MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Blood oozes from an injured leg and screams of pain shriek throughout the crash site. Sirens, flashing lights and chaos fill the area, while Station firefighters rush in, grab the wounded Marine and bring him to safety.
This was the site for the Station's annual mass casualty drill designed to test the capabilities of Aircraft Recovery and Firefighting, the Provost Marshall office, the Branch Medical Clinic, and the Station Fire Department, Sept. 27.
The drill entailed two separate accidents; the first scenario was a helicopter crash and the second involved two motor vehicles in a simulated crash due to drivers unsafely slowing down to gawk at an accident in a questionable and unintelligent way, often termed 'rubbernecking.'
The drill produced 11 simulated casualties, made up of Marines covered with pseudo blood giving the flight line an early Halloween kind of eeriness.
"The purpose of the drill is to conduct annual training in response to an aircraft mishap or incident involving a large number of casualties," said Gunnery Sgt Dan Ryley, Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting section leader.
The Branch Medical Clinic considers an incident involving three or more casualties to be a mass casualty situation. The event is not intended to be graded, but to make sure the Marines are proficient at what they are doing, according to Ryley. "The casualties used fake blood like in Hollywood to make the drill as realistic as possible," added the Orlando, Fla. native.
Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting arrived on the scene first and provided preliminary support to both accidents until help arrived from the Station Fire Department.
"There was great communication between everyone," said Ryley. "Right when the two ARFF trucks got to the scene, they immediately split off into two different directions to cover both accidents, while tag teaming with the fire department."
After ARFF and the Station Fire Department rescued the casualties amid the chaos, the military police were called in and controlled the traffic while the corpsmen rushed in and gave care to the patients.
"We usually see one patient at a time, it can get overwhelming with 11," said Navy Lt. Seth J. Sullivan, flight surgeon.
The exercise was a success for all the agencies that were involved, according to Ryley.
"We do need to work on certain things, and training like this makes us one step closer to getting the wrinkles ironed out," said Sullivan.