Austin Salutes: Ft. Hood security force

FORT HOOD, Texas (KCEN) - Fort Hood security forces are getting ready to deploy, and thanks to a special training site, they don't have to stretch their imaginations.

On the battlefield, soldiers have to expect the unexpected.

That's why the 410th Military Police Company spent the last three days at the Boaz Military Operations in Urban Terrain site.

It's a model city where teams play roles of soldiers and foreigners to simulate real life situations.

"It's a time for us to learn how to interact with a city, and obviously, a city would be filled with people, so we have to learn to interact with random crowds of people," said the company's executive officer 2LT Michael Munguia.

The sights and sounds of a busy city are all around, as actors like SPC Andrew Vargas interact with soldiers.

"If you don't train mentally, you won't be there, because when you have all that training down you click, left right," said SPC Vargas.

In one exercise, security forces escort high ranking officials through the mock streets of Djibouti, Africa, where the unit will soon actually deploy.

Suddenly a suicide bomb goes off and CPL Nylan Ross quickly moves one of the VIPs to safety.

"The first thing that pops into my head is security and keeping my personnel safe, and if anything goes down, make sure we have the perfect plan and know how to react to it," said CPL Ross.

After the drill, team leaders go over what went well and what needs improvement.

"We take that from every time and we try to build and just get ourselves better and better, day by day," said Team Leader SGT Justin Garcia.

Because they'll soon be in the real Djibouti, where anything could happen.

"This is the big, culminating event of training for these guys, and they're pretty much our star players," said 2LT Munguia.

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