Great pictures, thanks for posting. I never knew that we were engaged in such realistic training. I'm glad we are doing everything possible to train our boys fo the FU situtation they are entering into. It's time to get them out of Afganistan

-E-

Maybe it's to test new close combat weaponry? Things like super tasers and gasses?

a friend of mine went out west to one of these camps. He was invited to participate in some leadership building program sponsored by some group or other and he was given a frightening training regimen to prepare himself for the Seals training (I think it was Seals) he was going to endure. Day one, some dude wound up in the hospital.

Anyway, after a week of training they were taken to one of these camps via a windowless van. Full gear, armed and given a mission. He was the team leader. They had to move into the town, meet an informant and obtain info on some weapons cache.

They did their rendevous and it was an ambush. Fired at, bullets striking all around them, grenades launched at them etc. He said it was insane. He said the town was, for all intents and purposes, real. When the bullets started flying, he realized he was in over his head.

There is or was a member on here that worked as an "Iraqi civilian" at these bases. He said the training they gave the troops was as real as they could make it, and it was an interesting job.

MOUT (Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain) is the most intense and dangerous environment for troops. During the Cold War period, there were MOUT training towns built that resembled European towns. During Vietnam, there were 'villes' built, which resembled SEA villages (Ft. Polk had one of the first). All of these were staffed with a 'home team' of aggressors, who fought using enemy weapons and tactics.
Most of these, due to scale, were used to train Company-sized units.


The National Training Center and the Joint Readiness Training Center were likewise set up for larger units to be trained against a dedicated aggressor force.

There isn't any conspiracy here. It is merely good training. If they were not building Iraqi or Afghan villages for predeployment trainup, then I would be worried.

Wow! This looks like a great place to film some news footage!

If they can set these up here, they'd be super convincing overseas too. I'm not saying Men and women aren't fighting overseas, but you have to admit, when it comes to news agencies, a good story will prevail over the truth.

Look out, Hollywood is in a news outlet near you.

Before my unit went to Iraq we went to 29 "stumps"(Palms) as we call it and one of the training exersices was a convoy. The route was maybe 20 miles long. We used live ammo and were even supported by 2 Cobra helos that the FAC was able to use to call in a rocket strike(that was sweeeeet). Anyways, we rode along in our HMMWVs and 5 ton trucks past "Iraqi" buildings and shot at popup targets. Great fun really. This was back in 2005.

Looks like one of the places Green Day did the video shoot for "When September Ends." Unless that was a prop set-up by the directors somewhere else.

They have quite a bit of media attention out at Medina Wasl. Even a google search will bring up all kinds of good photos, videos and articles that have been based on the training that goes on there.

"Full Battle Rattle" is a film that was taken mostly in Wasl, but also in the other cities that are out in the box. The website for the trailer is www.fullbattlerattlemovie.com and it highlights the background effects--the stuff as a 'tourist' you're not privy to see.

It is actually not too hard to get on a tour out to the city. In Wasl, you watch the UMP1 lane (also known as Med Trauma and the big IEDs, role players and RPGs are involved in it) and get to cruise through the city amongst the role players. If you'd like to see the most realistic training offered for predeployment training, visit Wasl.

I'll just end the conspiracy right where it stands. I work out in "the box". I'm out there 2 weeks every month, all year. The only thing out there are mocked up villages that we bring people into just for the training rotation so deploying units can get the most realistic training possible. Its not some testing ground, there are no live rounds being fired. Its blanks with MILES harnesses, a type of high speed laser tag.

I worked at the base communication building a irwin back in the 90s putting in a new emergency generator.

Even though it was in the US on a army base the signs on the fence around the building i was working in said "deadly force authorized"

E got send there by my boss because of my old security clearance and that i had worked as a navy security officer and could get cleared for the job quickly.

The funny part was that the communications center was staffed by not army guys but ex marines.
Being ex Navy i got along with these guys great.

And there communications equipment was top of the line.

The fun part was watching the army guys out doing there training with the cameras that are spread on mountain top all over the base.
With there system they could zoom in on any of the units in the field and record any mistakes they made.

Likely this fake iraqi town had cameras all over recording every move.

After the day was over the troops would be taken to a building and a every mistake would be played back before they did it again the next day.