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thedrifter
04-16-06, 05:41 AM
Movie effects train Marines for real war
By Diane Mouskourie
The (Jacksonville, N.C.) Daily News

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - The Iraqi flag waved briskly in the wind.

It was the first sign that Combat Town at Camp Lejeune had been converted into a realistic Iraqi village. Capt. David Nevers, a spokesman for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said it was important to give Marines training exercises that provide a certain sense of authenticity.

Troops landed on Onslow Beach for the second-to-last predeployment training exercise for the 24th MEU. The unit is expected to depart for Iraq within two or three months, Nevers said.

Before the troops arrived in Combat Town, crews with Strategic Operations, a San Diego company that provides realistic training scenarios to military units, began transforming the old Combat Town in the middle of the woods into a realistic Iraqi village.

Buildings were painted with a sand-colored material that looks and feels much like stucco when dried. Clothes hung from long lines along the sides of some buildings, and brightly colored curtains blew in and out the open windows and doors.

"It really does have a feel of an Iraqi village," Nevers said.

The Marine Corps hired Strategic Operations to create the lifelike village. At least 10 Iraqi nationals and 12 other actors played the roles of villagers and insurgents. Most of the actors spoke Arabic and English and dressed in typical Iraqi garb.

Stu Segall, the former movie producer who owns Strategic Operations, said creating the village was not much different than working on a movie set.

"This will be more permanent," he said. "Movie sets go up and come down."

Segall's main goal when entering Combat Town was to make it seem as realistic as possible, he said. Signs on the buildings, written in Arabic, aimed ominous warnings at American troops.

One exercise included about 50 Marines, who were expected to clear the village of insurgents.

Armed with AK-47s, the actors took their places once the call was announced that troops were headed in.

The young Marines arrived on foot as Arabic music blared from loudspeakers atop a makeshift mosque. They quickly began their search through the village made up of several small buildings, a street bazaar and a mosque. Not long after the first guys entered the bazaar, shots could be heard inside. Several Iraqi women and men scattered.

Just as the crowds dispersed there was massive chaos. A 55-gallon barrel loaded with an improvised explosive devise blew up.

Everyone close to the device as it detonated ran for cover. Two Iraqis were left as dead. Two Marines took fire from unidentified shooters.

Of course it was all fake, but it didn't look that way.

"We throw as much at them as they can take," Nevers said.

Ellie