When you attend high level training it should challenge you to the point of being uncomfortable. This way you expand your knowledge, skills and abilities so you can preform when the event requires it.
As we listen to the events in New Zealand and Japan we question, what would we do in their shoes? Well, we can only listen, learn and take that information to further prepare ourselves in the event similar circumstances challenge us in our areas of response.
This is the opportunity for you to challenge yourself. The disciplines surrounding Radiological response often are daunting to many. I reflect back to discussions with a friend at a class in a very southern jurisdiction about just such events.
The famous quote we arrived at: “If not me, who? If not now, when?” paraphrased (Hillel the Elder) The media has taken fundamental radiological information and turned it into the fear factor. Ignorance is bliss, and most people do not know or understand the radiological fundamentals that emergency responders need to know and understand. Watching response personnel using survey devices incorrectly on video after video in the news makes me realize that further KSA’s are needed both on the scene in Japan as well as domestically in the US. Many drills and exercises we find that personnel have the greatest whizz bang instrument however the personnel do not know how to interpret the information being read.
This type of high severity, low frequency event needs to be trained on, drilled and evaluated on a routine basis at all levels of response.
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