Developing Vibrant State Defense Forces: A Successful Medical and Health Service Model 5 DEVELOPING VIBRANT STATE DEFENSE FORCES: A SUCCESSFUL MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICE MODEL

The Katrina disaster spiked concern among Federal planners that “the United States is incapable of delivering mass care... the emergency medical response system is woefully inadequate ” (Rood, 2005, p. 38). Katrina starkly revealed numerous holes in our ability to deal with mass casualties, including the lack of any “coordinated system for recruiting, deploying, and managing volunteers ” who invariably show up at crises, often only to add to the chaos (Franco, et al., 2006, p. 135). In this article we present a significant counter example to these uncoordinated, impaired, spontaneously converging volunteers by documenting how well trained and highly disciplined State Defense Force medical units can provide basic to mid level acuity medical capacity to augment overwhelmed first responders during mass casualty events. One such unit, the Maryland Defense Force (MDDF) medical command [now the 10 Medicalth Regiment (10MEDRGT)], served with distinction during the Hurricane Katrina crises when called up by Maryland’s Adjutant General, Major General Bruce F. Tuxill, as approved by Governor, Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. During the two-and-one-half weeks they were deployed in the field, the 10MEDRGT provided a variety of medical services for more than 6,000 injured and suffering patients at six MDDF field treatment stations