For The Tribune
BUTLERVILLE
Blasts of gunfire followed by eerie moments of silence punctuated the scene at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, where 200 soldiers participated in a multifaceted training exercise.
Members of the U.S. Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division, known as the Screaming Eagles, traveled to the military complex near Butlerville to participate in a multistate field training exercise involving Fort Campbell, which straddles the Kentucky/Tennessee border; Fort Knox in Kentucky; and Muscatatuck from Dec. 1 through 10.
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The unusual training exercise was designed specifically to train the “Rakkasan” soldiers who belong to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne.
The nearly simultaneous exercise involved a high-intensity conflict combat exercise at Fort Campbell, a simulated combat seizure of an airport at Fort Knox and the neutralization of a chemical weapons factory in the tunnels below Muscatatuck — site of a former state mental hospital complex.
“Winning in combat requires lethal squads and platoons, capably led by agile and adaptive leaders,” said 3rd BCT commander Col. John P. Cogbill.
The exercise was planned in a way that would challenge the ability of leaders to carry out the unit missions while under attack and during rapidly changing situations, Cogbill added.
“The Rakkasans have prepared for this event over the past year in countless training scenarios, and we are excited to bring it all together and demonstrate that we are prepared to fight,” Cogbill said.
On Dec. 7, changing circumstances were the order of the day. The 18 UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters assigned to deliver the Rakkasans to MUTC were grounded because of fog and freezing conditions, and buses delivered the air assault soldiers instead.
“That is what this exercise is designed to do. The weather created the necessity to change plans to complete the mission. The helicopters were grounded, so they took buses. They were supposed to use their initiative, and they did,” 101st spokesman Maj. John J. Moore said.
Instead of rappelling out of hovering helicopters, the Rakkasans stepped off buses at 6 a.m. and immediately began searching for the chemical factory.
After searching through the tunnels, they found the simulated factory used to create chemical weapons. They seized control of the factory located in the one-time morgue of the hospital but suffered simulated casualties during the operation.
While snipers positioned themselves on the roofs of the taller buildings of Muscatatuck, squads of soldiers searched through buildings and tunnels to root out the enemy.
The operations were conducted in silence until rounds of gunfire rang out as the enemy was encountered and medics could be heard calling for helicopters to extract the wounded.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” Moore said of the Muscatatuck grounds. “We train all the time and in many different places. There are other military training sites with areas constructed to replicated an urban setting, but this place has both the high buildings and the subterranean areas (tunnels). This is amazing.”
Since 2005, the Indiana National Guard has operated Muscatatuck, once hospital community complete with high-rise buildings, school buildings, underground tunnels chapels, commercial buildings and domestic structures.
MUTC is used to train both military members and emergency responders in a realistic urban setting.