Farmington Sapper company trains for urban ops at new MOUT facility

WAPPAPELLO, Mo. -- To a passerby, it would have looked like 40 or so Missouri National Guard Soldiers were actually storming an occupied city building. The Citizen-Soldiers were dressed in full battle gear -- including weapons and helmets -- with their eyes scanning for any potential hostile forces inside.

In reality, it was the Farmington-based 1138th Engineer Company (Sappers), during a training exercise on urban operations at the Missouri National Guard's Wappapello Training Site.

The 1138th performed urban ops training at the new MOUT site. MOUT stands for military operations on urban terrain.

The MOUT site looks like a regular urban building, especially those found in the Middle East, with a courtyard, many windows, stairs and multiple exits. At its most recent drill April 10, the Citizen-Soldiers with the 1138th practiced approaching a building, entering it and searching it for potential hostile occupants.

The Soldiers went through the building several times, said Staff Sgt. Kevan Phillips, training noncommissioned officer for the 138th. They scanned for enemies, followed movement commands and went over the training at an after-action review in a bleachers area that is set up nearby.

"MOUT training is one of our METL tasks," Phillips said, referring to the unit's Mission Essential Task List. "It's a requirement. Before this one was built, we'd done our MOUT training at the armory in Farmington, Fort McCoy and at Mineral Area College. But it's absolutely awesome to have a place to go that is specifically designed for MOUT training, where we can make some noise."

The 200-by-200-foot, two-story training facility was completed in the middle of last year, said Maj. Kevin Compas, who oversees the Wappapello Training Site in Southeast Missouri.

"Basically, it's for Soldiers to learn how to enter and clear a building," Compas said. "It's what a lot of units are doing now in Iraq and Afghanistan, so it's vital for us to have a facility like this. It's another means for us to train in the area."

In typical MOUT training exercises, Soldiers face simulations of urban warfare that require them to enter a city building that may be occupied by enemy forces. Experts say such training saves lives in real-world situations and studies show casualties drop measurably.

For Sappers -- combat engineers who advance in wartime with the front-line infantry -- it's especially important to know urban ops, Phillips said.

"We're in a Sapper company and more is expected of us than a normal combat engineer," he said. "We have to be ready to go in mountains, forests, and urban areas, whatever. Route clearance is the bulk of our missions. We may have to occupy a building just for safety. We have to be ready to do a lot of things in an urban area, if we have to go and the mission dictates."

Training missions at MOUT sites are two-fold, Phillips said. The Soldiers get away from the armory for hands-on training as well as work together, which makes for good team building.

"Every opportunity we get to go to Wappapello and do this, we're going to jump on it," Phillips said. "As a group, we need to be practiced at doing this. We need to know what to look for, whether it's in the woods or on the streets of Baghdad."

The 1138th has been deployed twice to Iraq in the past six years -- in 2004 and again in 2007.

"Sometimes a mission will call you to come into contact with an urban environment," said Sgt. 1st Class Chris Berry. "The purpose of this training is to get hands-on rehearsing over and over so we can improve our techniques on MOUT operations. Every unit, no matter what it is, might be sent to do MOUT operations."

Berry said he was very impressed with the new facility at Wappapello Training Site.

"It's set up in a Middle Eastern style," he said. "There are a lot of courtyards and windows. It look like a multi-family household. They did a really good job. If we were sent to do this in the real world, this is probably similar to what it would look like."

Pfc. Patrick Feldman agreed.

"It's always good to get as much practice as you can," he said just after finishing the training. "We need to be prepared when we get out to the field. This has been very useful. You never know. It teaches us to stay on our toes, to learn from our supervisors. It makes sure we're on the right track."

Wappapello was the most recent Missouri National Guard training area to get a MOUT site, with such facilities already available for training at sites in Macon, Camp Clark, Camp Crowder and Fort Leonard Wood.

Units that worked to build the MOUT site included the 1121st Transportation Company in Dexter, Perryville's 880th Engineer Team (Haul), along with Cape Girardeau's 1140th Engineer Battalion's Forward Support Company.

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please call 1-800-GoGuard or visit www.moguard.com.

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For more information about this release, please contact Scott Moyers at (573) 339-6264 or e-mail him at scott.moyers1@us.army.mil.