There’s a war going on out there—or, is it an earthquake, or a flood—either way, it is being simulated in a special training mission at the Joint Forces Training Base this week and next. If you have noticed more than usual activity at the base, that’s because there are about 1,000 soldiers engaged in a command and control trading simulation there.

The California National Guard 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Keith Lockner, is conducting the training of about 510 soldiers from its headquarters and management teams. Lockner told www.OC180NEWS.com “My brigade is made up of 4,200 soldiers. These are all the units, but it’s focused on their command posts, it’s basically the management of each battalion and the brigade headquarters.”

This two week management training will use a combination of computer simulation and live soldiers, but does not include any of the actual platoon level units. These “boots on the ground” units are simulated by computers which are housed in a warehouse in a separate section of the base. The soldiers receiving the training are located in tactical command posts—tents—on the base. Lockner said “We don’t see the computers that are simulating all of this. All we see are tactical communication devices or radios.”

For this exercise, there are no soldiers actually executing the missions. That part is simulated. Lockner said “But next month, my battalions are going to what we call our annual trading and they’re going to be doing exactly what we’re doing here, except with real platoons, real anti-tank systems, real artillery pieces.”

Lockner told www.OC180NEWS.com “This is a national exercise for all army units at brigade and divisional level across the United States, be they active duty, National Guard, or reserve. We are one of 15 units that are getting this level of exercise, which basically is the ability for the brigade to command and control combat operations. We are actually performing what we would if we were in Afghanistan right now.”

But, the command and control training, systems, tools, and equipment are not limited to a combat situation. Lockner said “These are the same techniques and the same combat information systems we would use in military support to civil authorities here in the United States for fire, flood, , or riot, or whatever the Governor needed us to do.”

But, for this simulation, it sounds more like Afghanistan than earthquake relief. Lockner said “We have role players who are playing what we call the Atropian authorities, which is a fictitious people in a fictitious land, we’ve got actual role players playing international, national, and local media, so we do what’s called media engagement, we have people role playing political leaders, mullahs, so we do what’s called key leader engagement—so it’s replicating what’s going on in the current fight in Afghanistan.”

In addition to the friendly Atropians, they also have the Arianians, who represent a foreign country which has seized a portion of Atropia. Not only that, Lockner said “There’s a force called the Black Wolves, which is a local insurgent group.”

“What we’re doing is replicating a situation you might find in Afghanistan where the brigade is inserted into a conflict between insurgents and the legitimate government. This allows us to practice what we call those tactics, techniques, and procedures that we’re learning from Afghanistan, here in the United States without putting soldiers in harms way.”

The 79th IBCT is headquartered in San Diego, with battalions “spread from the border of Mexico all the way up to Walnut Creek and Sacramento.” Lockner said “We are an infantry brigade combat team. We’re made up of light infantry units, artillery, communications, engineer, military intelligence, and support elements, like transportation, maintenance, and medical.” The training exercise began on May 8 and runs through May 25.