167th Airlift Wing participates in CAMR Course Table Top Exercise

Published Sept. 15, 2015
By Staff Sgt. Jodie Witmer
167AW/PA

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg, W.Va. participated in a Counter-Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) All-Hazard Management Response (CAMR) Course Table Top Exercise at the wing, August 4-7.

The exercise included three table top exercises and one full scale exercise to test the 167th's response to various scenarios.

1st Lt. Matt Wine, the medical administrative officer at the 167th Medical Group, said "Training each day was four hours from 8-12 and the TTX [table top exercises] started at 1300 and was over around 1600 each day. Friday the full scale exercise started around 0800 and ended around 1600 with a hotwash in the dining facility."

Senior Master Sgt. Ray Hanson, the 167th emergency management superintendent at the 167th, said "The exercise was developed and initiated by an outside contractor with instructors who monitored and evaluated. Primarily a training exercise, feedback was provided by the contractor at the end during a hot wash."

Master Sgt. Gary Fletcher, NCOIC of bioenvironmental engineering at the 167th, said the table top exercises involved the wing's response to an active shooter scenario along with a HAZMAT response scenario, response to a radiological dispersal device, and the wing's response to the 167th Disease Containment Plan.

"The full scale exercise was intended to test in a real-world environment the wing's capability to respond to a HAZMAT incident with casualties and contaminated personnel," Fletcher said.
According to Fletcher, the following sections participated in the exercise: public affairs, wing emergency operations center representatives, crisis action team members, unit control centers, fire department, emergency management, security forces, bioenvironmental engineering, public health and the wing patient decontamination team.

"The 167th did an amazing job coming together for both the training and all the exercises that took place throughout the week," said Fletcher. "The exercises helped the wing by showcasing our capabilities throughout the wing. It also helped us finding any gaps in our response plans and checklists so that we can continue to work to make them better."

"Each section involved did well, many of the participants were in new roles," said Wine. " The response from the response sections during the full scale exercise, especially, bio-environmental, emergency management, fire department and the 976 patient decontamination team was outstanding. The contractors that led the exercise were impressed with depth of knowledge and teamwork. Even though many were working together for the first time, it appeared they had been working together for a longer time."

"The exercise was very beneficial to the unit as it involved participants from the entire wing, allowing us an opportunity to exercise multiple tasks and having personnel from different sections work closely together," said Hanson.

"The after action reports is still pending. However, we received nothing but positive comments from the contractor cadre," said Fletcher.