Medina Wasl (Fake Iraqi town in the California desert)

Medina Wasl

Not sure if this really qualifies as a base, but unlike Dulce, it's real. ;-)

There are 13 fake Iraqi (probably Middle Eastern is a better description) towns in the Calfornia desert used for training troop. They are located in "the box", which is short for "the sand box", for obvious reasons. They recently opened up on of the fake villages to the public.

You see a very small part of Ft. Irwin considering it is the size of Rhode Island. The tour comprises the museum, eating real base food, viewing the EOD department, and of course a street battle in a fake Iraqi village. Ear plugs are provided. No souvenirs allowed, even though the street is littered in casings.

If you ever wondered what Bicycle Lake airstrip looks like, you get to view it from the distance. There isn't much infrastructure there, though anyone who has camped out around the Nellis ranges would consider it heaven on earth. The housing is a "foam dome". The airstrip is dirt. It can handle a C130.

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-

reply to post by MysterE

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Maybe Iraq and Afghanistan are just "training" for what they're planning next.


They're getting awful good at kicking in doors and dragging people off into camps in the middle of the night over there.

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.

Excellent pictures! When i'm back stateside i might take the tour there just for the heck of it. They need to be more realistic though, they need more trash and raw sewage in the streets. j/k It is an excellent training scenario for our men and women though.

If i'm not mistaken the Marines have (or had) a training area like that set up at their TwentyNine Palms base as well.

I remember a couple years ago, Raytheon was running temporary job openings on their Careers site for "Training Consultants" to play local nationals in training scenarios. Some Arabic language ability was desired, but not required. I remember it said the "consultants" would be on site for six days at a time, with 1 day off back at the base to shower and rest. And they would also have to bring their own food out on site during their six days out there, basically living as Iraqi's during the scenario. It was for 22 days per month during the summer.

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.

I'm not sure if you were referring to me or not. I worked as a "Mock Iraqi" at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. Scattered through the Fort are various "Mock Villages" and I played the part of your average Iraqi civilian and interact with troops as their convoys would go to our villages. Depending on the scenario we would do everything from Smile and wave friendly like, to riot, throw bottles, sniper fire with everything from AK-47s (the real things but shooting blanks) to rubber RPGs. Unfortunately I no longer have the job due to distance. I was offered it by the new company that got the contract but it would require me to move over 100 miles away from where I am now. Yes, we did indeed try to make things as real as we could make them right up to and including uncooperative civilians, etc.


For further reading, I'm enclosing some links to some of my threads where I discuss this rather odd job that I had.

Deson gets a strange job

Military convoy brought to a halt by big speedo

Something that I tried to give the troops.

Now I'll admit that the facilities that we used aren't on par with Medina but this should give you a general idea of what's going on.

I hope this is of help.

(edit to add)

Yep, looked at the thread and the pictures. Other than a better setup, that's the same thing that I did.




[edit on 1-10-2009 by Deson]

reply to post by Deson

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I liked your posts a lot.

The "players" at Wasl are supposedly expats. Some expats have relatives in the middle east that could be endangered if it was known that they were aiding the Americans in this fake town.

They let you photograph anything you want, but expect a bit of self-censoring if a face is clearly seen. I made no attempt to hide my camera, so anyone not wishing to be photographed got their wish. I omitted a few photographs that I thought might show a face to clearly just to be safe. In one case, a woman's veil slipped. That was on video. In another case, a guy was wearing glasses, but they were a bit too light colored. That is, you could clearly see his face.

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.

reply to post by Deson

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Yeah, it was you I was thinking of. I was sitting here wracking my brain trying to remember your screen name, but drew a blank.

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.