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Forces Engage In War Games Around Air Force Range

KATHY WATERS/Highlands Today

Army scout Jonathan Builteman watches for armed villagers as troops begin to secure the village during a training mission on Wednesday at the Avon Park Air Force Range.

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: November 8, 2007

Atlantic Strike VI Photo Gallery

In the desolate village of "Krapnovastan," several scattered villagers took up assault rifles and fired at some distant Humvees, some shouting "Allah-la-la-la-la!" as they shot in their direction.

Meanwhile, an unmanned drone circled the village overhead. After monitoring the insurgents for a few minutes, amid the occasional artillery explosions, a yellow smoke grenade went off near one building. Two of the villagers in that building broke character.

"Hey, we're dead" one of the gunmen said as he climbed off the roof.

"Sweet," said the other, and both ran off to a seperate structure.

The building they were in was "bombed" and secured as they role-played as insurgents in this mock village, whose name "Krapnovastan" came from spelling "Avon Park" backward.

Avon Park Airforce Range Operations Manager Hal Sullivan said there have been techological improvements on some of the unmanned drones used in this training mission. The newer Raven drones, for instance, could record its video footage for reviewing, something its predecessors couldn't do two years ago.

"Everything gets better," Sullivan said.

In Krapnovastan, the combined war fighters on the ground were coordinating with pilots to take out he insurgents and secure the town. Particularly in these training exercises, Sullivan said the troops need to look out for improvised explosive devices, which cause most of the injuries to ground forces in Iraq.

Atlantic Strike VI is the sixth set of war games held at the air force range, involving the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force, as well as several foreign forces. Held twice a year, the training missions are what Sullivan called a "spin-up" for the soldiers, where they're getting into high-gear preparing to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan within the next two or three months.

Master Bombadier Jamie Murphy, from the First Regiment of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery based in Shilo, Manitoba, was used to being out of his country. During his 8.5 years, he already went to Bosnia and he was now training to be deployed "back" to Afghanistan by January.

"It's a good opportunity to train with coalition forces," he said of his visit to Krapnovastan.

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