BusinessTN

In 2002, then Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz countered claims his country couldn’t remain competitive in battle with American military forces because it didn’t have the jungles or swamps in which to take shelter like the North Vietnamese possessed during the Vietnam conflict. Aziz responded, “Let our cities be our swamps, and our buildings our jungles.”

From battling Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan to shooting its way into Baghdad, America has become all too familiar with grenade exchanges and the storming of buildings. In response to the global war on terror, the U.S. military has significantly ramped up urban warfare training in recent years. Called Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT), the training takes place at elaborate mock cities constructed on military bases across the United States. There’s no telling the number of lives such training has saved.

One such facility is the Cassidy Combined Arms Collective Training Facility at Ft. Campbell in Clarksville. Construction of the facility began in 1998. Training began in 2001. Consisting of 28 buildings and originally built at a cost of $14 million, the complex resembles a small town. As many as 1,000 soldiers at a time can utilize the facility.

Currently, the fort is gearing up for a major upgrade to the Cassidy facility, one that will make it more realistic to what soldiers will encounter once deployed in the Middle East. Plans call for 14 more buildings, including the construction of a mosque and a cemetery. Additional technological upgrades, including special effects like mock explosions, will better simulate the Middle East battleground. Technological improvements also will include the installation of high tech digital video cameras enabling enhanced after-action review of soldiers’ performances in mock combat.

While such upgrades lie in the offing, Ft. Campbell has been continuously transforming the complex in smaller ways to better mimic the realities facing its soldiers. Iraqi role players now help immerse soldiers in the language and customs of Iraqi culture during exercises. Calls for prayers over loudspeakers at certain times of the day make the complex eerily Middle Eastern in bent. Run-down civilian vehicles now clutter what were once wide-open streets. Trash and refuse is strewn about. What once resembled a quaint southern town has been modified to create a dingier scene.

The additional funding to expand MOUT training at Ft. Campbell was the top legislative priority of the Citizens for Fort Campbell two years ago. A citizen lobbyist group comprised of delegates from Hopkinsville, Oak Grove and Clarksville, the group formed nine years ago. At its own expense, the delegation annually travels to the nation’s capitol to visit congressmen and senators from Kentucky and Tennessee to try to make them aware of issues facing the men and women of the 101st stationed at Fort Campbell. Over the past eight years, in part due to the efforts of the citizen’s lobbying group, more than $730 million in federal funds has been appropriated for Ft. Campbell improvement projects. The group recently concluded its 2005 trip, calling for $20.2 million in new investment in major construction projects and off-post transportation projects.

It’s no wonder citizens lobby on behalf of the fort and the men and women of the 101st that comprise it. Not only are those soldiers defending America and freedom around the globe, but the fort also has an economic impact on the Clarksville area equal or greater to that of corporate citizens like Nissan elsewhere in the state.