On August 4-5, 2015, the Clatsop County ARES/RACES team, along with more than 250 participants from Oregon Disaster Medical Team, U.S. Northern Command, U.S. Air Force Reserve, Army and Air National Guard units, civilian organizations, and state and county agencies, took part in Pathfinder-Minutemen exercise at Camp Rilea, Warrenton.
Pathfinder-Minutemen was a joint multi-agency, multi-state exercise designed to replicate a post-earthquake and subsequent tsunami environment with casualties in need of immediate medical treatment. The Oregon Disaster Medical Team invited ARES/RACES members to provide assistance in field communications, working side-by-side with their military counterparts in 12-member teams, accomplishing two scenarios during the day to find and rescue simulated causalities and provide immediate medical care and recovery.
Participants utilized various designated training areas on Camp Rilea including Slusher Lake, a mock village known as Military Operations in Urban Terrain or MOUT site, and a large purpose-built rubble pile designed to simulate a collapsed structure.
The event was a joint multi-agency, multi-state disaster preparedness exercise based on response to a possible Cascadia Subduction Zone event. Officials believe the Northwest is overdue for a magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquake.
