European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 13, 1967, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 the stars and stripes wednesday september 13, 1967 97th general Hospital a splays skills victims treated in mass casualty exercise by Amis Nixon staff writer Frankfurt is an ambulance Busload of patients arrived at the receiving Section of97th general Hospital Here with realistic appearing Burns an wounds to open the annual mass casualty plan exercise tuesday. The patients 200 men fro the 3rd army div were actors in the test exercise which is designed to train Hospital personnel in All phases of handling a disaster by going through an actual plan step by step with As much realism As  this Case a United states army troop train which was supposed to be travelling from Berlin to Frankfurt collide with a gasoline Tanker and Sev eral cars derailed into a parked special weapons Convoy loaded with classified nuclear materials near  part of the exercise was real but still furnished training or the medical corpsmen. More than 35 soldiers from nearby is photo by Bob Milnes Gibbs Cavern donated blood tothe Bank during the exercise. One of the largest problem involved in mass treatment of disaster victims is the identification and location of particular patients at All  upon arrival of patients a chemical biological nuclear can monitoring team entered the ambulance to quickly scan each patient for radioactivity. Finding none the patients were moved into the Hospital an processed for treatment. Should a radioactive patient be found he would be moved to the can decontaminating Sec Tion stripped bathed and monitored  still contaminated the affected area would be isolated us ing leaded rubber sheets or the entire patient isolated and tagged before being moved Back into the processing  minutes after the patients were moved int processing they had been tagged for identification registered All forms completed and treatment started. Blood Issue Points were set up near All sections so that Neces sary transfusions could be handled quickly. The examining or operation rooms became a Beehive of activity As patients were rolled in examined treated when Neces sary and moved to More specialized treatment wards or sur  addition to doctors nurses medical corpsmen and administrative people chaplains were Busy in the exercise talking tothe simulated patients and per forming their other . Robert m. Hardaway Iii 97th Hospital co expressed displeasure at the smooth Progress of the exercise after asking searching questions of the admitting office personnel. To tos the abilities of the office to have up to minute information on patient ii a r d a w a y asked where is the first patient now the clerk answered immediately he is just out of sur Gery and on his Way to the re covery Ward. His name is James Brown  shot another ques Tion Back to him what about patient number 10?"a flip of a Page a Quick look and the clerk came right Backwith he is just entering sur Gery sir. His name is Harold  unknown to most of the operating personnel a Power fail ure was planned testing the automatic Start of Battery Power followed in minutes with the first emergency Generator. Two other generators were tested atthe same time to insure All were  flickered in the Hall ways but in the surgical wards the lights remained constant. Sgt. . Wayne Noble no in of the litter bearers maintained a steady flow of litters moving the patients into the processing. In the surgical Ward it.  Metzger moved from operating room to operating room checking to see that every one was participating As realistically As possible. To get into this Ward every one had to Don sterile Cap gown and covers for shoes the War must remain sterile at All times. This part of the exercise was real. Col. Pablo Zamora chief evaluator of the exercise moved from station to station making notes for the critique at 1 . The Only Section which was quiet during the Active phase of the exercise was the sterilizing and Supply Section on the 4th floor. But they became bus again taking in the Many items of equipment and supplies that had been issued at the Start of the problem. Every phase and activity of the problem appeared to have been handled with Swift efficiency which left the impression that the 97th general Hospital and its staff Are ready to handle most any disaster. Counter Check doctor examines patient while another Man checks for radiation with Geiger counter. Blood donors officers club was turned into blood door station right while