KADENA AIR BASE, Japan -- A decontamination excercise was held at the 18th Medical Group clinic Aug. 31, at Kadena Air Base, Japan.
The purpose of the exercise is to make sure the MDG members are prepared for any potential decontamination situation.
Members of medical squadrons from across the Pacific Air Forces came to Kadena to participate in this exercise. Exercises such as these are held in anticipation of chemical attacks from potential adversaries.
"The teams represented here are going home with training materials so they can sharpen the skills of members of their respective bases," said Theresa Casey, DECON LLC patient decontamination instructor.
Participants carried out the exercise based on a scenario that a person was contaminated. Exercise crews quickly and smoothly put up a special tent, which has a water purifier to safely clean the contaminated patient, carried them into the tent, and gave them a decontamination treatment.
"This was the first time this team had ever trained together and they did marvelously well," Casey said.
There were two timed phases of exercise: the first exercise took roughly 11 minutes, which was about nine minutes quicker than the scheduled time, while the other exercise took seven minutes, nearly eight minutes faster than the scheduled time.
"Everything went fantastically and was completed within the allotted time-limit, allowing us to save the exercise patients," said Staff Sgt. Doug Langhorst, 18th Dental Squadron technician and patient decontamination team lead.