A New Level of Training.

[Ramjam]

I've just found this video link of the British army's rumour forums (ARRSE).

http://link.brightcove.com/services/...id=85579948001

It's a civilian operation set up to train US forces going to either Sand Pit.

The video is very interesting and I'm wondering just how cost-effective something like can be.

Also by the looks of the video the set-up is delivering a great service and if it does indeed save lives than that can only be a good thing.

[Adm.Lee]

A pal of my dad was telling me about this a few weeks ago-- there are a bunch of Iraqis who have moved to the States, and they participate in these exercises as a bit of gratitude to being out of Over There.

[HorseSoldier]

Looks really impressive -- same basic idea they've been striving for at places like JRTC and NTC, but the medical piece, particularly, looked absolutely awesome and technically head and shoulders above anything I've participated in. The riverine piece looked pretty damn cool as well (have nothing to compare it to, though -- outside my lane by a pretty wide margin).

[waiting4something]

Wow I can't beleive the money the miltary must folk out now days for training! Shit, when I was in it was all imagination. OPFOR for us was other Marines with their cammie tops turned inside out or maybe a armband if we were that prepared. We shot each other up all the time. Once I even wasted a whole friendly platoon by having a M1A2 blast a house they were holding up in. After I heard on the radio what just happened I told my team shut up and don't tell anyone. The look on my face had to be priceless. Another time my team got in a gun fight with our own STA guys. I realised afterwards they were our guys and kept my mouth shut on that one too. When using sim rounds with the paintball masks we had guys in the same platoons shooting each other. No money= bad training.I wish the Marines would have had a OPFOR like the Army had.
The training in this video is past what I could even imagine. I mean foreign weapons, enemies that don't look like you, guys that look like they have wounds(not just laying there resting), and props they have props!

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by waiting4something

Wow I can't beleive the money the miltary must folk out now days for training! Shit, when I was in it was all imagination. OPFOR for us was other Marines with their cammie tops turned inside out or maybe a armband if we were that prepared. We shot each other up all the time. Once I even wasted a whole friendly platoon by having a M1A2 blast a house they were holding up in. After I heard on the radio what just happened I told my team shut up and don't tell anyone. The look on my face had to be priceless. Another time my team got in a gun fight with our own STA guys. I realised afterwards they were our guys and kept my mouth shut on that one too. When using sim rounds with the paintball masks we had guys in the same platoons shooting each other. No money= bad training.I wish the Marines would have had a OPFOR like the Army had.
The training in this video is past what I could even imagine. I mean foreign weapons, enemies that don't look like you, guys that look like they have wounds(not just laying there resting), and props they have props!

When it came to unit training in the Army when they weren't going Fort Irwin and such. Similar incident would happen. Yes, no money does equal bad training. Remember that only combat units and their immediate support would rotate through the OPFOR training every three or four years depending how the funds for rotation were. Then again some post had more troops to draw from for training purposes. So say at Bragg that if Special Operation unit needed an OPFOR they could select the type of unit mix they would see in the field and all the other units would gladly pad their own training funds for the future and such. I do remember a training exercise when we were collecting parachutes for a unit of the 504th PIR that assaulted positions held by Marine off Bragg. Don't remember if the 504th was the OPFOR or the Marines for that operation, but I do remember seeing some Marine assets roaring right through the middle of LZ hours later on Quads. Couple incidents where those in my unit which weren't part of the Assault Force would take fire, but seeing we didn't let out the evil hissing noise of Miles gear they usually figure their mistake and waited for their real OPFOR...lol

[waiting4something]

I remember the last time I used miles gear. We were assualting a building and and I thought I got shot, because a few others around me where ringing that annoying whine that it makes. So I went to the area where dead people go. Then I realised at some point my miles gear wasn't ringing it all. I was alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Embarassed, but alive. I figuired I might catch some flank for taking a breather or something, so I shot myself when no one was looking my way. But, then I found out why my miles gear wasn't ringing, because it didn't work. I could have won the battle by myself like the terminator. I was Immortal.

[pmulcahy11b]

I have what may be a rare honor in the US military -- I've never been tagged while wearing MILES gear. (Several near misses, but I've never been actually "hit.")

[HorseSoldier]

I don't think I've ever been actually zapped with MILES, though I got assessed as a casualty twice in one JRTC rotation for other stuff (mortars and then one of the OPFOR helos).

I have stopped a truck load of simunitions along the way though. Those things suck.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by HorseSoldier

I don't think I've ever been actually zapped with MILES, though I got assessed as a casualty twice in one JRTC rotation for other stuff (mortars and then one of the OPFOR helos).

I have stopped a truck load of simunitions along the way though. Those things suck.

I've had that happen a couple of times during NTC rotations -- once I was assessed as a non-fatal, but serious Sarin casualty, and another time, a judge noted that while I was kneeling on the ground near a track pulling out, my hand was very near to the tracks. He gave me a "crushed hand," I think to teach me a lesson more than anything else.

And then during an NTC rotation, I actually got a real, serious injury -- I fell off the top of an M-577 during a firefight and dislocated my right shoulder and cracked two ribs. At the aid station, I asked the PA to just put the damn thing back in socket and tape up my ribs, and he did it. Now in my old age, I have unending pain in my right shoulder, requiring one surgery already, having two permanently-damaged nerves, and muscle mass loss from the nerve damage. Let that be a lesson to you young guys who think you're invincible -- take care of your injuries!

[TiggerCCW UK]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I've had that happen a couple of times during NTC rotations -- once I was assessed as a non-fatal, but serious Sarin casualty, and another time, a judge noted that while I was kneeling on the ground near a track pulling out, my hand was very near to the tracks. He gave me a "crushed hand," I think to teach me a lesson more than anything else.

And then during an NTC rotation, I actually got a real, serious injury -- I fell off the top of an M-577 during a firefight and dislocated my right shoulder and cracked two ribs. At the aid station, I asked the PA to just put the damn thing back in socket and tape up my ribs, and he did it. Now in my old age, I have unending pain in my right shoulder, requiring one surgery already, having two permanently-damaged nerves, and muscle mass loss from the nerve damage. Let that be a lesson to you young guys who think you're invincible -- take care of your injuries!

Likewise, when I was 16 I was walking in the Alps and fell and twisted my knee. I didn't think much of it, and covered about 70km over the next couple of days. Fast forward 19 years to the ripe old age of 35 and my consultant is talking about a knee replacement......

[Abbott Shaull]

While I was in A Co, 1-325th AIR, you were always getting "hit" (while we didn't have any blanks) due to a fact that if you pull back the cocking level and let it go, the laser will register the bolt slamming forward as the weapon being fired...lol