Photo By Staff Sgt. Elizabeth Bryson | FORT IRWIN, Calif.– Over 70 leaders from the business, literary and entertainment...... read more read more
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FORT IRWIN, Calif.– Over 70 leaders from the business, literary and entertainment fields visited the National Training Center (NTC) and Fort Irwin to experience being Soldiers for the day and to gain an inside look at the vast and formidable Mojave desert training area, known to Soldiers as “the box,” October 11 and 12, 2023, during a Distinguished Visitor Immersion Box Tour, here.
Guests flew in from Vegas and southern california on UH-60 Black Hawks to Fort Irwin’s historic painted rocks, named for the unit insignias branded on the boulders there, and then rode on buses through the desert to the NTC Urban Warfare Center perched high above Tieford City, where Brig. Gen. Curt Taylor, the NTC and Fort Irwin commanding general, briefed them on the training center’s mission.
“Our job here at the premier National Training Center is to provide tough, realistic training for the troops and leaders that come here,” Taylor explained.
Taylor stressed the importance of the training, to not only prepare Soldiers to win the first battle of the next war, but to provide every Soldier with the skills and tools they need to do their job and come back home safely to their families.
Next was a display of large scale combat operations featuring Stryker Armored Personnel Carriers, Bradley M1A1 Abrams tanks, a swarm of camera and miles-equipped quadcopters (unmanned aerial vehicles) and opposing force (OPFOR) Surrogate Vehicles operated by troops from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, whose mission it is to offer a realistic and rigorous opposing force (OPFOR) to the hundreds of thousands of Soldiers that come here as part of rotational training units every year.
AH-64 Apache helicopters and UH-60 Black Hawks flown by the 2916th Aviation Battalion provided additional OPFOR and medical evacuation resources for the simulated attack.
After the action, guests walked through Tieford City and into a market crowded with lively, foreign language-speaking role players and on to a luncheon with Soldiers, where they had the opportunity to sample the infamous military cuisine known as the meal ready-to-eat (MRE) and to get to know the Troops one on one.
Actor Ethan Peck, known for his role as Spock in the television series “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” said he was both surprised and impressed by the emphasis on education and continual learning as Soldiers move through jobs and ranks in the Army.
“It’s a great incentive to succeed and ascend,” Peck said. “The opportunity to gain more knowledge and be exposed to more cultures in the Army is really wonderful.”
Peck said he was also impressed with the sheer size of NTC.
“The exposure to the scale of the training possibilities here— and the level of detail with which the U.S. Army… trains are awe-inspiring,” Peck said.
Peck said he would take the sense of camaraderie and family he felt from the troops at NTC home with him and detailed an encounter he had during lunch, where a Soldier taught him how to choose, open and eat his first MRE.
“To sit with them and hear about how they train… to hear their stories and the emotion behind them– even little things like how they choose their favorite MREs, was a lot of fun,” Peck said. “Insights like that are really special.”
After lunch, guests were given the opportunity to fire a number of military weapons, check out various military vehicles up close, and were taught room-clearing and other soldiering skills culminating in a patrol lane where they had the opportunity to test their skills by fighting enemy forces.
Josh Conviser, screenwriter and author of the novels “Echelon” and “Empyre,” said he signed up for the experience because he wanted to discover more about the men and women who worked and trained at NTC.
“I learned that this is a fantastic group of people… very dedicated, very motivated,” Conviser said, adding he was impressed by the level of competence and education each Soldier displayed and how focused they were, not just on their individual jobs, but the evolution of what the military is and is going to be.
Conviser said he felt the experience would add realism and depth to his future projects.
Valerie Novotny, executive assistant to chairman/CEO at Imagine Entertainment said she participated in the tour because her company is making a film about the Army and she wanted to get a glimpse of what everyday life was like for the Soldiers and families at Fort Irwin.
Novotny said playing “action hero for a day” was a lot of fun, but what really surprised and moved her was how deep and heartfelt her conversations were with the troops and family members she encountered during lunch and round-table discussions.
“Meeting everyone and learning about the sense of community and how important that is to everyone here,” Novotny said. “Hearing everybody’s stories from their hearts and souls… I am going to take that with me for sure.”
Novotny said she hoped to “sprinkle” those emotions into the upcoming film production.
“They [Soldiers] aren’t just boots on the ground– there are people in those boots,” Novotny said. “They’re complex, they’re complicated… they have their own hopes and fears and dreams. I am very grateful to be able to come here and experience this.”
Fort Irwin offers tours of the premier National Training Center (NTC) throughout the year where visitors can experience firsthand how America’s warriors prepare for deployment by being immersed in a challenging and austere training environment where they encounter civilians on the battlefield, irregular and regular forces, challenging tactical, logistic and strategic problems, and some of the most technologically advanced and elaborate training facilities in the world.
For more information on Fort Irwin NTC tours, visit https://home.army.mil/irwin/about/visitor-information/ntc-tours
| Date Taken: | 10.27.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 11.29.2023 18:13 |
| Story ID: | 458714 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 322 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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