The TRAINing That Wasn’t

Train at Exercise in Tel Aviv
Originally uploaded by Benjamin Ludman.

Yesterday wasn’t a regular day for me. I was involved in a training exercise, mostly for the police, but also the army, MDA, and the fire department. [LINK] My role in the exercise was to play an injured person on a train. I won’t go into too many details for security reasons, but it was an interesting exercise [LINK]. They brought a train and planted small explosives on it. We were all given scenario cards describing whom we were playing (I was a 15 year old boy with two broken legs), and then people came on board and rescued us.

At least that’s what would have happened. Just as it was all about to officially start, we were all on the train ready for action; we were all called off the train. A large accident [LINK] had occurred in Tel Aviv (actually Jaffa, very close to my base). At a construction site, a crane collapsed killing two. All of the forces that were supposed to be taking part in the exercise simulating a large-scale situation with many injuries were now being called in for real. The exercise was called off but considered a success- the planning of such a large-scale exercise is not a small feat, especially with all the different organizations involved. And so I returned home early after an interesting day. A great way to finish of the week.