MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. -- Several members of the 452nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron literally got carried away Sunday when the squadron conducted its annual Mass Casualty Exercise. The 147-member unit held the exercise to fulfill an annual medical readiness training requirement. 

During the half-day exercise, some squadron members acted as severely wounded casualties while others employed their medical and leadership skills to ensure that the wounded were taken care of and moved from the accident scene in a timely and professional manner. 

The scenario centered on a bus that crashed while transporting patients and members of the medical support team from a previous incident. Five patients were treated and removed from the wreckage. From there, the injured were taken to a casualty collection point for continued care. That scenario was conducted twice during the day. 

"This morning when we did this exercise, we did it in a way that was very scripted," said Maj. David Sell, assistant executive officer, 452 AMDS. "The second go was somewhat less scripted, and we were trying to see how the leadership is going to react to the situation. " 

The goal was to see how effective the squadron's leaders were at assigning their people to evaluate patients and triaging them based on the severity of their injuries. 

Medical professionals from units throughout the base evaluated the squadron's performance and afterwards shared their observations and recommendations.