“Bonus Army” - remember them?
In that light, in what way should we be surprised about the scenario used by the ONG?
I guess the next Four Dead In Ohio will be tea partiers. The ONG started with college students, they will now graduate to legal gun owners.
In defense of the army troops (and not Dugout Doug) they did not kill any of the Bonus Army; that honor goes to the D.C. police. Major Eisenhower strongly advised MacArthur NOT to have any part in the fiasco as the Chief of Staff but Doug wouldn’t ever pass up a chance for publicity and self-aggrandizement. Many of the troops and the senior NCOs, junior officers refused to advance and shoot much less beat anyone. The D.C. police were under no such restrictions.
Reading other articles, it seems that previous similar exercise scenarios had muslims or left-wing groups as the the terrorists but were told (probably by DOD) that was inappropriate. Many times these scenarios are written as templates that state the general premises and requirements and the local exercise planners fill in the locality specific details. Having been involved with real and exercise scenarios back in the early 70s the perpetrators were anti-war protesters and hippies. We never thought too much about who they were, just preventing them from doing harm. Later, when I was involved in developing and running base exercises the “enemy” was frequently terrorists.
I think the OG as a whole is running a scenario pretty much set up for them.