercises in concert with civilians in a realistic environment. "It's interesting to see it from the civilian perspective," said Rauch, who is part of a military chemical company that runs decontamination lines. The full-scale major chemical decontamination exercises were held in two parts Wednesday morning in a portion of the hospital parking lot. The first was hospital staff using their own decon unit to treat the military mock victims. "Think of it as a human car wash," said Dave Piccolo, the hospital's EMS Coordinator. "You go in dirty and come out clean." Emergency care center staff wore white aprons, gloves, caps and rubber boots to cover their bodies. They took the victims into the yellow tent to disrobe. Walking through the yellow tent, Piccolo explained that patients would remove their clothing for disposal first to speed the process. "That removes 80 percent of the contamination," he said. Next, the patients were sent through the trailer's timed showers. In the final stage of the trailer, the mock victims were checked by medical staff. On Wednesday, a nuclear medical specialist surveyed each patient before they were allowed to leave the trailer. In a real event, the patients would then be taken into the hospital for treatment, Piccolo said. As the hospital decon unit began to disassemble their tent, military personnel across the parking lot began to prepare. Several tanks and white U.S. Army Reserve Hazmat trailers sat to the east of a tunnel of green tents that would become the decontamination site. Military personnel dressed from head to foot in bright yellow suits, face masks and orange boots, waited for the first victims to arrive. "This is good training for them," said Maj. Greg Majewski, the public affairs officer on the scene. He said it will help the chemical unit take a look at set up, the response and the communication during such an event. Majewski said they will then be able to make changes if necessary. As the mock patients arrived, 1st Sgt. Gary Little contacted the off-site command post. "It's 09:40," he said. "We've received our first patient." Victims walked to the entrance of the green tents. Majewski explained that there were two rows, one for ambulatory patients, and another for nonambulatory - in which case the victims were brought through the decontamination showers on stretchers. The mock patients went through a series of four tents: one to get undressed, one for showering, a third for contamination testing and then a final tent in which they were rinsed off. Victims walked in to the steaming green tents and exited a few minutes later wearing white disposable suits, slippers and covered in blankets. At the end of each exercise, hospital staff and military personnel were expected to gather and discuss the training, what went right and what could have been done better. The combined training was the first time in history that military worked with civilians on decontamination exercises in a realistic environment. Both groups have said training with each other gives them a better understanding of what to expect from each other if there was ever really a major chemical disaster. "We can really see how we work together," said Jennifer Garbo-Shawhan, spokeswoman for the hospital. 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