By Kate Wiltrout
The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
Copyright 2007 Landmark Communications, Inc.
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Sweating profusely and acting nervous, a man drove a Dodge Caravan with government plates to the deserted front gate at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.
It was noon, on the dot.
That’s how a simulated terrorist attack began Thursday as part of a nationwide security drill called Operation Solid Curtain .
Instead of the mini van driver setting off a bomb laced with deadly sarin gas, smoke poured out of a machine. Instead of blood, the “victims” were covered in makeup.
“All units stand by. Be advised it could be a possible gas attack,” a participant squawked over a walkie-talkie. About 75 people were involved in the Portsmouth drill, including security personnel, firefighters, an ambulance crew and emergency room staff.
Other local bases dealt with simulated bombs and security breaches on Thursday as part of the drill, which officials said is not in response to any specific threat. First held in 1999 , the exercise involves different scenarios each year at naval facilities across the continental United States. This was the first time the Portsmouth hospital participated.
To some onlookers, the response seemed agonizingly slow. Six minutes after the “bomb” went off, an ambulance finally appeared - except it was a real ambulance from Chesapeake, delivering an actual patient to the emergency room.
Four minutes after that, a fire truck and ambulance participating in the drill arrived.
After calmly cordoning off an area with cones and police tape, firefighters blasted the victims of the gas attack with water from their firehoses.
The ambulance took the wounded to a decontamination area, where more than a dozen hospital staffers had suited up in Big Bird-yellow protective suits, gas masks and rubber boots.
By 12:40 p.m., the first victim had made it through the decontamination tent and was being assessed by medical personnel.
Capt. William Cogar , medical director for emergency preparedness and planning at the hospital, described the response Thursday as “very efficient.”
“Speed is always a relative thing,” Cogar said. “We tend to watch lots of TV shows. ... Real life doesn’t play out that way.”
Petty Officer 1st Class Casey Moorer , a biomedical equipment technician, was working inside the hospital when the “terrorist” detonated his bomb at the front gate.
She and 13 other enlisted sailors on the duty team rushed to erect the decontamination tent and don protective suits before the wounded arrived.
“We excelled at teamwork,” Moorer said.
Cogar said an after-action report would detail strengths and weaknesses of the medical center’s response to the drill.