Firemen carry a role player away from the triage area during a mass casualty exercise at Camp Casey on Friday. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
CAMP CASEY, South Korea — “There are bodies everywhere,” said the voice on the telephone, the first clue of the extent of the mass-casualty exercise held here Friday.
Pfc. Season Westbrooks, of Atlanta, was one of the first medics on the scene in an exercise designed to test emergency services. Friday’s scenario was based on a light medium tactical vehicle crashing into a fuel truck outside the Camp Casey Theater.
Westbrooks, with the 82nd Engineer Battalion, said medics found the Camp Casey Fire Department on the scene when they arrived.
“They were putting out a fire and there were bodies under the vehicles. After we pulled them away … we brought them over here and did immediate treatment,” she said.
The medics found four dead and about 30 injured soldiers — all role players from 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment. Their simulated injuries included abdominal wounds, smoke inhalation and broken bones.
The medics established a triage area and assessed the injured soldiers based on the need for care, from minimal, delayed and immediate to those classified as expectant, or expected to die.
Two of the injured were brought by helicopter to 121st General Hospital at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and the rest were taken to Casey’s Troop Medical Clinic for treatment, Westbrooks said.
The key to handling such a disaster, she said, is leadership.
“As long as you have strong front person who gets here to tell everybody where to go and triage people it can be handled pretty quickly. You have to know how to triage. Some of the most severely injured have to be classed as expectant. After today I think I could do that,” Westbrooks said.
Rain began to fall during the exercise, making life miserable for the role players, most of whom did not wear wet-weather gear.
Pvt. Eric D’Hulst, 19, of Salt Lake City, spent the exercise shivering on the ground while pumping red dye through a hose down his arm to simulate blood.
“Nobody treated me. There were too many bodies. It was cold,” said D’Hulst, who was relieved to finally be classified as dead and covered with a warm blanket.
Exercise planner 2nd Lt. Nick Wells, 23, of Denver, who serves with Headquarters Headquarters Company, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, said the fire department’s response was fantastic.
“They were here a matter of minutes and put out the fire from the explosion and started sorting casualties,” he said.
The fire department called the Camp Casey Troop Medical Clinic, which contacted 1st HBCT’s operations center, which detailed Company C, 302nd Brigade Support Battalion to respond. Company C provided about 100 medics for the exercise, Wells said.
Firemen carry a role player away from the triage area during a mass casualty exercise at Camp Casey on Friday. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
'Casualties' wait at a triage area during Friday's exercise at Camp Casey. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
Camp Casey fire chief Jerry Epperson and Army 2nd Lt. Nick Wells coordinated the mass casualty exercise. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
