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Servicemembers polish their skills here just prior to deployment "up north."
Earlier this week it was the Georgia National Guard's turn in the barrel as members of the 1st Battalion, 214th Field Artillery Regiment, practiced convoy skills and anti-improvised explosive device tactics at the range, which is set up and administered by Military Professional Resources Inc.
"We give them realistic scenarios of what they will encounter in Iraq," said Jason Algarin, an observer/controller with MPRI.
One course is 13.5 kilometers long and runs servicemembers through a gamut of scenarios they will likely encounter. The play is free flow and allows for many different outcomes.
"There's no textbook right answer to these," Algarin, a former Marine, said. "But some do better than others."
Among things that should be second nature to servicemembers are traffic control, handling the IED threat, tactical movement to contact, and dealing with civilians on the battlefield.
After the first scenarios, which dealt with control at a traffic circle and cars trying to butt into a convoy, convoy commander Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Miller said problems with radio procedures are a big problem. "Just say who you are, what you see and your reaction," Miller told his men in an after-action review. "We don't need your life history."
The unit continued on and faced such things as car bombs and a traffic accident that blocked a road. The convoy had to wait to enter an Iraqi village. Three women pestered the troops in the convoy trying to gain information about procedures for collecting payment for losses incurred due to military action. Other "villagers" came out to see the excitement. Actors hired from Egypt play Iraqis in the training.
The convoy commander had to deal with Iraqi police to try to get around the blockage. "No, Mister. This is my country," the actor playing the policeman said. "We will move when finished."
The unit is due to move up to Iraq in the next few days. "They are focused here," an MPRI expert said. "But they still are thinking in the peacetime, training mode. They need to get over that."
"Train like you fight; fight like you train," Miller said in reminding his troops to get their head in the game before heading out on the live-fire section of the course.
