Ultimate Caduceus 08 tests medical evacuation skills

McCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. - When an improvised explosive device "detonated" along Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct on May 1, the ensuing blast and chemical truck explosion sent deadly methyl isocyanate into the air. The blast caused hundreds of deaths and thousands more injured and sick. At least on paper.

Ultimate Caduceus 08, part of National Level Exercise 02-08, tested the United States Transportation Command's ability assist with medical evacuation from area hospitals to a pre-designated site outside of the area.

"The exercise was collaboration between the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veteran Affairs," explained Col. Nicholas Lezama, the senior validating flight surgeon for USTRANSCOM, Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

For USTRANSCOM officials this was the biennial patient movement exercise designed to test their ability to provide medical evacuation in both a field and computer-simulated setting. The exercise focused on their ability to conduct global patient movement, with an emphasis on aeromedical evacuation.

"We simulated a mass casualty situation where we helped evacuate patients from local hospitals and airlifted them from McChord to federal coordinating centers in Portland, Ore.," said Lezama.

USTRANSCOM officials coordinated the efforts with a joint patient-movement team comprising medical and administrative specialists, co-located with the Washington State Emergency Operations Center.

"We work with the state's patient movement requests through our Global Patient Movement Requirement Center at Scott," said Army Staff Sgt. Michael Manson, a joint patient-movement liaison for the exercise. "In a 24-hour period, we evacuated more than 750 patients, broken down into urgent care, priorities and routine care. For the exercise, we've moved close to 1,300 patients from the area."