Camp Guernsey guns to train soldiers, law enforcement
TOM MORTON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Friday, February 18, 2005 12:00 am
CAMP GUERNSEY - Soldiers conduct door-to-door searches for insurgent forces holed up in buildings.
Meanwhile, remote-controlled robots with cameras crawl through the sewers of the town to track terrorists and identify communications cables.
This isn't in Brussels, Baghdad or Boston.
This will happen in an 11-building town, which will be under construction later this year on the prairie of Camp Guernsey's north training area, said the base's quality assurance officer, Claudia Teeters.
"The most difficult combat is military combat in an urban territory," Teeters said.
The Joint Urban Training and Testing Center will be among the latest innovations at the 43,000-acre base, which historically has been used for training by Wyoming National Guard and Reserve troops, she said.
The future urban warfare practice area - with dirt streets, buildings, sewers, telecommunications and other infrastructure - will be another feature in the promotion of the camp described as "a premier joint training center" on its Web site at www.wy.ngb.army.mil/guernsey.
"It is marketing, honestly," Teeters said. "We've got to put the word out."
So Camp Guernsey advertises its capabilities for artillery, shooting, demolition, aviation, engineering, billeting, navigation courses, and security much as a resort would market its restaurants and golf courses, she said.
For example, last week it hosted more than 30 computer programmers and marketers of a new Special Forces version of the U.S. Army's own computer game, Americasarmy.com. The gamers and advertisers got a real taste of military life by chowing down Meals-Ready-to-Eat, sleeping in barracks, riding in 5-ton-truck convoys, flying in a Black Hawk helicopter, and shooting at simulation and live-fire ranges.
Beyond games, military units with their own bases still look for other places to practice the art of war, she said. "Units have choices to go to any ranges in the nation."
Camp Guernsey wants those units to choose it, Teeters said.
Those military units, she said, have included Navy SEALS; Special Forces; local, state and federal law enforcement agencies; SWAT - Special Weapons and Tactics - teams; first responders such as fire departments; and Homeland Security agencies.
Camp Guernsey's marketing has gone global, too, including recent training sessions with Britain's Royal Air Force and the Peruvian Army, Teeters said.
Closer to home, the Wyoming Highway Patrol uses the base airfield's expansive tarmac - big enough to park six C-130 transport planes - for its crash investigation school, said Lt. Carl McDonald, the Highway Patrol's safety and training supervisor.
Officers learn how to gauge the speed of a car by the length of its "hot skid," McDonald said.
They also received more advanced training about "critical speed scuffs" that occur during rollovers when a vehicle moves at a high rate of speed and the driver turns left to overcorrect without braking and the tires leave marks, he said. "We measure the radius, then the traction of the surface, and then you can calculate the speed."
The expansive, flat concrete also provides a great place to teach troopers how to drive fast, McDonald said.
Camp Guernsey provides the necessary housing facilities for in-service training for Highway Patrol staff, offers specialty shooting ranges, and features the landscape and amount of terrain necessary for practicing manhunts, he said. "We use an awful lot of real estate for man-tracking school."
The Highway Patrol's training budget pays for the base's facilities and personnel, McDonald said.
Economic impact
The non-National Guard use of Camp Guernsey contributed to the base's $7.3 million economic benefit to Platte County in the federal fiscal year of 2004, according to the Wyoming Military Department.
That ranks second only to the military's $72.7 million impact in Laramie County, home of the Wyoming Air National Guard and F.E. Warren Air Force Base, according to the department.
Camp Guernsey, Teeters said, opened in 1938 and benefited from construction through the Works Progress Administration.
The military complemented the original local mining and agricultural industries, she said, adding that Guernsey attracted immigrants from China, Ireland, Italy, the Basque region and Greece.
The military measures training at bases by "man-days," and Camp Guernsey is projected to provide 124,000 man-days of training this year.
The base wants that number to rise by a factor of two or three over the next 10 years, Teeters said.
It now employs 138 military and civilian personnel, and projects that number will rise to 200 employees to accommodate the additional training during the next decade, she said.
Some of those personnel serve with an environmental impact staff to protect natural features, and others work with American Indians to protect archeological sites and petroglyphs, Teeters said.
"There's a lot of people watching us and hoping we'll be successful," she added.
The base's growth will lead to more jobs and businesses in the town of more than 1,100, said Linda Fabian, executive director of the Wheatland Area Development Corp.
"From the standpoint of economic development, it's just one more opportunity for Platte County," Fabian said.
The military mission, however, remains paramount, Teeters said.
"Oftentimes the troops that are here are at the last step before they go into combat," Teeters said. "If we do our job well, it brings our boys home alive."
Reporter Tom Morton can be reached at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@casperstartribune.net.