U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Dan DeCook Active-duty Airmen, civilians and dependents from the 11th Wing participate in Exercise Perseus on Aug 26 at Bolling Air Force Base.

The Exercise Perseus scenario placed Col. Jon Roop, 11th Wing commander, Col. Carl Gramlick, wing vice commander, other wing leaders and scores of attendees at a ‘‘ceremony” honoring Lt. Col. Alan Rebholz, 11th Wing inspector general, when a river-borne ‘‘terrorist” launched a makeshift bomb into the crowd. The device contained lethal hydrogen chloride, a colorless gas that forms white fumes of hydrochloric acid upon contact with body tissue, causing varying degrees of damage including choking, severe burns and death, setting the stage for the well-planned response from multiple local agencies.

The total casualty count, 73, was the most ever for a Bolling exercise, a generally pleased Colonel Rebholz said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. Included among the initial 15 fatalities were Colonel Roop, Colonel Gramlick and Col. Elizabeth Borelli, 11th Operations Group commander, which complicated the initial organizational notifications, adding extra realism to the event.

At least 250 11th Wing personnel participated in the exercise, Colonel Rebholz said, with major contributions from the 11th Security Forces, the 579th Medical Group, the emergency operations center, the installation control center, and the emergency family assistance center. The colonel was especially pleased with the efforts by the D.C. Fire Department, which played in a Bolling exercise for the second time this year, bringing six fire trucks and two massive ambulance buses to the scene, speeding the triage process and getting victims the help they needed very quickly.

‘‘We picked up the victims from the field, and they bused them to one of two places,” he explained. ‘‘The chapel was acting as the Andrews (AFB, Md.) hospital. So the people that were really hurt were sent to the chapel, and the people who were just contaminated got sent to the medical group to get decontaminated and sent on their way.” Later, he said, all 73 victims underwent decontamination, ‘‘so that we could get more training and bang for the buck. It takes a lot to set up all that decontamination equipment, so we ran everybody through.

‘‘The relatively short exercise was a result of the D.C. Fire Department’s immense capability for a mass casualty event like this,” Colonel Rebholz continued. ‘‘They were able to process all 73 of our victims in less than 40 minutes. It was a good opportunity for us to learn from them as well as for them to learn Bolling, so that when they have to respond to here for real, they know the lay of the land. They already called twice to thank us and told us to call them anytime we need them.”

The Coast Guard played a significant role in the Perseus proceedings as well, with two of its vessels involved in a Bolling exercise for the first time. ‘‘Bolling security forces requested the assistance of Coast Guard Station Washington to investigate the waterfront for suspicious activity,” explained Lt. Cmdr. Lynda LeCrone, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Station, Washington. ‘‘The Coast Guard launched two 25-foot response boats that located a small pleasure craft anchored off Giesboro Point (directly adjacent to the ceremonial location) with two unidentified men wearing black ski masks. The vessel also had a suspicious 55-gallon drum on board. When the Coast Guard law enforcement officers approached the vessel the two men entered the water, swam towards the Coast Guard boat and surrendered. The Coast Guard transported the men to the custody of the security forces squadron. The Coast Guard then coordinated with local officials to identify and mitigate the potential hazard contained onboard the vessel that remained at anchor.” She added the exercise ‘‘was very beneficial for us, and I thought it was fun!”

Civil Air Patrol squadrons from the National Capital Wing also chipped in with their own special contribution, Colonel Rebholz said. ‘‘The Civil Air Patrol showed up at 5 a.m. with 12 volunteers to play victim, and the kids were ecstatic,” he said. ‘‘We sent them down as walking wounded to the clinic. We gave them glitter and they put glitter on their hands and so everybody they came up to in the clinic and touched then became infected,” adding more realism and complications as the exercise unfolded.

Capt. Ray Johnson, chief of the 11th Wing Exercise Evaluation Team, said the EET team, spearheaded by Master Sgt. Shannon Cash, ‘‘spent approximately three months designing, scripting and coordinating the event.” For his efforts, Sergeant Cash was recognized as an outstanding performer in Exercise Perseus, as were Capt. Christoper Bulson, 11th Civil Engineer Squadron, and the entire 579th Medical Group moulage team.

In evaluating the overall performance of the wing and its interactions with the other responding agencies, Colonel Rebholz said communications probably topped the list of areas needing improvement, noting that the ability of different emergency responders to speak the ‘‘same language” is integral to mission success. ‘‘For instance, our security forces speaks the Air Force Incident Management System language (AFIMS),” he explained. ‘‘Post 9-11, they came up with the Incident Management System (IMS), where you consolidate everybody using the same terminology. D.C. Fire is way up here in the pecking order as far as implementing the Incident Management System; we’re doing pretty good at the Air Force Incident Management System, so we’re fitting in OK. So we tried to make sure everybody spoke the same language, everybody could communicate to each other. Some of the things we were able to prove today is that the Navy District of Washington Fire Department can talk directly to the D.C. Fire department without special ‘comm’ gear. Communication is always a factor. That’s the other reason why we love to exercise is to make sure the communication works correctly, not only equipment-wise, but also language-wise.”