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Difficulty:
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Check out the clear view of the mysterious impossible city as you search for the cache.
The summer of 2002 witnessed action in the Impossible City. Members of San Jose’s 341st regiment of the Army Reserve’s Military Police force took to the streets in their training “city” in Monterey, California. The Impossible City, also known as MOUT Training Center, is located in Fort Ord of Monterey, California, along Barloy Canyon Rd and Eucalyptus Rd. Accurate as any movie set, this training exercise was designed to simulate the streets of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Everything from the several-storied concrete buildings to the thin alleys to even the nearby vegetation: all was fabricated with the utmost care to present these soldiers with a training facility as similar as possible to the atmosphere they will face in the Middle East. Even the actors impersonating both the normal civilians and the rogue hostiles did not speak any English to fully represent the differences in environments between Afghanistan and the United States. As such, the soldiers in the simulation had to navigate a city with realistic buildings and streets in which they remained entirely unaware of local traditions, customs, and religion’s taboos. It was a completely alien world to them. “In a real situation, the MPs will need to be culturally-sensitive to stay out of harm's way,” commented Sgt. Christopher Bess, an actor who impersonated a disabled Muslim cleric in this simulation. Occasionally, the soldiers were stopped in the simulations’ midst for questioning by the monitoring officials to evaluate decision making in real time. To further evaluate the soldiers’ performances, the entire scenario was recorded for future reviews, to either recall the soldiers’ success or failure.
In this particular model, the 341st division of the United States Army Reserve utilized the Impossible City as a simulation to root out enemy fighters (dressed as the locals of the Afghanistan actually would) from the casual, standard citizens in crowded streets and private houses. In the large crowds usually occupying the city streets, the simulated locals may or may not have harbored suicide bombers among their numbers; it was the task of the 341st regiment to identify friend from foe. Impersonating a total of about one hundred members of al-Qaida and the Taliban, the realistic enemy squad even consisted of certain officials of higher rank and military status. In regards to the residential apartments and actual houses of the “Impossible City,” the Military Police members broke down doors and separately searched the constructed homes in attempt to distinguish and eliminate hostile forces. Facing concealed snipers in the buildings, random fire from camouflaged foes in the streets’ masses in addition to unruly civilians, and the dangers of roadside ambushes presented this regiment with an accurate portrayal of some of the dangers associated with modern urban warfare. Says Sgt. First Class Sanele Tamiano, “I’ve been in about four or five of these exercises during my time in the military, and this one is by far the most realistic.”1
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Dear Treasure Cacher:
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) welcomes “treasure cachers” to the Fort
Ord Public Lands and we hope that enjoy your visit to this ecologically
unique and diverse area. At Fort Ord, the BLM is carefully managing this
activity to ensure that your visit is safe and enjoyable, and that the
sensitive natural, cultural, and historic resources are protected for
current and future generations. The cache you are searching for has likely
been posted on one of the many “treasure cache” related websites such as
geocaching.com, letterboxing.org, atlasquest.com, etc. When looking for
this cache, we ask that you take note of our public use restrictions on the
land that include:
· Please use only trails that are signed open and shown on our Fort Ord
Public Lands Trail Maps. Cross-country travel, use of unsigned trails and
bushwhacking is not allowed.
· Please limit your cache searches to daylight hours. The BLM lands
are closed from ½ hour after sunset to ½ hour before sunrise.
· Enjoy your cache hunting on foot, hoof or bicycle wheel because
vehicle use (including motorcycles, ATV’s and four-wheel drives) are not
allowed on the BLM road and trail systems.
· When considering a treasure to leave, please remember that this is a
family-friendly sport and never leave anything pornographic, offensive, or
flammable. Please never leave food items.
Caches that have been approved by the BLM will never be more than 20 feet
from one our designated trails or roads, so save the effort looking far off
trail. Also, be sure to avoid tampering with anything that is not within a
clear container because there is still a chance that dangerous military
artifacts may be in the area. Always obey signs that indicate closed areas
that include habitat restoration sites and dangerous munitions sites. And
remember, the lands you visit are home to several species of rare and
endangered plants and animals, so please tread lightly and respect the
natural environment.
If you have any questions about your visit to this area, feel free to
contact the BLM at (831)394-8314 or (831)630-5000.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
purpx haqre znamnavgn tebjgu gra srrg sebz gur genvy ba gur pyvss fvqr.