By Dona Fair
 Editor’s note: The following article was written by Dona E. Fair, writer/editor of Joint Hometown News Service about Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Dwayne R. Nicholas, son of Dwayne and Jacque Nicholas of 5109 Waynesburg Rd., Carrollton, who entered the United States Air Force in 1989 upon graduation from Carrollton High School. Sgt. Nicholas is currently stationed with the 179th Airlift Winger at Mansfield Lahm Airport.
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. - “There’s just been a terrorist attack of a 10-ton nuclear device explosion in downtown Indianapolis, and the surviving town on the outskirts needs immediate emergency aid response,” was the call that jolted the son of a Carrollton couple into action.
Luckily for Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Dwayne R. Nicholas, the call wasn’t for a real terrorist attack, but for a federal emergency response exercise called “Vibrant Response.” The week-long exercise simulated a terrorist nuclear attack in the United States, and required our nation’s military from all services, along with local and state first responders to quickly be put into action.
Nicholas was one of more than 4,000 military and civilian participants who recently converged on Camp Atterbury’s Joint Maneuver Training Center, along with the nearby Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, and its surrounding communities in southern Indiana to test their emergency response capabilities.
“I was responsible for treating the patients in our critical care tent before they were transported to other medical facilities,” said Nicholas, who is a medical specialist with the 179th Airlift Wing, Mansfield Lahm Airport.
With an underground tunnel system, nine miles of roads, and more than 120-plus buildings, which included a hospital, nursing home, parking garages, power plant, schools, and a police station, Muscatatuck was the perfect location for this training event.
Burning vehicles and garbage, rubbage piles, emergency sirens, and lots of smoke from fog machines and smoke candles, made the training center look like it had indeed been the site of a nuclear disaster. Role players were hired to portray survivors, and moulage experts made the injuries and ailments that they would receive by surviving such an incident look as realistic as possible.
Assessment, search and rescue, decontamination, medical, aviation, engineering and logistics missions were performed by military teams that surveyed the damage, erected triage centers, setup decontamination sites, and performed radiation tests to ensure it was safe for service members to begin work.
Search and rescue, and decontamination teams removed civilians and casualties from the devastated area. Affected victims were decontaminated and then triaged and provided with medical care. As ambulances and helicopters stood by, the medical team coordinated ground evacuation, hospitalization, veterinary care, preventive medicine, blood distribution, and medical logistical support of patients.
Military members constantly train for battle in a foreign country, but making sure that they are prepared to respond on American soil is also important. Training for such a catastrophe has been deemed mandatory by U.S. military officials.
“We train at least once every six months for these types of exercises,” said Nicholas, who graduated in 1989 from Carrollton High School and Kent State University in 1999.
When a natural disaster occurs, local city and county first responders are the first on the scene. But an event like a nuclear detonation would quickly require regional and national responders to assist.
For Nicholas and the others, an exercise like “Vibrant Response” allows everyone to work out any kinks that may arise at an inopportune time during a real disaster. Valuable lessons were learned each day including communication, logistical, and coordination issues. It also helps Nicholas and the others understand how federal, local, and state agencies become one to complete a mission of this magnitude.
“This type of exercise is important because it helps us to prepare for our nation’s call in case of a catastrophe,” said Nicholas, who has been in the military for 20 years.
Hopefully for Nicholas and all of the participants, lessons learned during “Vibrant Response” will never have to be used. But in case they do get that call one day, they will be prepared to respond. |
