Air Force plays in pandemic flu exercise

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. David Herndon
  • 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) --  The Air Force is participating in a pandemic flu exercise Dec. 11-13 in Boerne, Texas, linking a variety of major south Texas crisis response agencies and Air Force medical personnel.

The Regional Pandemic Flu Conference, facilitated by the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, involves 59th Medical Wing members assigned to the Wilford Hall Medical Center and emergency medical responders, public health, local government and school districts officials, emergency mangers and more, to proactively plan for possible pandemic flu outbreaks.

"This will bring us up to speed with regional response planning and is a great opportunity to network and put faces with names of possible regional players," said Maj. (Dr.) Mark Rasnake, a 59th MDW infectious diseases staff physician.

During the three-day conference, all agencies are taking an in-depth look at scenarios delivered by the STRAC to provide a critical review for each. Along with other agencies, Wilford Hall was tasked to look at each scenario and decide how support would be provided from the facility at each stage of a simulated pandemic outbreak.

"We will be comparing our responses and looking at ways each agency can ultimately learn from each other," said Tech. Sgt. Melvin Kniffen, the 59th MDW exercise evaluation team NCO in charge.

According to Lt. Col. Gregory Stewart, the exercise evaluation team chief, much of Wilford Hall's exercise planning ties greatly with the civilian agencies, and these types of exercises offer an invaluable learning experience.

"Following Hurricane Katrina, civilian agencies noticed that the U.S. military was able to respond in a rapid and efficient form. Being able to leverage our unique assets makes us a critical component to these exercise planning sessions," said Dr. Rasnake.

The Wilford Hall exercise evaluation team is on hand at the conference to ensure the Air Force hospital's medical contingency response plans are followed when solutions are discussed during crisis response planning sessions.

"We will evaluate plans made by the wing, determining where our resources and assets are and what we need to do to assist in the event of an outbreak," said Colonel Stewart.

The team will look internally and reference wing contingency response plans to note what can be done more efficiently.

"One of the first questions we ask will be, 'Did we follow all of the required steps according to the MCRP?'" Sergeant Kniffen said.

Wilford Hall is slated to end the conference by participating in a table-top exercise inclusive of all agencies present, bringing the STRAC initiatives of agency coordination full-circle.

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