Those “victims” Saturday morning whose luck had run out were placed on the black ground cover.

That meant you were dead.

Although the red area was pretty bad, at least you had a pulse. Yellow, you could wait before being transported and the green area, somebody would probably just give you a band aid and an aspirin. But all the “victims” were important at Key Field in order to simulate an actual plane crash with multiple casualties.

The mock event called a Major Accident Response Exercise, brought together various local agencies under the Incident Command network who would, in case of a real emergency, have to respond.

“This is the first time we’ve tested the Incident





Command network since becoming a part of the emergency response system in Meridian,” said Lt. Col. Brad Crawford of the 186th Air Refueling Wing of the Mississippi Air National Guard. “It’s a very important exercise for us to see how well the system works and what needs to be done to make it work even better.”

The Incident Command network is a system that links fire, medical and law enforcement agencies with those located at Key Field and the G. V. Montgomery National Guard Center. The goal of the exercise Saturday morning was on the command structure.

“The “victims” are important as well but in order to tend to their needs, we have to get the fire and medical teams here quickly while at the same time maintaining a clear overall picture of the incident,” Crawford said.

While firefighters fought the simulated blaze and paramedics tended to those wounded, command and communication personnel in the Emergency Operations Center on the grounds were busily coordinating all the assets, their traffic and dissimulating the information to keep the public informed.

The hope is that if, or when, an accident does occur, the system in place can handle the event as efficiently as possible resulting in minimal loss of life.