PEASE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, N.H., - The 157th Air Refueling Wing is no stranger to responding to emergencies, but a little practice never hurts.
Airmen from the wing’s medical group used annual flu shots as a chance to test their ability to respond to a large scale public health emergency during a Point of Dispensing exercise here on Nov. 6.
The goal of the exercise was to focus on the state’s emergency operations plans and the mass dispensing capabilities of medications or vaccinations across the state specifically targeting how to vaccinate first responders in the event of anthrax inhalation.
“The National Guard can be activated during a state or homeland emergency, so we need to make sure we are prepared for such a significant disaster,” said Lt. Col. Paul Loiselle, commander of the 157th Medical Group. “It is important we are ready to support the state when needed and as first responders we need to all be immunized or take whatever prophylactic is necessary before we can assist others as a resource for state.”
The 157th ARW, several state and federal agencies, as well as eight of the state’s 15 public health regions collaborated on the exercise.
“These public health regions were established in part from the requirements passed down from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the anthrax events on Capitol Hill, Florida and New Jersey, recognizing that local level health departments needed to strengthen their capabilities to quickly mass vaccinate area populations in response to large scale biological events," said Capt. Derek Brindisi, the 157 ARW’s public health officer- in-charge.
“In the event of a major outbreak, the federal CDC offices have equipment, medication and supplies stored in strategic locations ready to ship out within hours of notice called the Strategic National Stockpile,” said Brindisi. “The SNS contains hundreds of crates with a broad spectrum of medications, supplies and equipment that can be easily deployed during some type of catastrophic event such as the last time they were used during Hurricane Katrina.”
Evaluators observed the exercise and will hold a debriefing and a formal after action conference to discuss how the exercise went.
“We have several evaluators here that are going through the process with us, giving us the ability to work out the kinks now…identify our strengths and see where we can make improvements,” said Fallon Reed, the Strategic National Stockpile Coordinator, New Hampshire Department of Safety, Division Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “Each of our evaluators are certified to be homeland security exercise evaluators, know what areas to look for, what the standards are, and how to ensure we are following the process.”