Hey Mark,
I'm currently serving as an Army officer in the Medical Service Corps -
basically the logistics side of the medical field in the military, planning and
running the doctors, PAs, and medics that make up the provider side.
I just wanted to mention real quick something about the MASCAL reference in the
original "Loose Change" video that I don't think a lot of people realize.
First of all, MASCAL is military shorthand for MASs CASualty - a term that
means any time there are more casualties than there are medical
facilities/providers to treat them. A MASCAL can be as small as two soldiers
wounded on the battlefield with only one medic to treat them, and as large as
something like 9/11. Any time the wounded outnumber the treatment available,
it is considered a MASCAL.
Going along with that, "Loose Change" makes it sound like the MASCAL exercise at
the Pentagon was a rare occurence, something special and out of the ordinary.
To the contrary - as anyone in the medical field can tell you, MASCAL exercises
are conducted yearly on every Army installation in the country in order to test
emergency systems and practice medical training on a massive scale across the
post. Considering the Pentagon is a military installation with its own medical
section, it would not be out of the ordinary to have said medical section
involving other components in planning and exercising MASCAL training once a
year.
Not only that, but MASCAL exercises typically use threat ideas as the basis for
the training. Earlier this year I was serving at a military installation that
used the idea of a carbomb going off on post to train the MASCAL exercise.
Other MASCAL exercises that fellow soldiers I know of have trained at involved
dirty bombs, out of control riots, chemical weapons, and the like. Considering
the Pentagon's proximity to Reagan National, it would make sense that they would
use the unlikely but realistic scenario of a plane crash to train the medical
personnel on site and to test the in place emergency services.
Just something that a lot of people wouldn't know, that taken out of context
seems like a likely conspiracy theory supporting fact - when in reality it is a
common facet of the military medical community and nothing more than annual
training for medical personnel.
Thanks for working hard to fight the myth of a government-planned and operated
9/11 - it's good to see someone out there still has their head screwed on
right.
