It isn’t exactly like watching Black Hawk Down, but maybe if the Rangers and Delta Force soldiers who were caught in that film’s deadly ambush had been able to watch this video before they deployed to Somalia, that tragedy might have been avoided.
When most people think of urban operations, they think of blind alleys, rooftop snipers and roadside ambushes — much like the fatal warrens of Mogadishu. But a new DVD presentation produced by the Marine Corps Wargaming Division may better prepare Marines and soldiers to fight on the increasingly complex urban battlefield and prompt new thinking about how to approach the city fight...
“It had always been stressed when you go into urban combat it’s all about the urban structures,” says one Marine commander on the DVD. “The epiphany I had was that the buildings and the streets and the physical landscape really weren’t nearly as important as that political landscape. … Because the city’s most dense asset is the people.”
Developed over the last six months, the video — titled “New Challenges for Military Operations in the 21st Century: Emerald Express Insights and Observations from Operation Iraqi Freedom” — is a combination of combat footage from Iraq, picture montages and interviews of experienced Marine, Army and coalition Iraq veterans giving their take on what’s tough about an urban fight and how to work there effectively...
While the video focuses on Iraq, Marine war-gaming experts say the lessons imparted in the video transcend any specific war zone. As an Australian officer interviewed on the DVD says, winning the urban fight isn’t so much about immediate action drills as it is about being intellectually nimble.
“You are better off investing your training time into issues of how to think, rather than templated solutions of what to think,” he explains...
“If people can grasp this and understand the environment that we talk about in this video, I think half the battle is won,” said Dave Dilegge, action officer for the Wargaming Division’s Emerald Express and Joint Urban Warrior projects...
DVD Offers Different Approach to Urban Combat
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Originally Posted by HeavyRecon
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