Posted on 02/15/2014 11:49:38 AM PST by shove_it
“So when you think about the transition that we're gonna go through here. Is to transition from an Army of execution; doing what we've got to do. To an Army of preparation. To be ready for what comes next. That's where the importance of this facility really comes in.”My, my, my...Col John P. Petkosek
Asymmetric Warfare Group Commander
Ft. A.P. Hill VA
I assaulted a fake Vietnamese village at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia in 1970.
I was stationed at Ft. A.P. Hill Va. for the last three months of my tour of duty with the US Army. Sept. 1969 to Jan. 1970. At the time, it was approximately 15,000 acres of real estate located off Rt. 301 in Bolling Green, Va. It was used as a reserve training base. The military also maintained a beautiful hunting lodge that was used by the elites. (military and civilian) It doubled as a game preserve. Quail hunting was a popular sport. Deer hunting was also popular. The US Army had a taxidermist on staff at this place. I was in the Military Police at the time and was transferred there for the hunting season in the fall of 69. Prime Virginia property as I recall, and a good place to train troops. Many good times were had in Fredericksburg Va. As I recall, there were about 3000 girls at the Mary Washington College.(now University)It was a nice place to spend the last three months of a miserable three years.
Yep. The profile and architecture is domestic.
I trained for riot control at Fort Myer, VA in August 1963. Thankfully we didn’t have to use it.
“I assaulted a fake Vietnamese village at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia in 1970.”
Remember the Green Beret base in “The Green Berets”? I’m talking the one with the pagoda where John Wayne lead the relief party?
Well, I defended that hill complete with Pagoda in 1971. Little known fact, “The Green Berets” was filmed at Fort Benning. We defended the hill in “mech infantry platoon in the delaying operation” training.
I lived in proximity to A.P. Hill for many years. Helicopter assault night ops made the entire house shake as they thundered overhead shuttling between Quantico and Hill. They’ve been doing this for years, and I’ve always believed it to be for CONUS ops. Help or subdue us? Time will tell. Soon.
It’s been there for years. We trained there when I was a cadet at VMI.
It’s an update to the old city that was there 20 years ago.
I spent a delightful couple weeks at A.P. Hill in the winter of 1962-63 maintaining my infantry readiness while serving with The Old Guard. There were no girls involved although I did pull debutant escort duty a few times. The most memorable one was a niece of LBJ’s who, thankfully I didn’t have to arm wrestle for the bar tab.
Chuckle.
That’s the set for “Blazing Saddles”. The landscape didn’t look like Ft. A.P. Hill.
I was at Fort Riley in the late 60’s. Several riots had taken place across the U.S. They had an area of old WWII barracks that were abandoned. We practiced riot control in the streets around these buildings. There was another area out in the boonies that had a couple of buildings where we would practice. My last official duty in the service was as a rioter.
I assaulted real VN villages in 1965 to 1968, learning experience.
“There are also bridges and several other structures which can be transformed into different scenarios.”
Especially warfare agains’t the real terrorists. The American public.
Ditto that! My brief experience in the military is that soldiers follow orders, period.
This one may be the latest, and bigger that most, but this is not a new idea. The U. S. Army has been training it’s soldiers to fight for many years. They train to fight in the mountains, the desert, rolling plains, woodlands, in and around rivers, in extremes of cold and heat, and sometimes in urban areas. Most Army vets, especially infantry, who spent any real time in service have probably been through MOUT training, or the more descriptive “Combat in the City”.
Well, unless you can guarantee our forces will never have to fight in an urban environment, they need something like this.
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