Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood held a mass casualty exercise Wednesday to rehearse its emergency action plans and response procedures.
Hospital staff and soldiers practiced decontaminating people who got hit with tear gas.
Some soldiers helped wheel in patients into the decontamination tent while others, dressed in hazmat suits, helped hose them down and check for contamination.
"We want to keep it at the forefront of folks' minds that while we hope these events never occur, we have to continue to practice and make sure that everybody is ready to take on the task if it were to occur," Col. Mark Thompson said.
Thompson said an exercise like this one helps him and his staff find problem spots.
"The reason we practice is...There's holes we discover that are things that we need to work on and find ways around. You feel more comfortable because you discover where the deficiencies are, but now you have to do the work to fill in the holes, and until those holes are filled, you're never completely comfortable," he said.
This was day two of the center's two-day exercise. On Tuesday, the center's staff worked through an active shooter scenario.
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