Disaster preparedness: it's all about me.

An individual's preparation to manage an incident involving chemical, biologic, radiologic, nuclear, or explosive events requires a thorough and prepared understanding of the nature of these events. The purpose of this article is to discuss the preparation required to successfully manage the field and pre-hospital phases of a mass casualty event involving intentional weapons. The range of available response teams as well as the role of the United States military is discussed, including recent innovative educational programs initiated to meet this need.