But what made the outskirts of West Fort Hood seem even more like Iraq wasn’t the terrain, or even the buildings.
It was the people.
More than 100 former citizens of Iraq donned traditional Middle Eastern attire and did their part to ensure that they can one day return to a free and independent Iraq.
Aziz Somo, Favaj Katto, Sami Gummo and Najah Iskadner sat at a table inside one of the buildings, and watched as young men danced and played soccer in the streets of the mock marketplace.
“We are here to assist the troops,” said Somo, who is from Baghdad. “This is helping them become familiar with our country before they go to Iraq, and letting them know what they expect to deal with when the go over there. This helps them know how we act, how we think and how we dress.”
Some of the role players had worked for a company, Defense Training Systems, which is now known as ITTS a subcontractor of Raytheon, based in San Diego, Calif., since 2005.
And some of those Iraqi role players who were there to help train these soldiers had previously been questioned by military intelligence soldiers in Iraq.
Spc. James Kuykendall said he’d seen one or two of the role players that he’d seen in Iraq, and greeted them during the training.
Then, it was business as usual.
Kuykendall said for the soldiers, the training is as realistic as it can possibly be without being the real thing.
“It’s 100 percent realistic,” Kuykendall said. “All of these people are from Iraq, and they all have their own stories of being shot by Saddam’s troops, so whenever our people come in and talk to these guys, they all know the Arabic culture. When our guys come and talk to them, it’s serious. It’s for real.”
Maj. Rey Arredondo, who serves as the 163rd MI Battalion S-3 officer, said this is the best kind of training for soldiers deploying to Iraq.
“This actually is replicating what they will be doing in Iraq,” he said.
Perched high inside one of the buildings across the street, Pfc. Clinton Castlebury and Pfc. Lesansi Lopez donned head dresses and traditional Iraqi clothing as the played the role of insurgents.
Lopez and Castlebury, who each hoisted automatic weapons, were also there to ensure their comrades are ready for deployment.
“Our whole job is to test them on their abilities to act as soldiers,” Castlebury said.
So far, the insurgent role players thought their fellow soldiers had performed just as they should, but there is always room for improvement.
“Some of it’s good and some of it’s bad,” Lopez said.
Outside, the din of the marketplace continued as Brig. Gen. Peter Atkinson, III Corps deputy commander, rolled into the imitation Mosul to observe the action.
And he didn’t have to wait very long.
Shortly after Atkinson’s arrival, a group posing as protestors marched around the corner and into the main road where they were confronted by Iraqis playing the role of Iraqi security forces.
The shouts of the protestors reached a fevered pitch, but those shouts became cries of pain as a series of shots echoed off the concrete walls.
In seconds, Iraqi protestors lay dead or dying in the streets.
Then, the exercise was over.
Soldiers removed their gear and retired into a nearby building for their briefing as the mock dead returned to the living.
Col. Bob Walters, the commander of the 504th Battlefield Surveillance Regiment, which is part of the 163rd MI Battalion, said the soldiers were seeing things as they were likely to happen in theater.
“This is exactly how it happens in Iraq,” he said.
