FORT NOVOSEL, AL -- The installation-wide tornado response and recovery exercise August 30 here tested many agencies on post, and one small part of the preparations had a big impact on the quality of the training.
Sgt. Courtney Forbeck, a combat medic with Lyster Army Health Clinic, was in charge of applying moulage, special effects makeup, to the role players in the exercise.
“I’m trying to simulate what would happen in a real-world scenario if the post got hit with a tornado,” she said, “When I am moulaging up these casualties, I am telling a story that the first responders must read to realistically treat these injuries in the way they would see it in the real world.”
Forbeck took two moulage classes back when she first joined the military, one in Texas and one in Germany.
“It helps us with our medic training to be able to create real-world casualties without it being an actual real casualty. The classes I took taught us how to create bruising, lacerations, and abrasions to get you ready for mass casualty situations. It helps you to be able to make these patients look as realistic as possible for local EMS, fire and police officers so they can take away as much as possible from this training.”
Forbeck said there is method in every aspect of applying the moulage to the role players participating in the exercise.
“In my mind I want to make it look as real as possible with blood, guts and gore. If they are laying down, what way would the blood drain or flow? I think about how I will stage them. We have casualty cards laid out with what each role player is getting. If they are laying down, I am not going to have the blood going down to their toes, it would go across their kneecap.”
There are signs in the details that first responders are trained to notice that guide how they respond to the injuries that people have in an emergency Forbeck explained.
“I try to add in those hints for the first responders, like if one of them has an abdominal wound or I add in little bits of wood if a role player will be found in the woods. Some of the patients in the exercise are unconscious, so the wounds that the first responders see have to tell the story of what happened to the patient because they can’t tell you their story. I may have to create the bruising around the eyes and the blood coming out of the ears to hint at intercranial pressure because the patient is unresponsive.”
These situations she is creating for the first responders don’t only help them to take something away from the training, Forbeck said helping them helps her as well.
“This exercise works hand-in-hand with my real job. I am a medic, and I work at Lyster. So, creating these scenarios for the first responders helps me to see what is happening before the patents make it to us. Creating the moulage is amazing, I love it. It is not only practice for us, the whole community is benefitting from this.”
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