{gallery}06_09_09/bosslift{/gallery} Army National Guard soldiers, aided by two soldiers in Iraqi uniforms, arrest a man during an urban training at Fort Hood, Texas, on June 1. Though this training incident did not include any Wyoming National Guard troops, it is typical of the training all National Guard troops at Fort Hood go through before being stationed in Iraq and Kuwait. Tribune photo by Ilene Olson The action scene before me resembles many I've seen on television news broadcasts — times about five. In one building, National Guard soldiers work with an interpreter to question a man wearing a turban and a robe.

In the street, Iraqi women and men offer fruit to soldiers stationed in Humvees, often stepping right up to the vehicles to give or sell a piece of fruit to the gunman sitting in the turret. The women and several men helping to stage the scene are Iraqis who speak in their native tongue, requiring the soldiers to use an interpreter to understand what they say.

A half-block down the street, gunfire from a sniper breaks out, and two women fall to the ground after being hit.

The National Guard troops nearby immediately shift positions, some kneeling on the street and aiming rifles to protect themselves and people on the street.

One soldier calls out that he's been hit in the leg, and his companions work to secure the area and help the wounded man to safety.

A few moments later, a man posing as a reporter with the Iraqi news service comes on the scene, and the same women who were offering fruit to the soldiers now are raising their fists and chanting in accent-heavy English, “Bad, bad America!”

A gunman, momentarily distracted, is reprimanded by his commander and brought back to his point of focus.

About 50 yards away, a soldier frisks a man wearing a robe and a turban to determine whether he is armed. Down the street in the other direction, soldiers force a man to lie spread-eagle on the ground, then arrest him.

While television news crews work to highlight a single incident to portray events in Iraq and Kuwait, the urban training scenario I am witnessing at Fort Hood, Texas, makes it obvious that things in real-life soldiering don't necessarily happen in single-event sequences. This training is designed to help National Guard soldiers adjust to the chaos they will experience, enabling them to pick out key incidents and events while avoiding a sensory overload similar to the one I'm experiencing.

I had stepped off a bus at the training center just minutes before, along with a few other media representatives and about 70 employers of Wyoming Army National Guard troops.

The humid heat, nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit, beat down on us, prompting us to seek any shade available, water bottles in hand. Out in the streets, soldiers and Iraqis helping to train them didn't have that luxury. In fact, when they're in full gear, the soldiers are wearing and carrying about 85 pounds of extra weight.

The troops are training at Fort Hood for the convoy-security work they will perform when they leave for Kuwait and Iraq in about two weeks.

Until now, the word “training” seemed fairly innocuous; soldiers learn how their equipment works and how to use it.

Now, I understand. The initial “how-to” training took place in Wyoming off and on for more than a year before the April 15 deployment.

This training is different, intense. The purpose of this training at Fort Hood is, largely, to teach soldiers how to stay alive while supporting their comrades and accomplishing their missions.

This is a far cry from the lives they led at home just a few months ago — when these citizen soldiers occupied desk chairs or worked on farms or in oil fields. Through my observations over the next two days, my respect for the troops and for the sacrifices they are making for their country would only increase.