Soldiers maintain readiness during mass-cal exercise

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – With bodies on the ground all around them, the Soldiers of the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, had to react quickly to treat their injuries. 

Fortunately, the injuries weren’t real and the bodies were part of a mass-casualty exercise at Forward Operating Base Shank, March 12.   

“They had a simulated suicide bombing with several wounded and a few dead,” said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Christopher Kelley, of Elgin, Texas, an observer/controller for the exercise.  “Right now we’re just observing how they respond in regards to casualties, taking up security, and getting back to operations.”

This method of ensuring that warriors are prepared for a real-world incident helps determine response times and lets leaders gauge confidence levels for testing these scenarios, so leaders can learn about warriors’ strengths and weaknesses when they’re forced to multi-task under pressure.

“An exercise like this is extremely important,” Kelley said. “These people have to be able to react under pressure. Warriors have to be able to know their jobs, know their duties, and act on such. Somebody has to take up that slack and control people and get things done.”“This is a very likely circumstance,” he added.  “This shows where people are proficient and where people are deficient.”

The number of casualties in the exercises provided additional challenges for the Soldiers responding.

“We had so many injured that we had to be moving back and forth constantly,” said U.S. Army Pvt. Erin Massie, a Soldier from the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion, an Indianapolis native.  “As soon as we turned over a casualty to the aid in the rear, we had to bring the litter back up to the front.”

“Having to carry people long distances can be difficult,” added U.S. Army Pvt. Nicoleus Murphy, of Davidson, Mich., a Soldier from the 173rd Brigade Support Battalion.  “People are heavy, but you’ve still got to get them out of there,” said Murphy.

Watching the exercise from start to finish, Kelley said he was pleased with what he saw. 

The event helped the units work the systems to respond to such an attack.  It was designed to test their readiness.  “People are doing their jobs, and it looks like no one is getting truly rattled, so that is a good thing and inspires a lot of confidence,” Kelley said.