EMEDS team trains for emergency response Published Aug. 12, 2010 By Linda Frost 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Air Force medical personnel honed their skills last month in a massive joint forces field-training exercise simulating a terrorist attack in the United States. The 10-day exercise, held at Camp Atterbury, Ind., allowed service members to war game the scenario and know their specific duties in case a catastrophic event ever occurred in the United States. Nearly 125 Airmen from Lackland, Maxwell and Sheppard Air Force Bases formed an Expeditionary Medical Support team to support the joint forces exercise of more than 3,500 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and civilian personnel from around the country. An EMEDS team is composed of medical, logistics, administrative and other staff to quickly deploy and set up a field hospital. In the exercise, dubbed Vibrant Response, a 10-kiloton nuclear device had been detonated, devastating the immediate area and creating a scenario that simulated a nuclear, biological and chemical attack in the Indianapolis vicinity. Military forces provided assistance to federal, state and local emergency responders during the exercise to save lives, prevent further injury and provide temporary critical support. Led by U.S. Army North, U.S. Northern Command's Joint Force Land Component Command, the exercise included urban and aerial search and rescue missions, simulated decontamination operations, airlift and medical training. The Air Force EMEDS team, commanded by Col. Janet Robinson, 59th Dental Group commander, provided full scale medical support for ground evacuation, treating patients, hospitalization, preventive medicine, veterinary, medical logistical support and blood distribution. "It was a tremendous training experience ... this gave us the opportunity to train together in an environment that simulated a real world situation and helped develop us as a cohesive team," Colonel Robinson said. Colonel Robinson, said the exercise enabled the Airmen to work closely with their Army counterparts to learn each other's capabilities, ways of doing things and language differences. "Some of the challenges we encountered were issues we should expect to meet if we were to deploy to an event, and were invaluable in forcing us to develop workarounds to get the mission accomplished," Colonel Robinson added. "As expected, our Air Force personnel deployed with the right attitude, motivation and desire for excellence, and did an outstanding job working with other federal, state and local emergency responders," she said.