Decontamination teams from Naval Hospital Bremerton successfully conducted and concluded a DECON certification course to prepare to receive casualties in the event of a chemical-biological-radiological-nuclear-explosion (CBRNE) event.

The collective responsibility of the DECON team is vital. They provide the medical treatment facility the first line of defense for an emergency system that everyone hopes is never needed but has to be ready to put in place if necessary.

“If these corpsmen don’t do their job, then no one on base would be able to do their job either. There is no team more important,” said Tom Bocek, DECON, LLC training manager. “Handling any CBRNE contamination takes precedence before anything else can get done during such an event.”

“We might not ever need it, but when we do, there is no time to suddenly train on it,” said Capt. Mark Turner, NHB executive officer. “There’s a lot of comfort knowing our teams are well trained and can handle the task. All our staff knew their roles and the entire training was very impressive. It was coordinated very well.”

The DECON certification course training scenario devised by the training team was nightmarish. Some type of dirty bomb had exploded on base. People were fleeing and seeking shelter, medical assistance and calm away from the panicked location.

The DECON team immediately went into action and readied their station to handle the influx of contaminated casualties.  The team was evaluated on how long it took them to become mission capable and then completely set up. 

“This event was a thing of beauty and was passed with incredible flying colors,” Bocek said.

“We didn’t break any record but overall we did really well,” said HM1 Cerullo, from NHB’S Physical Therapy Department, noting that safety was always the top consideration throughout the training. “The classroom instruction was all well and fine, but getting to practice in an actual experience really helped to reinforce the learning.”

“With this training over, I think you can do this for real,” Boeck advised in his debrief to the team. “Stay committed to the training because it could be the real thing next time.”