Game designers, actors, directors
develop interactive training for Soldiers

by Dawn Elizabeth Pandoliano
Paraglide

	photo by Dawn Elizabeth Pandoliano/Paraglide Each MCIT trailer concentrates on a different lesson, such as this one, which dealt with how an Iraqi terrorist operates and thinks, what is used and what to be aware of as a Soldier on a mission in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The New Mobile Counter improvised explosive device Interactive Trainer arrived on Fort Bragg June 20 and was put to use for the first time by Soldiers on July 2. Gamers, designers, programmers, actors and film directors collaborated around the clock to come up with this set of interactive training tools designed to help Soldiers pay attention to detail as they identify their environment and possible IEDs. Each of the four trainers, called container boxes, or CBs, is equipped with more than ten computers and nine flat screen TVs.

CB1 — Soldiers in their respective fire teams register on a laptop in the first of the four trainers. The theme of CB1 is that IED are not new and that the military has been defeating them for years.

CB2 — This is a mock up of a bomb maker’s house. There are a lot of details in this trainer to beg the Soldiers to ask themselves questions that could identify possible IEDs.

CB3 — Soldiers are taught to use their crew devices and are given a mission brief that they are quizzed on at the end of this trainer.

CB4 — The last of the four trainers is broken down into three sections, red, blue and white cell. The blue cell has two humvee mock-ups, the red is where Soldiers are required to think like an insurgent and place IEDs targeting the blue cell. The white cell is the game controller.
At the end of each CB is a quiz testing the Soldiers on the retention of information from each trainer.