- Title: GERMANY: UNITED STATES SOLDIERS TRAIN FOR CATASTROPHE
- Date: 27th October 2002
- Summary: LANDSTUHL, GERMANY (OCTOBER 26, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV 'INJURED' PEOPLE LAID ON STRETCHERS ON FLOOR 2. MV 'PREGNANT' WOMAN BEING HELPED BY A SOLDIER; MV 'PREGNANT' WOMAN LAID OF THE FLOOR SCREAMING ABOUT HER BABY 3. MV SOLDIERS LIFTING 'INJURED' 4. WIDE OF SOLDIER GIVING INSTRUCTIONS OVER A WALKIE-TALKIE 5. VARIOUS OF 'I
- Embargoed: 11th November 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LANDSTUHL, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Reuters ID: LVADUF08IAN8FUY9R9U8TKFVEWPD
- Story Text: United States (U.S.) soldiers in Germany have been
training for a catastrophe they hope might make the exercise
manuals but not the history books.
The casualty list at Landstuhl on Saturday (October 26)
sounded gruesome: almost 50 injured soldiers and civilians,
many badly burned, with a military hospital unable to cope.
But while the casualties looked realistic, they were part
of an exercise simulating the consequences of an explosion at
the U.S. Military Hospital in Landstuhl. The exercise featured
the explosion of a vehicle carrying gas which injured scores
of people and cut the hospital's electricity. This meant the
patients originally in the hospital, including pregnant and
psychiatric cases, also needed to be removed.
The 'casualties' were transferred by helicopter, ambulance
and military bus to an unnamed German medical facility nearby.
The purpose of the exercise was to answer the question of
what happens when Landstuhl itself becomes a casualty, said
the commander of the exercise, Colonel David Rubenstein.
"We know what happens when people become casualties, but
if we have a damaged building and no electricity, what do we
do next?"
The training was also designed to see how German services
would cope with such a catastrophe.
Colonel Rubenstein said the U.S. military was very pleased
with the level of co-operation and the lessons learned.
"I think if you watch the soldiers and the German fire and
emergency response personnel during the exercise, I think you
can see they are very excited", he said." I think it's a very
realistic exercise. Instead of just talking through what we
do, we're working to move patients to the other
hospitals in the area."
Senior German military medical officers and local
officials observed the exercise.
With the relatively recent use of Germany's military
abroad and the extension of their operations, the German Army
in particular is interested to see what they can gain from
such exercises with their U.S. counterparts.
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