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EDINBURGH — Camp Atterbury has become one of the premier training and deployment sites for National Guard soldiers.
Thousands pass through it and sister site Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, in Butlerville, every year.
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a Department of Defense agency that works together with civilian employers and Guard members, set up with Atterbury a military activity day.
The purpose: invite employers to experience the soldiers’ training as participants.
Rappelling, rifle shooting and a rollover simulation, the three R’s, were on the instruction agenda.
The Republic, as a local media representative, was invited to come. Thinking this was my best chance to imitate Rambo, I accepted the offer.
Training for new threat
The day began with an 8 a.m. briefing by Brig. Gen. Clif Tooley, assistant adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard.
As people munched on bagels and sipped coffee in a classroom, Tooley explained that Atterbury and Muscatatuck are important because they are launching pilot programs concerning how the U.S. engages the world in coming decades.
That includes rethinking the national security structure to deal with 21st-century threats — ones far different than the U.S.-Russia Cold War divide.
Atterbury and Muscatatuck are training soldiers to enter places that could erupt into war over food or water instead of a conventional power grab.
Locations of future deployments are more likely to be urban areas. Last year was the first year that more people in the world lived in urban areas than rural areas, Tooley said.