MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Emergency exercises involving all personnel working or living on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, took place Nov. 24-26 as part of Operation Turkey Thunder.
The purpose of the operation, taking place the same week as the Thanksgiving holiday, was to allow the Air Station and all aboard to evaluate established counter chemical warfare methods and to educate all the community in disaster and emergency response preparedness.
Emergency alert systems drills were conducted all through the short, holiday week. The drills simulated a response to a nuclear, biological or chemical threat. Alarms sounded loud enough for everyone aboard the Station to hear.
When the alarm sounded, residents were reminded an actual emergency would require them to take cover in their homes and to stay inside. In an actual emergency, residents should also contain their situation by shutting all items that draw air in from the outside. Residents can keep themselves informed by listening to American Forces Network radio 1575 AM or watching channel five or six, said Rick Perry, Station safety manager.
One disaster preparedness exercise of Operation Turkey Thunder was the aircraft mass casualty drill, which was conducted at the flight line Nov. 25.
The scenario: a disaster on the runway. An L-1011 aircraft, carrying 24 passengers and unknown cargo, crashed when trying to land at the runway. The plane broke into a hundred pieces and threw passengers and cargo all across the airfield. The former L-1011 then became the start of a towering inferno.
The scenario required the response of several units aboard the station. Crash Fire Rescue, the Station fire department, medical, Explosive Ordinance Disposal an the Provost Marshal?s Office.
The Crash Fire Rescue arrived on the scene and immediately put out the blaze, set not so far from the mock accident.
PMO quickly set up a perimeter around the accident site to keep anybody from tampering, removing or being in the vicinity of the location.
EOD made sure no hazardous materials were in the cargo while the fire department (compromised of Japanese employees) scoured the flight line in search of survivors from the crash.
Ambulances and medical personnel cared for victims and placed the casualties in designated areas, separating them from the importance of the injuries and the deceased.
The purpose of the exercise was to evaluate and gage how well all the rescue units work together in a catastrophic emergency. Time is a factor; it?s important that all the rescue units have good communication with one another to try to save as many lives they can. ?They have to understand each other,? said Master Gunnery Sgt. Chauncey Lovely, Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron airfield operations chief.
A separate exercise as part of Operation Turkey Thunder was an exercise in which a Special Reaction Team squad, suited up with modified M-16 A-2 service rifles and special uniforms, stealthy secured one of the six-story midrise complexes from a supposed threat.
Led by Staff Sgt. Frederick Calawor, the seven-man squad was looking for suspicious characters in the residential area.
Sweeping each floor individually, the squad was simulating a response to a phone call that there was an armed subject in the area, said Calawor.
Wrapping up the week of emergency scenarios, the Station fire department held a static display at the MAC Dome on mass decontamination. All rescue units were in attendance as well as Japanese city officials, the Japanese Navy and the Japanese army.
The display was a review on the hazards of being exposed to contaminants and how to decontaminate.
The exercises conducted in the name of Operation Turkey Thunder were a success, according to those overseeing the individual exercises.