Fort Irwin war documentary premieres Monday

For a fake village, Medina Wasl has gotten a lot of attention. Now it will premiere nationally when “Full Battle Rattle,” a documentary film featuring the simulation Iraqi village at the National Training Center, airs on the National Geographic Channel at 9 p.m. Monday.

The village has received international attention for creating a mini-Iraqi island in the middle of the Mojave Desert where U.S. soldiers train for counter-insurgency combat before deploying to Iraq.

The documentary follows Lt. Col. Bob McLaughlin’s battalion from Fort Bliss, Texas, as they train at Medina Wasl in August 2006, fighting off attacks from insurgents, being surrounded by Iraqi nationals role-playing as themselves, and training for war under the High Desert summer sun while dressed down in full armor, or “full battle rattle.”

The film explores the brave new world of preparing for counter-insurgency warfare through the eyes of several different characters, including the often divergent experiences of U.S. soldiers going off to war, and exiled Iraqis living in a mock city that attempts to authentically recreate their homeland.

New York-based independent filmmaker Jesse Moss, one of the directors/producers of “Full Battle Rattle,” said he and director/producer Tony Gerber wanted the documentary to give viewers a fresh perspective on the Iraq War.

“I think [people are] still looking for a way to understand the war,” said Moss. He and Gerber saw Medina Wasl, the fake village that imitates life in Iraq — down to a distraught Iraqi mayor who wants to find his son’s killer — as a way to shed light on the complexities of the war.

“It seemed like a strange alternative universe,” said Gerber.

The documentary alternates between intense combat sequences and lighter, humorous moments between soldiers and their units, and villagers.

Sometimes, Gerber said he was unsure what mood a scene would take. In one scene where the filmmakers captured a mock funeral service for a fictitious soldier killed in combat, Gerber said he remembered thinking, “This is going to be a ‘Monty Python’ skit — this is going to be terrible.”
Instead, Gerber said he saw several eyes around the room welling with tears.

“There was something about the fake that enabled people to feel the real,” he said.

Lt. Col. McLaughlin who, with his troops, were deployed for 15 months, said in an interview that the training they received at Medina Wasl allowed his troops to psychologically become a team. His battalion returned from Iraq in December 2007. Five of his soldiers — all of whom had trained at the simulation village — were killed in combat.

Though Medina Wasl tried to recreate real combat environments, Moss said that creating the documentary confirmed that nothing — not even severed prosthetic limbs graphically spurting blood— could completely prepare soldiers for the realities of war.

Moss said Full Battle Rattle received positive reactions when screened at the independent film festival circuit, including the famous Berlin Film Festival.

Full Battle Rattle runs one hour 25 minutes and is not rated.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com

Full Battle Rattle
When: Monday at 9 p.m.
Where: National Geographic Channel (channel 300 for Time Warner Cable)
Website: www.fullbattlerattlemovie.com