NTC: Between Hollywood and Hell
By Dennis Steele
The National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, Calif., is leveraging moviemaking fundamentals to prepare soldiers for the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. By using special effects, back-lot sets, makeup, scripts and a cast of headliners and extras—ranging from villains to damsels in distress—NTC aims to ramp up realism to simulate the sights and sounds of combat while the training revolves around the nuances of counterinsurgency operations. An extraordinary effort during the past few years has shifted NTC from force-on-force maneuver training to preparing soldiers for full spectrum operations.
LEP-Law-Enforcement Professionals and the Army
By Capt. Timothy K. Hsia
Law-enforcement professionals—contracted civilians embedded with Army units at brigade or battalion level in Iraq and Afghanistan—have helped soldiers hone their skills in many specialties, from tactical questioning techniques to sensitive sight exploitation after raids and lower detainee release rates.
Company Command—Building Combat-ready Teams: Reflections of a Counterinsurgency Company Commander (Part 2 of 2)
Capt. Jim Keirsey, commander of Company B, 2-12 Infantry, in Baghdad from January to December 2007, completes his discussion of strategies and milestones he found to be critical in achieving counterinsurgency success in his area of operations.