Later this month, the US Army is staging a two-week "realistic" guerrilla war across two dozen counties in North Carolina. Described as a final test for a Special Forces qualification training, US army soldiers will tangle with "freedom fighters" in an imaginary country called Pineland. From MSN:
The two-week "unconventional warfare exercise" will be staged Jan. 22-Feb. 4 on privately owned land. And it will be realistic enough to include the sounds of gunfire (blanks) and flares, the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School said in a news release.
Exact times, locations and exercise specifics were not provided.
However, advance publicity is intended to make sure civilians — including law enforcement officers — don't mistake the fighting for terrorism or criminal activity, which has happened in the past[…]
"To add realism of the exercise, civilian volunteers throughout the state act as role players. Participation by these volunteers is crucial to the success of this training, and past trainees attest to the realism they add to the exercise.
Advance public notice of "the U.S. military's premiere unconventional warfare exercise" became a priority in 2002, after one soldier was killed and another wounded when a Moore County sheriff's deputy mistook [the] exercises for criminal activity.
image: (K. Kassens/U.S. Army)
