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JBSA News
NEWS | Oct. 28, 2015

First responders prepare for air show with accident response exercise

Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph Public Affairs

Planning for an air show involves preparing for a variety of scenarios, including something as catastrophic as a mass casualty event.

A major accident response exercise Oct. 6 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, site of the 2015 JBSA Air Show and Open House this weekend, tested the installation’s ability to handle such a crisis.

“During exercise JBSA 15-05, we conducted an air show MARE involving mass casualties and hazardous materials, and evaluated Team JBSA’s disaster response force’s ability to respond to the incident,” Michael Broeker, 502nd Air Base Wing Inspector General wing inspection team manager, said. “The major scenario was simulating an F-16D aircraft crashing into the crowd, causing major casualties.”

Broeker said the complex exercise required support from nearby communities.

“The Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, City of San Antonio Emergency Operations Center and 48 civilian hospitals received simulated patients as part of the exercise,” he said. STRAC is an organization that develops, implements and maintains the regional trauma and emergency health care system for 22 counties.

The exercise, a coordinated effort of the JBSA disaster response force, crisis action team, emergency operations center, 12th Flying Training Wing, 59th Medical Wing, Brooke Army Medical Center, regional civilian first responders and civilian hospitals, tested first and emergency responders’ abilities to respond to the scene, assess and treat injuries, and contain and protect the scene of the incidents during the notification, response, withdrawal and recovery phases.

Like all exercises, the air show MARE used role players as victims, witnesses and family members of the victims to add realism and variety.

Broeker said the communication process for an emergency starts with incident notifications to first responders such as fire emergency services and security forces as well as the command post, which is then responsible for generating a report to the crisis action team and emergency operations center. The fire chief typically serves as incident commander.

For the JBSA air show, the CAT will be stationed at JBSA-Randolph and the EOC, as always, at JBSA-Lackland.

Broeker called the air show MARE “effective.”

“It highlighted a lot of good things we did effectively and recognized some areas that we need to work on,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re prepared for any eventuality that happens.

“The ultimate purpose is to be prepared if an aircraft crash occurs,” Broeker said. “We practiced what we’d do if that happens.”