CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea – Shortly after 1 p.m. a dump truck crashed into a bus injuring personnel and killing one – or so the scenario began as representatives across the U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys installation gathered to train on mass casualty operations, Nov. 28 at the installation’s incident command post.
"The (table top exercise) goal is to build on operational experiences, incidents, and situations in order to build crisis management team and emergency operations center capabilities," said Keith Pruitt, who works in the future operations section of the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security. "We want to prevent, protect, mitigate, respond and recover from an event in order to build installation resiliency and ensure mission readiness."
The crisis management team (CMT) is comprised of representatives of organizations throughout the installation and each month they gather to conduct a table top exercise - a discussion-based session where members of the CMT discuss their roles during an emergency.
Representatives included individuals from the Directorate of Emergency Services, Brian D. Allgood Army Community Hospital, Family and Morale Welfare and Recreation, and others. As part of regular training, the representatives are provided a prompt and together they detail each step taken by every organization as they collectively navigate the fictional scenario. By having installation organizations gathered in one place, Pruitt said the training allows for practice in cross communication and provides a common operating picture.
"These exercises build cohesiveness and develops our ability to reach out to support each other in an emergency crisis situation," said Pruitt. "It brings together all the resources from different organizations that can be used to mitigate incidents."
During the training, the exercise planner shapes the scenario allowing it to develop and giving the participants opportunities to confront and overcome problems as they arise. During an incident, multiple areas of concern happen simultaneously, requiring both understanding and rehearsal of standard operating procedures. It also requires intercommunication, which is made easier through repetition and through the building of inter-office relationships. Exercises such as this allows for those skills to be developed, said Debbie Herald, mobilization and deployment stability support operations program manager at Army Community Service.
"Doing these table top exercises is a good chance to learn where other people excel and where we can fill some gaps in our capabilities" said Herald. "We tend to work in a vacuum and are really good at our own skill without necessarily sharing those out. It's important that we all get together and understand the capabilities the different agencies have."
The group discussed subjects ranging from how to triage, which off-post hospitals can support incidents, chemical and hazmat considerations, and the best means to maintain communication. The CMT participates in training each month with scenarios changing each iteration to be better prepared for a multitude of scenarios.
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