thedrifter
06-04-08, 08:29 AM
Presidio's convoy trainer simulates Iraq combat
By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 06/04/2008 06:04:30 AM PDT
No matter what your job in the Army, if you go to Iraq, you're going to ride in a convoy.
With that in mind, the Presidio of Monterey has been equipped with the ultimate shooting computer game — a Virtual Convoy Operations Trainer (VCOT).
Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, got a firsthand look Monday at the trainer, housed in a trailer with "work stations" that let soldiers simulate the driver and gunner on a Humvee going through Baghdad.
It's not perfect, said Sgt. 1st Class Charles Buman, instructor on the device. The machine guns don't jam and they don't need to be loaded, and the driver can only see what is on the screen in front of him. But it replicates the sounds and sights of an Arab street on a bad day: explosions, gunshots, shouts of "Allahu akbar! (God is great!)" and the clattering roar of diesel engines, approaching vehicles, people running across the road and improvised explosive devices of all kinds.
"It's too cool in here to be Iraq," Farr said.
"We've got heaters. We can turn them on," Buman replied.
Using the simulator, troops are exposed to a variety of computerized scenarios duplicating different countries and situations — checkpoints, crowds, demonstrations and attacks — as well as levels of difficulty.
"We'll probably never get to use them all," Buman said.
Monday's session was a "simple" exercise involving little enemy, and no civilian, activity.
"I'd like to see the ones that are more advanced," said Pvt. William Bookman, a Farsi student at the Presidio's Defense Language Institute. The veteran of a tour at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Bookman is training as a Humvee gunner.
"Like a shooter firing and then ducking into a crowd, so the gunner has to be disciplined whether to go after him or not," he said.
The groups' performances are recorded and played back for critique. A gunner who isn't paying attention will miss roadside bombs and snipers.
"It feels like you're back in a military situation," said civilian technician and former Army Apache helicopter pilot Lisa Jewett, who now specializes in servicing and operating training simulators such as the VCOT.
The system contains five simulator stations with a driver and gunner in each, as well as a station where soldiers can simulate dismounting and walking while carrying weapons and responding to hostile fire.
Troops are trained in two- to four-hour sessions, Buman said, Army and Marines. Everyone at Monday's session was a language student, but only a few are enrolled in Arabic courses. Anyone in uniform is liable to go to Iraq or Afghanistan, he said, no matter what language they studied.
Farr cited his own time in the Peace Corps in Colombia, saying that acquiring a new language opens opportunities for the future.
"Incredible careers can come out of it," Farr said.
Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or khowe@montereyherald.com.
Ellie
By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 06/04/2008 06:04:30 AM PDT
No matter what your job in the Army, if you go to Iraq, you're going to ride in a convoy.
With that in mind, the Presidio of Monterey has been equipped with the ultimate shooting computer game — a Virtual Convoy Operations Trainer (VCOT).
Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, got a firsthand look Monday at the trainer, housed in a trailer with "work stations" that let soldiers simulate the driver and gunner on a Humvee going through Baghdad.
It's not perfect, said Sgt. 1st Class Charles Buman, instructor on the device. The machine guns don't jam and they don't need to be loaded, and the driver can only see what is on the screen in front of him. But it replicates the sounds and sights of an Arab street on a bad day: explosions, gunshots, shouts of "Allahu akbar! (God is great!)" and the clattering roar of diesel engines, approaching vehicles, people running across the road and improvised explosive devices of all kinds.
"It's too cool in here to be Iraq," Farr said.
"We've got heaters. We can turn them on," Buman replied.
Using the simulator, troops are exposed to a variety of computerized scenarios duplicating different countries and situations — checkpoints, crowds, demonstrations and attacks — as well as levels of difficulty.
"We'll probably never get to use them all," Buman said.
Monday's session was a "simple" exercise involving little enemy, and no civilian, activity.
"I'd like to see the ones that are more advanced," said Pvt. William Bookman, a Farsi student at the Presidio's Defense Language Institute. The veteran of a tour at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Bookman is training as a Humvee gunner.
"Like a shooter firing and then ducking into a crowd, so the gunner has to be disciplined whether to go after him or not," he said.
The groups' performances are recorded and played back for critique. A gunner who isn't paying attention will miss roadside bombs and snipers.
"It feels like you're back in a military situation," said civilian technician and former Army Apache helicopter pilot Lisa Jewett, who now specializes in servicing and operating training simulators such as the VCOT.
The system contains five simulator stations with a driver and gunner in each, as well as a station where soldiers can simulate dismounting and walking while carrying weapons and responding to hostile fire.
Troops are trained in two- to four-hour sessions, Buman said, Army and Marines. Everyone at Monday's session was a language student, but only a few are enrolled in Arabic courses. Anyone in uniform is liable to go to Iraq or Afghanistan, he said, no matter what language they studied.
Farr cited his own time in the Peace Corps in Colombia, saying that acquiring a new language opens opportunities for the future.
"Incredible careers can come out of it," Farr said.
Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or khowe@montereyherald.com.
Ellie