Big Brother is coming to Camp Grayling

Photo By Sgt. Alexandria Jones | An aerial photo of the Combined Arms and Collective Facility, a $14 million project, in Camp Grayling, Mich. The CACTF is an urban operations course for the military to conduct training exercises and is expected to be complete February 2013. The facility will include residential housing, a bank, jail, embassy, and cemetery that will provide practical situations for small and battalion sized units. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Alexandria Robinson, 126th Press Camp Headquarters, Michigan Army National Guard)  

GRAYLING, MI, UNITED STATES

07.25.2012

Story by Spc. Alexandria Jones 

126th Theater Public Affairs Support Element

CAMP GRAYLING, Mich. - Residential housing, a regulation soccer field, a four story embassy with an elevator shaft, a jail with working cells and a bank are a few of the facilities that comprise a typical town. But it’s not a typical town with the addition of cameras and speakers in every room of each facility.

For almost a year, 85 workers, including masons, painters, equipment operators, steel workers, plumbers and laborers have trod the gravel roads to create a simulated urban town, known as a Combined Arms and Collective Training Facility, at Camp Grayling, Mich.

Saylor Construction, LLC of Blissfield, Mich., is the general contractor for this 40-acre urban operations training site, a $14 million project.

The military and possibly police agencies, firefighters and emergency workers will utilize the site to conduct training exercises. As for training purposes, leadership will be able to evaluate soldiers entering and clearing rooms on monitors in the range operations control room.

Though the CACTF is comparable to the mock Iraqi villages exercises Soldiers have trained on in the past, this will support the needs for urban training opportunities. Therefore, the constructed buildings will be Multiple Integrated Laser Equipment System compatible and soldiers will be able to use an M4 machine gun that shoots paintballs.

“It will be the best paintball place in Michigan,” said Scott Hanson, the construction inspector for the project.


Hanson ensures the buildings are built to specifications and he has to inspect all materials, from screws to cinder blocks.

“These buildings were built to take a beating,” he said. “If we built it the same way Texas builds theirs – ours wouldn’t last.” Hanson explained that the buildings are built differently because of Michigan’s winters.

He discussed soldiers will be able to enter the buildings not only from ground level but also the flat top roofs. In addition, some buildings will have rappelling capabilities.

All things take time and this project is scheduled to be completed in February 2013 but Hanson thinks it will be completed by the end of this year.

“The workers got a real good head start this summer,” he said. “They work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., four days a week.”

Aside of the functionality of the buildings, the town will even include a cemetery and mausoleum with coffins.

“We’ll have to put something in there to scare them,” Hanson said between laughs.

With all the amenities included at this site, the CACTF is an initiative for urbanized exercises for the military and will support up to battalion-sized training opportunities.

• Date Taken: 07.25.2012
• Date Posted: 07.27.2012 17:21
• Story ID: 92283
• Location: GRAYLING, MI, US