National, military leaders visit joint medical exercise

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Daryl Knee
  • 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
CAPLJINA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AFNS) --  The exercise portion of Shared Resilience 2012 ended here June 6 as the joint medical teams showcased their strengths to leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the U.S. military.

Some of the distinguished visitors included U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Scott J. Zobrist, the 31st Fighter Squadron commander at Aviano Air Base, Italy; Col. William Lewis, the 48th Fighter Wing vice commander at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England; and Col. Ken Hall, the U.S. Air Forces in Europe deputy command surgeon.

The Distinguished Visitors Day exercise scenarios involved a helicopter crash into a minefield; a collapsed building with people trapped inside; and falling debris crushing a vehicle. The medical professionals who were tested in these final scenarios used the skills and techniques they acquired throughout the two-week exercise to successfully treat and care for the simulated casualties.

"I think the exercise (went) very well," said Maj. Derec Hudson, the Shared Resilience 2012 Operations Center director. "The scenarios played out very realistically. Everyone took the scenarios seriously and responded exactly the way (they should)."

The leaders toured the exercise site after the scenarios ended and met with the multinational medical teams who worked side by side for the last two weeks.

"We're learning a lot from them, and they're learning a lot from us," Hudson said. "And I think at the end of the exercise we will have accomplished our goal."

The goals of Shared Resilience 2012 are to strengthen interoperability, facilitate training in crisis response and disaster management, and validate the readiness of deployable military medical and humanitarian assistance teams.

"I'm not sure that there is any country in the world that could respond properly with its own resources," said Bosnian-Herzegovinian army Col. Alija Kozljak, the Shared Resilience 2012 exercise facilitator. "So we have to take into consideration the complexity of the situation.

"International assistance is very important," he continued. "These procedures that we're trying to improve during the exercise will help us to get that assistance easier and in an efficient way."

Kozljak said that the exercise is particularly important for Bosnia-Herzegovina because it assists their authorities, military and civilians, to integrate. The integration allows the medical community to understand the importance of coordination among all institutions and agencies involved in conducting a common activity.

"We all worked together to respond to the scenarios, to build trust, to increase stability and security, and to continue to build partnerships," Hudson said. "So if this does happen in real life, we can all come together and respond and be very effective in our response."