Joint Civilian/National Guard Mass Casualty Exercise Provides Model for Preparedness Training

Following criticism of civilian and military response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, members of the New York Air National Guard and the Central New York Medical Reserve Corps developed plans for a full scale exercise to determine their roles in a mass casualty situation. The Exercise was developed between October 2005 and March 2006. The event was held over two days, with the first day providing a series of partial drills for each section of the groups activities like triage. On the second day a full scale exercise including 350 individuals from over 25 agencies took place. The simulated mass casualty drill involved 32 victims contaminated in a hydrogen fluoride explosion. Following the drill three evaluation sessions were given; one by first responders, one by medical personnel, and a third by military personnel. The exercise was able to identify critical issues in joint military/civilian operations, and provide possible solutions to a number of the identified problems.

Strengths:
-Can identify critical issues in predeveloped plans
-Enables active critical thinking to solve encountered problems
-Can be tailored to fit a specific scale
-Engages participants effectively

Weaknesses:
-Effectiveness can be hampered by personnel not taking it seriously
-Increased possibility of risk to personnel in some scenarios
-May require a large amount of resources
-Requires extensive preparation

Source:
Grant, W., & Secreti, L. (2007). Joint Civilian/National Guard Mass Casualty Exercise Provides Model for Preparedness Training. Military Medicine, 172(8), 806-811. Retrieved from Military & Government Collection database.

Reflections of a Red Team Leader

http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/MarApr07/Craig.pdf
by Susan Craig

Summary:

This article focuses on the military aspects of red team leadership and characteristics commonly found in leaders of red team groups. The author suggests these traits will help any person in an organization think more critically of the environment the decision will be implemented in.

Legislation was enacted to implement red teams to prevent "failures of imagination and critical thinking apparent in the wake of 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq." According to Craig the most important aspect of being a red-teamer is the ability to ask good questions. Those questions should not alienate, but rather stimulate thought and point out assumptions or factors not being addressed. A red team should also identify poor measures of effectiveness and think about better indicators for feedback.

Specifically in terms of the military application of red-teaming the leader needs to consider coalition partner's constraints, capabilities, and political will, as well as their shared opponents.

Craig believes the understanding of cultural idiosyncrasies is forefront to leading a red team. Especially important is the understanding of formal and informal economies; sociological political and religious systems; sociolinguistics; semiotics; and its concept of violence.

More generally applied lessons from leading red teams is espoused upon by Craig. First, the red team should act more as a historian than an analyst (focusing on broad questions as opposed to a very specific question). Red team's insights should be tailored to the audience it addresses. The red team should be as diverse as possible. The implementation of red team recommendations needs leadership committed to making changes to the original plan. The red team leader should possess the abilities to advocate and persuade.