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Role-Playing Saves Soldiers' Lives

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By MICHAEL TOLZMANN

Special to the Tribune

Published: July 9, 2008

At first glance, the son of a Lithia couple looks nothing like what you would expect of an American soldier. He wears long, loose-fitting Arab clothing and a scarf-like head cover, grows facial hair and lives in the California desert in a small Arab village. He stands with Iraqi natives as Arabic calls to prayer can be heard over loudspeakers.
Army specialist Kyle J. Nutting, son of Christopher and Catherine Nutting of Lithia, is a highly specialized American soldier living in the Mojave Desert playing the role of an Arab for the benefit of other soldiers who are preparing for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nutting and the 1,300 soldiers from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment playing the role of opposing forces, along with 250 Arab-speaking Iraqis, test and challenge soldiers for situations they will likely face in the war zone.

"I'm here helping units get ready to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. We dress up in Arabic clothes and live in villages in the desert. Sometimes we play terrorists and sometimes we are farmers," said Nutting, a 2006 graduate of Newsome High School.

Hollywood makeup artists use their industry's most convincing fake blood on amputee actors to add to the realism of simulated roadside bomb attacks by role-playing enemy experiences that could help save American lives in Iraq.

The Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. is well suited to duplicate the environment in Iraq. Near Death Valley, the center has 1,200 square miles of nothing but desert wilderness where about a dozen simulated Arab villages have been built. Each village has a different look and feel, providing many situations to learn for soldiers who will be walking in Iraqi villages.

"Our towns have real buildings, real mosques, and real Iraqis that come here to make it as realistic as possible. We fire blank rounds at the soldiers," said Nutting.

For the moment, Nutting will work as an Arab civilian or enemy combatant, but he has a traditional Army background. He has served in the Army for over two years and has specialty training as an infantryman.

Michael Tolzmann prepared this report for the Army and Air Force Hometown News Service.

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