Military training scene

I need help coming up with some kind of scene involving special forces-type urban training. Thing is, I have no idea how to write such a scene owing to my woefully inadequate knowledge of the subject.

The scene really involves genetically altered superhumans that are highly trained mercenaries.

Any suggestions resources (for technical details or even inspiration) for the scene?

Not sure what you're looking for here. But here's a couple things:

There are artificial towns built explicitly for training purposes, many used to simulate urban combat conditions. For instance the mock city at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana is named Shughart-Gordon (posthumously awarded the medal of honor for their actions depicted in Blackhawk Down). The military uses "simunitions" in many of the training scenarios to simulate live fire. These are live bullets with marking rounds in place of typical projectiles that can use actual firearms. These are painful but less-than-lethal (there is no such thing as non-lethal since every form of weapon has the potential to take a life).

If you go to youtube, there are numerous videos on urban comat training.

Try watching Blackhawk Down and listen to how the Delta guys talk to the Rangers. Picture the Rangers as the new guys and Delta as the instructors. Watch their relative level of anxiousness, even though everyone is doing mostly what they should be. It is all urban combat and there's a lot of it.

You won't get anything from canned footage training videos. Those never show the important stuff.

RX-79G said:

You won't get anything from canned footage training videos. Those never show the important stuff.

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I agree... the suggestion was for more information about urban combat training, which I what I think sozme was looking for... I could be mistaken.

Try these YouTubes:


SWAT training for room clearing.


Delta Force training for room clearing.

There are many others. Search terms: CQB (Close Quarters Battle), FIBUA (Fighting In Built Up Areas), Room Clearance, Dynamic Entry, breach and clear, fire and manouver.

When in doubt, see if you can find an expert to talk to - in my case, a military officer betas my military scenes for me. Without that input the scenes - and, indeed, the books - would have been a disaster.

Langadune said:

I agree... the suggestion was for more information about urban combat training, which I what I think sozme was looking for... I could be mistaken.

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It sounds like you are correcting something about my post. What is it?

I was saying that the kind of "urban combat training" videos you're likely to find aren't going to look and feel like being there. They are produced and edited. That's why I suggested a well done dramatization of urban fighting.

RX-79G said:

It sounds like you are correcting something about my post.

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Wasn't correcting anything. In fact, I agreed with your post. I was simply pointing out that my post was more focused on the training aspect of urban combat rather than actual combat situations.

Make sure the superhumans can fit through the doorways, especially if they are wearing super-robot-armour. I always wondered what happened when the Space Marines raided the planets of people who weren't 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide.

On a broader note (no pun intended) I think it's right to take note of what's being done now, but you have also to take into account the circumstances of the setting. A lot of stories with elite space soldiers feel unconvincing because they're so clearly based on US special forces/Spartans/the SS/samurai or something similar despite being way into the future. If you deliberately want to evoke medieval knights, a la Warhammer 40,000, that's fine, of course. Perhaps one answer would be to have them doing something that feels military but doesn't have a precise modern equivalent, such as training to land on a very hostile planet. At least nobody can say you're categorically wrong that way.

Toby Frost said:

Perhaps one answer would be to have them doing something that feels military but doesn't have a precise modern equivalent, such as training to land on a very hostile planet. At least nobody can say you're categorically wrong that way.

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You mean like de-escalation techniques?

Which is presumably a modern military technique?

I doubt rich coutries will have infantry soldiers 20 years from now.

If you go to gun sites. (No pun intended) and ask for any current, or former special forces with urban combat experience to give a bit of advice to a writer trying to get a feel for realistic urban warfare for a fiction book you are working on you will often get a lot of good feedback from the ex special forces guys on those sites. Go to a general discussion forum and pick the brains of a pro.

Most current or ex service are only too happy to help give you some info, tips, and advice. And you can give them more incentive by letting them know you'll mention them in a special thanks in the forward section of your story.

Good luck with your project! Cheers!

I didn't state this very clearly, but the type of training SF does is highly dependent on the sophistication of techniques and equipment they are using. The OP is talking about a future scenario, and the only thing that is guaranteed is that the methodology of today will no longer apply.

The things that will remain somewhat constant are attitudes and the effort it takes to acquire the peak of fighting skills. The skills and weapons will be totally different.

That is why I recommend getting into the mood and spirit of how elite soldiers live and operate, and ignore the details of present day combat. Throat mikes, night vision, light recoiling automatic weapons, helicopter deployment techniques have all continued to grossly change even in the last 20 years.

I say this as a former military helicopter pilot.

Gathering the correct terminology is best.

I've written something that had a cop as the main character and took place in a real city. My first course of action was to go to the city's police station website and look to see what type of gear they used (for some reason this information was readily available with little digging). Then I would look at that police department's radio codes and their meaning. This is normally the same for all cities in a state.

You also have to try and nail their attitudes, even if that attitude derived from a caricature or stereotype. Sometimes certain stereotypes are just facts, and acceptable. Writing a story revolving around special forces basic training? You're of course going to have a foul-mouthed drill instructor. On the other hand you'll have the wimps that elect to give up during training (which typically has some sort of ritual. Navy Seal training has a bell that is rung by the person quitting.)

Avoid generic sounding terms such as "machine gun", "pistol" and "grenade." Most people in special forces don't have machine guns (regardless what the media says, but that's beside the point). Get the proper names for your weaponry, and their slang names as well. You'll find that cops, along with military have their own language. I've even been critiqued to the point where the person doing the reading said they didn't understand when an older officer called a first year officer "rook." Obviously that means rookie...shouldn't have to explain something like that, but you might have to, so be aware of that.

EDIT: Almost forgot, if you lay the military lingo on in a thick way, make sure you're consistent. You wouldn't want to show one character doing something by the book, then have another, yet equally experienced, character doing something different in an amateurish way.

Pick up Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and copy what he does there.

I've done some FIBUA training (although we had a mad Scots instructor who insisted on calling it FISH - Fighting in Soombody's Hoose) and it's probably the most realistic feeling I've read in terms of the drills and feeling of action. Maybe not in terms of the emotions though but there's a ton of SF memoirs out there if you want to delve into their psyches.

IIRK the DVD extras on Blackhawk down show the actors going through boot camp to look like soldiers.

I'm not or never have been military but I have done training days and airsoft skirmish events at OD sites in the U.K. And have been trained by ex police and Paras on room entry techniques, etc. I can't say I'd be actually any good at it, but it was fun much like Big Peat mentioned.

The main thing I took from talking to the pros was they practice over and over and over so it becomes muscle memory.