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Police, Firefighters, and Paramedics from the local area responded to a Mass Casualty
Exercise at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. It was an unsettling scene made
possible by volunteers from Nellis Air Force Base and the 99th Medical Group. In order
to make the exercise look realistic, participants arrived early for moulage or the application
of life like injuries for the purpose of training.
"We've gone around to all these volunteers and made them look like they were actually
in an accident. So, we have different stations set up. We have some set up to make people
look like they're in shock. So, a lot of pale makeup, and then we have um, we have like
a hanging eyeball that we put on somebody's face, and different uh, abrasions, and cuts
and bruises. Just making look people really beat up. It's just helping preparing for an
actual emergency, making sure that our responders are more um, mentally ready to handle the
situation."
“Nellis has supplied us with a large number of volunteers uh, both to play victims uh,
to play uninjured, to play friends and family, and they've also supplied uh people that are
doing evaluations of the exercise. We not only do the exercise, we have evaluators that
come in and evaluate ours and other agencies response to an incident such as this."
The next day, it was the 99th Medical Group's turn to be evaluated. In conjunction with
McCarran's Mass Casualty Exercise, Airmen were once again called in to moulage and test
the first responders on base.
“Based off a scenario that we as a med group here would actually support the valley. So
with a scenario going down and a plane going down, we would actually be called into a mutual
aid agreement with the valley. So, our people would actually stand up and actually be able
to receive patients. We had roughly 22 patients come in today, be treated. Uh, simulated from
many things from head injuries to just light burns. It benefits by making them prepared.
Now, you know, with all that training, they're prepared for anything goes on. So, you know,
we have to be ready, world wide, 100 percent, all the time. Aircraft goes down that runway,
or if it goes you know, one of those tanks out there go off with all that fuel we gotta
be ready to prepare to uh respond to any kind of medical emergency.”
The coordinated efforts of Emergency Response teams in Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base
is invaluable, and it's preparation like this that helps communicate between agencies on
and off base. Airman First Class Rachel Maxwell, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.