JBM-HH takes action during Force Protection Exercise

Directorates and special staff elements at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall were called to action Tuesday morning when a truck leaking an unknown chemical stopped on McNair Road next to Spates Community Club.

The incident was part of an annual force protection exercise conducted on post to ensure that safety measures are kept up to date and key leaders and staff are aware of their roles if natural or man-made disasters or incidents occur on the installation.

Emergency service units from JBM-HH and Arlington County were called together to react and respond to the chemical attack, later determined by first responders to be a Sarin nerve agent. Casualties of the attack were triaged and decontaminated at Spates Community Club. Patients were run through the fire hoses in the parking lot beside the club before being taken through a Hazardous Material shower station set up on McNair Road by the Arlington County Fire Department.

Patients who presented themselves to Rader Clinic’s triage were taken through a decontamination tent on location before being transported inside the facility for further treatment.

“I was a casualty,” said Frank Housen, a medical support assistant in the specialty clinic.

“I was in a car accident while there was some sort of nerve agent spreading out.” Housen had lacerations from the accident, but being affected by the nerve agent was a much more serious condition. Housen went on to praise the communication between the doctors and other attending physicians during the training. From the decontamination tent unit to the nurses and the doctors inside, the communication kept everything going the way it was supposed to, he said.

Unlike Housen who was at the Rader Clinic triage, Cpl. Jordan Connors, H&S;Bn., legal, had a somewhat less clean experience at the Spates triage. Being a casualty needing a stretcher, Connors was pulled over dirt, water and concrete before being carried through the HAZMAT shower station. Emergency vehicles ranging from police, firefighters and Directorate of Emergency Services filled the parking lot across from Spates as they set up their equipment and prepared to respond to the agent. JBM-HH firefighters arrived on the scene, determined it was a hazardous material situation and contacted the Arlington Fire Department for additional support while continuing to assist those exposed to the chemical. Arlington Fire Department had the task of determining what type of agent was being released into the air, said Capt. William Long, JBM-HH Fire Department.“We do in-house drills in the fire house all the time on our hazmat equipment. Any training helps, we don’t use our equipment in the real world incidents a whole lot,” said Long.

“It was good training and good interacting with all the different organization representatives, not just for equipment use but also with interacting, with all the different representatives,” Long said. Firefighters donning hazmat gear and full fireman gear surveyed the scene and helped carry the more severely injured personnel away from the attack site. The JBM-HH Police Department role during the incident was equally challenging. Working with other federal and local agencies made the training exercise more realistic.

“It’s good that we worked with all the different agencies,” said Sgt. 1st Class Paul Huseman, military police operations sergeant for DES.

The Police and fire, secret service, FBI, capital and district police all worked well together he said. Huseman was in charge of recording the events as they happened in the operation center.

“It enhanced our readiness to respond to an emergency like that on our post,” said Huseman. “I think it was a good exercise and we need to do more of it with different scenarios.” “We’re ready.”

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