Joint Readiness Training Center teaches troops how to hunt down terrorists
Story and photos by Lisa
Burgess, Washington bureau
A soldier from Fort
Polk's 1st Battalion of the 509th Infantry Regiment, the JRTC’s permanent
“opposing force,” takes aim in a last stand against the 101st Airborne Division. |
As Army Special Forces planned a night raid deep into Afghanistan last week, soldiers
from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) were wrapping up training designed to teach
troops and their leaders how to conduct the same kind of mission.
On Oct. 15 and 16, the 101st "Screaming Eagles" capped two weeks in the field
at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in Fort Polk, La., with a ferocious night
attack on a small village held by "terrorists."
Army officials refused to draw any parallels between the exercise and operations in
Afghanistan.
The rotation was one of 10 "war fighting missions" conducted each year at the
JRTC, and all units learn the same tactics, said Brig. Gen. Charles Swannack Jr., the
JRTC’s commanding general.
The rotation’s final close-quarter combat exercise Oct. 15 and 16 "does
translate" to the job of hunting down terrorists, Swannack said.
But the JRTC has been in the business of teaching soldiers how to deal with terrorist
cells for over 10 years, he added.
"Since 1988, we’ve been learning to track [terrorists] down, and we’ve
gotten pretty good at it," Swannack said.
"These exercises are useful to any force that comes through here, in any
environment they might go to," Swannack said.
Ready to go
A bombed-out car frames
JRTC referees and a soldier from the 101st Airborne Division in the chilly dawn aftermath
of the 101st's attack on the mock village of Shughart-Gordon. |
Like many active-duty combat forces, the 101st has been placed on high alert at its
home station of Fort Campbell, Ky.
The Screaming Eagles may get their turn sooner rather than later, however. A North
Carolina reservist attached to the division said she has been warned to keep a bag packed
and ready for immediate departure "beyond the United States."
Central Asia was evidently on the soldiers’ minds as they fought their way through
the war game.
"Yeah, we’re following what’s going on pretty close," said Pfc.
Kevin Gonzalez, an engineer with the 101st.
But Gonzalez clammed up when asked to elaborate. "We’re [at the JRTC] to
train," he said.
Other soldiers refused to give their names for publication, but once assured of
anonymity, talked freely about the war on terrorism and their possible role in the battle.
"I want to go kill some of the [idiots] who hit the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon," a young private first class said, as his sergeant nodded. "I’m
ready."
But first the 101st had to get through the JRTC.
Swannack, who prefers his nickname, "SwanDog," said that the JRTC is the only
place in the world that a brigade-size task force can train for war, along with supporting
units from the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines.
The Army units are the principal participants, but the exercises are joint-service
productions.
The Air Force provides fixed-wing tactical air support and transport aircraft, while a
U.S. Marine Corps Air Naval Gun Liaison Company plans and provides simulated naval gunfire
missions. Air Force Special Operations teams and SEALs sometimes practice alongside the
Army Special Forces that usually play in every rotation.
Normally, the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, stationed at Fort Polk, supplies tanks for
the war-fighting exercises.
For the October rotation, however, the 2nd ACR "was busy elsewhere," a JRTC
officer said, so the 101st played through the scenario without the customary support from
heavy armor.
The centerpiece of the JRTC is the multimillion-dollar Military Operations in Urban
Terrain (MOUT) complex.
The MOUT has three main facilities — a mock village, a control center and an
airfield — which together offer units ranging in size from squads to full brigades
the opportunity to practice realistic close-quarters combat.
Civilian role player Q-Tara Middleton of Leesville, La., settles into her part as a
villager whowill later be used as a human shield by "terrorists." Middleton's
MILES harness is a laser tag device that beeps and flashes if soldiers "shoot"
her by accident during rescue operations. |
The MOUT’s "battlefield" is Shughart-Gordon, a 29-building mock city
complex that cost $13.2 million to construct.
Outfitted like a movie set, the village is so detailed that horses and chickens live in
pens outside some of the buildings.
To add to the realism — and to teach soldiers how to deal with combat environments
where noncombatants are part of the mix — the JRTC hires local civilians to populate
the village for each major exercise.
"Sometimes, we garden," said Joann Chandler, a Leesville, La., resident who
has worked full-time as a JRTC role-player for four years. "We cook, we play cards
— anything to make it seem more real."
Retired Master Sgt. Walter Corn, another Leesville role player, said that the civilians
take their jobs very seriously.
"We really are proud of [the soldiers]," Corn said. "We do our best to
challenge them — sometimes the [exercise referees] have to rein us in, because we do
more than we’re supposed to."
For assaults on the mock village, all units, including the 101st, face the
"Leesville Urban Group," also known as "LUGs," or
"Geronimos."
The soldiers belong to the 1st Battalion of the 509th Infantry Regiment, the
JRTC’s permanent "opposing force," or Opfor.
Shughart-Gordon is laced with $32 million worth of daylight video cameras, infrared
cameras, microphones and other sensors that record the action for later review.
"We can see in every tunnel, every room and every street," Swannack said.
"This is Disneylike stuff."
As the Opfor and visiting units battle it out, the control center computers record
virtually every squad movement and every shot fired for later review.
The MOUT also has a large and comfortable conference room with a bank of video monitors
that can display alternate views of the battle 24 hours a day.
After each rotation, the JRTC staff gathers "trend" data on what went well
and where units had difficulty. The information is passed back to the unit and also to
Army planners, who incorporate the lessons learned into the Army’s ever-evolving war
fighting doctrine.
Night attack
Brig. Gen. Charles
Swannack Jr. |
From virtually the first hour of the two-week, nonstop exercise, the Opfor hassled the
101st with asymmetrical warfare techniques. Truck bombs, chemical warfare, biological
attacks, terrorists dressed as civilians, using civilians as shields — it’s all
fair game at the JRTC.
"They better get used to it, because they’re going to have to deal in the
real world," said Sgt. Marcus Wiltz of the 509th. "Our job is to give them the
fight of their lives."
On paper, the mission of the 101st the night of Oct. 16 was simple: attack and seize
Shughart-Gordon and turn it over to friendly forces.
In reality, the task was far from simple.
The 101st went into the village with a ratio of about 5.5 friendly soldiers to each
enemy troop. The Screaming Eagles were equipped with state-of-the-art night-vision
equipment, and enjoyed superior weapons and far more armored transports than the Opfor.
But the Opfor was dug-in and knew the terrain. Barbed wire surrounded their key
buildings, and Geronimo commanders had carefully plotted lines of fire and kill zones.
From 1 a.m. onward on Oct. 16, the freezing night crept by as the 101st fought forward
inch by inch.
In the MOUT center, infrared cameras installed in the buildings graphically caught the
dangers of close-quarters urban combat.
At one point, television screens revealed Opfor soldiers setting up an ambush as a
squad of 101st troops struggled to get through a ditch filled with barbed wire.
"They’re going to get hammered," a JRTC trainer observing the action
muttered.
Sure enough, moments later green-shadowed 101st soldiers began to take off their
helmets and lie down, tagged "out" by MILES, or Multiple Integrated Laser
Engagement System, used at the center to simulate real small-arms fire.
Eventually, the overwhelming force and careful tactics of the 101st prevailed over the
Opfor — even despite a gutsy attempt by the Geronimos to regroup and make a stand.
Well after dawn, after more than six hours of continuous combat, JRTC trainers finally
called the game to its conclusion.
The fight was over.
Both the trainers and the Opfor agreed that the 101st had done remarkably well.
"They did a lot better than some units I’ve seen here," one JRTC trainer
said. "They didn’t waste any time once they breached into the village. They got
in here and fought it through."
As soldiers from the 101st gathered weapons and assembled for roll call, they drooped
visibly from the nightlong effort and the two weeks of constant war gaming that preceded
it.
But even as most of the soldiers dreamed of home, one small group of troops was
thinking beyond that immediate bus ride and into the future.
They broke into an improvised rendition of John Denver’s "Leaving on a Jet
Plane":
All my bags are packed; I’m ready to go
I’m standing here outside your door
I’d hate to wake you up to say goodbye …
When the soldiers got to the chorus, they yelled in unison:
Cause I’m leaving on a jet plane,
I don’t know when I’ll be back again!
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