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To Prepare for War, G.I.’s Get a Dress Rehearsal
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Nov 28, 2009 05:04pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - New York Times |
| News Date | Saturday, November 28, 2009 11:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By JAMES DAO
Published: November 28, 2009
FORT POLK, La. — A firefight with heavily armed insurgents near a gold-domed mosque. A helicopter evacuation of bloody car bomb victims. A meeting with tribal elders upset about security.
Just another day in Afghanistan? More like the dress rehearsal for war, played out on 100,000 acres of snake-infested pine forest on an Army post near the Texas border.
Here, thousands of soldiers prepare for deployment each month by patrolling Afghan villages built by professional set designers, battling roving insurgents played by American soldiers and negotiating with actors playing tribal elders, many of whom speak real Pashto.
It is Counterinsurgency 101, about as realistic as the Army can make it in Louisiana, never mind the alligator-filled swamps, the “mud” huts assembled from metal shipping containers and the Afghan “villagers” who stir pots of Cajun rice and beans between Taliban raids. The training scenarios, created from intelligence reports fresh from the front, are capable of bringing stressed soldiers to the brink of tears, commanders say.
“We want to replicate the contemporary operating environment," said Col. Jon S. Lehr, who oversees the training operation. “But we also have to prepare a soldier for their worst day.” |
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