47th MDG train to keep Laughlin safe

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Sara Csurilla
  • 47th Flying Training Wing public affairs
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  A team of 24 officers and enlisted Airmen from the 47th Medical Group learned how to decontaminate a large group of people in case of a biological, chemical or radiological attack during a two-day course here Jan. 21 and 22.

The class was administered by Tom Boceck, a contractor who's traveling to Air Force bases around the world to train and teach Airmen how to set up an In-Place-Patient-Decontamination-Capability tent, a pop-up tent that can help treat more than 100 people in the event of an attack. For Laughlin's training, the tent was set-up outside Laughlin's medical clinic.

"During the two-day course our team worked exceptionally well together," said Tech Sgt. Keith Lewis, 47th MDG and IPPDC team chief. "We learned how to set up the IPPDC extremely fast, ultimately letting us protect hundreds of people, our facility and staff if we ever needed to."

During the first day of the course the team received classroom training. The next day they concentrated on working under time constraints, physically setting up the IPPDC tent and decontaminating simulated patients.

"Our primary goal is to fully decontaminate our patients and keep everyone safe," said Sergeant Lewis. "To ensure we completed our goals we learned to set up a tunnel-like tent with several hanging hoses, have the entire team dressed in fully enclosed suits and start treating patients by removing all of their outer garments and scrubbing them with soap and water as fast as possible."

The Air Force standard is 20 minutes to have the IPPDC mission ready, said Mr. Boceck. The Laughlin team was mission ready in nine minutes and 58 seconds.

"It was amazing to watch the entire team mesh together so well and learn to become mission capable in less than 48 hours," said Sergeant Lewis. "Although it wouldn't have worked so well if all the team members weren't so motivated and dedicated to accomplishing the mission and accomplishing it well, it made my job as the team chief a lot easier."