‘DIGITAL DIRT’


MISSION PREVIEW Soldiers at Fort Campbell rehearse a mission on VBS3. It appears that they are simply playing a computer game, which, in a sense, they are, but they are also preparing for live training and working out any issues that might otherwise waste time, gas and money later. (Photos courtesy of 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault))


certain aspects of a console video game, even though it’s not really a game at all. Its greatest utility is as a mission rehearsal tool, said Doug Robbins, chief of the Mis- sion Training Complex at Fort Campbell.


“It does not replicate a video game,” he said, “but it allows that trainee to use their intellectual skills more, and it is more intuitive for them and more immer- sive when they get into the training.”


Robbins added, “Te key thing for train- ing here is basic skills, individual tasks, replicating SOPs [standard operating pro- cedures] or conducting battle drills, and then using it for larger-scale collective


60 Army AL&T Magazine


training or preparing for maneuver events, like mission rehearsal.” A unit can come into the training complex and go through a mission in the game before going into the field for live training.


“Tey may want to work on key leader engagements,” said Jeff Jackson, lead trainer for VBS3. “Some may want to work on convoy operations, squad train- ing exercises, responding to unexploded ordnance…, reacting to small arms fire, or reacting to indirect fire.”


While that training may look like a bunch of guys sitting around at desks playing


July–September 2014


computer games, Jackson and Robbins said, commanders in mission rehearsals can work out any issues the team may have and orient the Soldiers to the mis- sion, terrain and other variables. Tat saves time and money, and enables the Soldiers to perform more effectively when they get to the live training environment.


VBS3 enables Soldiers to “rehearse what they would really be doing out there, but they’re not out there burning gas, wasting Soldiers’ time figuring out how they’re going to do it, because they can do it in VBS3,” said Brent Sinclair, lead techni- cian at Fort Campbell.


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