Escalation of the war in Afghanistan and nuclear proliferation in Iran underscore the need for new Army training facilities such as the $17.6-million Combined Arms Collective Training Facility completed in April at Fort Hood, the U.S. Army’s training post in the Central Texas city of Killeen.
“Not too many other places have this type of urban training facility, which is a replica of a Middle East village,” says Samuel Parker, area engineer for the Central Texas area office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which managed construction. “It has 28 different mock buildings – including a service station, clinic, radio station, hotel, strip mall, bank, apartment complex, school, mosque, residences, city hall and police station. It looks like something you would find in Iraq or Saudi Arabia.”