Fairchild hosts hazmat training

"And...go!"

Sixteen airmen in gray shirts and blue shorts bolt through a parking lot on Fairchild Air Force Base. Ignoring the blazing sun, some dive into full-body hazmat suits, while others begin building a large structure and connecting it to water hoses. Wheeling equipment into the lot, airmen are shouting instructions and encouragement to each other, all clearly focused on one goal.

The average person watching might be baffled as to what that is, but these people know the job they're training for is essential.

The Fairchild Air Force Base Medical Group hosted an in-place patient contamination training on Aug. 2 to teach base medical personnel how to set up a containment unit and treat airmen who have been contaminated with hazardous materials.

"Doing this protects against any chemical, biological, or radiological material that could affect base personnel," Tech. Sgt. Travis Edwards, public affairs officer said. "All of the people being trained are Medical Group personnel, and have the capability and proximity to be first responders."

The base hosts a training like this once every other year, Fairchild's chief of public affairs Capt. Tanya Wren said.

"It's a great way to educate first responders on how to keep our airmen safe and in the fight," Wren said.

The airmen are held to specific standards, and are timed on how quickly they can set up a containment unit and successfully perform their duties. The first goal is to be "mission capable," and is a timed exercise in which the containment unit must be set up and four people outfitted in hazmat suits within 15 minutes.

The team has an additional five minutes to get everyone else suited up and add any additional needs to the containment unit.

Their instructor, Charlie Jansen, is a retired Air Force captain and has been teaching with DECON, LLC, a decontamination education and consulting firm, for eight years.

"The situation we're training for is that something has taken place and the hospital is locked down. You're expecting patients to arrive, and they may need decontamination, treatment and triage," Jansen said. "The purpose of this drill is two things: teaching life saving techniques for an emergency and to protect the facility in the event of such an emergency. We don't want contaminated people going into triage and contaminating the hospital."

The training consists of a 16-hour class. Eight of those hours are in a classroom, learning about the equipment and medical procedures that may be useful to them during a contamination incident. The other eight hours are completed outside, as the airmen set up and take down the containment unit several times, practicing and committing their positions to memory.

"This is good because it gives them a chance to get their hands on all the equipment they learned about the day before," Jansen said.

It was Airman 1st Class Tristan Santles' first time at the training, and he said it wasn't as difficult as anticipated. The class and subsequent physical practice were less physically taxing and mentally challenging than he expected.

The team was still working hard, running and lifting heavy objects in 82 degree heat, beginning at 7 a.m. Jansen encouraged participants to hydrate with water and Gatorade and to take a break if they felt faint under the heavy plastic layers of the hazmat suits.

Team members were being taught the entire process start to finish so there could be no single point of failure, 1st Lt. Jeremy Thompson said.

"Everybody is being trained on everything," Thompson said.

The training ground is located where the containment unit would be set up in real life - right behind the on-base medical facility.

Several volunteers acted as patients throughout the training, walking up to the containment unit and going through the decontamination process.

"In an event, people would be coming here for treatment, and we want to get decontamination off of them before they go into the medical facility," Jansen said. "We get them clean and decontaminated, then can send them into the clinic."

Master Sgt. Michael Huggins acted like a patient with a baby, using a doll nicknamed "Susie" to simulate infant decontamination and giving airmen the opportunity to practice treating families in crisis.

"I always tell them, everything I taught you today I hope you never use," Jansen said.

Jansen said that while he hopes Air Force personnel will never need the information he's teaching, they will be prepared in an emergency. The training also provides valuable medical knowledge that could potentially save lives.

"In the class we learn how to insert an airway," Jansen said. "That may be something they'll encounter somewhere else, and they'll know how to do it."

The airmen prepare for the worst and hope for the best, Edwards said.

"There's no active threat that we're protecting against, but we want to make sure that the capability is there to protect the airmen and families of Fairchild Air Force Base," he said.

Most of the airmen participating in the training had never done so before. Out of 16 participants, only four had previous decontamination training, Jansen said.

Jansen praised the group while preparing them for their timed drill.The team's timed drill was their second drill of the day.

"Organizationally, this is probably one of the best teams I've ever seen," he said.

In their timed drill, the team was mission capable in 6 minutes and 10 seconds, nearly 9 minutes ahead of the 15-minute standard. They also smashed their goal of full preparedness in 20 minutes, reaching it in 11 minutes and 5 seconds.

"They excelled, and showed great teamwork, great leadership," Jansen said. "They have the right people in the right positions, and you can tell when you go to a place with good upper leadership."

By the end of the day, the equipment is all packed up and the airmen look sweaty and tired. But Jansen looks satisfied, and it's his voice that booms out over the crowd of participants.

"Good job. End of exercise."

Shannen Talbot can be reached at shannen@cheneyfreepress.com