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CERF-P Team Steps Up Training   

By Sgt. Emily Donigan
122nd Public Affairs Operations Center
July 20, 2007

As the sun sets on Fairchild Air Force base in Spokane, WA during the third week of July, 128 members of the Washington Army and Air National Guard can be still be found meticulously setting up tents and gear in preparation for this year’s CERF-P training exercise.

Watch the CERF-P In Action Video

CERF-P is a Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear and high yield Explosives (CBRNE) Enhanced Response Force Package.  CERF-P team members work closely with civilian agencies to respond to emergencies, search and extract victims, decontaminate them, and treat them for injuries.

Soldiers from the 790th, 791st, and  792nd Chemical Companies belonging to the 420th Chemical Battalion and Airmen from the 141st Air Refueling Wing and 194th Regional Support Wing are spending their annual training learning how to operate as a CERF-P team.  Civilian instructors were brought in from West Virginia and Connecticut to provide 40 hours of classroom training for the Soldiers. Evenings at Fairchild Air Force base are spent setting up decontamination tents and rehearsing their roles in preparation for the mock emergency exercise that will take place on Saturday, July 21, 2007.

Specialist (SPC) Sean Edgerly, an all-wheeled vehicle mechanic with the 792nd Chemical Company felt the classes given were both interesting and beneficial.  The past few drill weekends SPC Edgerly and his unit have practiced setting up and tearing down decontamination tents to better prepare themselves for this week’s activities.  The classes however, are new for him and provide a better perspective on what his unit does. 
In the event of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high yield explosive disturbance the CERF-P team must react swiftly and efficiently.  Members of the Air National Guard’s 141st Civil Engineer unit are expected to respond to emergencies that occur in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, or Alaska within six hours.  The members of this unit are part of a Search and Extract team and are the first step in the CERF-P process.  While MSgt. Paul Alsept received search and extraction training in Oklahoma, he feels that the hazardous materiel (HAZMAT) class his team is receiving this week is good training.

 

Soldiers Learn about wearing protective garments

Once victims have been rescued, they are brought to a staging area where members of the 420th Chemical Battalion begin the next step in the CERF-P process.  A collection center, two decontamination tents and a medical tent, must be set up and operational within 90 minutes of the team’s arrival.  Once the decontamination process begins the team strives to put through 175 patients an hour.

Victims of an attack or natural disaster are first taken to a collection center where they are processed and triaged.  A tag around their wrist identifies the person as well as the level of care they require.  A black tag indicates it is too late to treat a victim.  Red alerts the team that immediate medical attention is required.  An amber tag means urgent and a green tag is for routine injuries.

Patients are processed and tracked using the Incident Response Information System (IRIS) which also uses satellites to assign and alert local hospitals who can then notify victim’s families.  According to Sgt. 1st Class Mike Brown, the Operations Sergeant for the 792nd , this process eliminates much of the confusion for both the military and civilian personnel, as well as the victim’s families.

Once patients are processed and tagged, they will enter one of two decontamination tents.  Those who can walk on their own enter the ambulatory tent which is divided into two sides, one for males and one for females.  Those who are too injured to walk are put on a back board and sent to the non-ambulatory tent where they go through the process on rollers.  Inside the tents, patients will first have their clothes removed.  They are then scrubbed with pressurized warm water and decontaminators.  The water used is pumped out of the tents into containers to avoid further contamination.  Victims are then rinsed off and redressed in a hospital gown and sent to either the Air National Guard’s medical tent for treatment or released to a civilian agency collection center to be reunited with their families.  Each patient who enters the CERF-P process is assisted by about 40 Soldiers and Airmen.      

Brown summed up the mission of CERF-P.  He explained, “The basic purpose through the whole CERF-P process is to react to an incident with mass casualties, clean the patients and treat them so that they are of no further risk to the medical community.  The hospital, the doctors and nurses, who are going to be treating them won’t risk contamination in their facilities.”