john: terms of why we have the training center here today, the asymmetric warfare group provides operational advisory support for the army and joint force commanders. what that means is four things for the service. we provide operational advisors all over the world. we do that to identify capability gaps. we develop solutions for those we develop solutions for those gaps and then integrate them into the army system. that is what the facility is designed for. it is a place to develop solutions for the army. it serves a secondary role as an army training center. host: these buildings are life-sized in realistic, but they are fake and a sense and used for training? guest: exactly. the army has always looked at the need to have a diverse place to train. in the past we had training areas that were simple concrete buildings but they did not provide the text sure that you need to get that our soldiers -- soldiers need today. the buildings of glass, windows, doors, all the things that a soldier would encounter.

the buildings of glass, windows, doors, all the things that a soldier would encounter. host: give us a feel of what we will find. this is an embassy behind us but we have some other structures as well. guest: what we do see is the place is designed to be able to change to adapt to whatever environment our soldiers might be in. there is a six story building out there that might be and never see one day and maybe a hotel on another and eight warehouse on another. we can change the settings to meet the kind of environment our soldiers are going to face. we are trying to provide a place that can a variety of training areas so we get the most utility for it. host: you are going to see video of soldiers at a been here at the asymmetric warfare training center, running scenarios in these various types of buildings. you will see a lot of examples

that we will get the kernel to talk about. we will talk more about the purpose of the center. the mission of the group. if you have questions about this kind of training that goes on, about the center, about how it is used worldwide, now's your chance to do so would john -- colonel john petkosek. here's how you can call. on the eastern and central time (202) 748-8000. in the central and pacific time zones you can call (202) 748-8001. other areas of the world can call (202) 748-8002. tell us a little about the places where once they are trained, where the soldiers go? what kind of involvement are the and worldwide? guest: soldiers today are employed all over the world. when you look at with the u.s. army is doing and the u.s. military, we are doing different things. the recent ebola outbreak in africa. there were army soldiers helping beers we can nepal. -- earthquake in nepal.

they can be anywhere around the world. the facility is designed for us to replicate the kind of environments we may face around the world. when you talked about the subterranean portion of it, that is a big thing. we have to look at something -- if they have to go in to a subterranean environment. the first time they are doing it should not be the first of a try to save a life. these are the types of equipment i need to the commerce these missions. it supports soldiers deployed all around the world. that is what it is built for and it is tailorable so that we can replicate any environment. host: give some examples of recent training is gone in here and areas of the world where they have been involved?. guest: i think one of the best ones you talked about was the tunnels and subterranean pieces. what we realized early on is you

see the environment around the world. sometimes you see continuity there. when we originally designed the facility, we were heavily engaged in afghanistan. at that time, the soldiers faced these water draining systems. they had to understand how to go down into those. how to fight in those things. it started out that way. only look at the subterranean threat in other places around the world with economic plight you look at -- where that can apply, you look at bunkers were chemical weapons i be stored in a country like syria where they took them out and destroyed them. they have to be able to go and do that. this is a threat you might see anywhere around the world. host: in fact, we shot video of people in 1500 feet of tunnels. we have video of it of soldiers and training. that is what goes on here the asymmetric warfare training

center. we are here to take your call and talk to colonel john petkosek, the commander of the asymmetric warfare group. the first call is from herbie in mississippi. go ahead. caller: good morning. these buildings look like united states buildings. the way the police are throwing back -- black people in the inner cities in the uprising here in america, it looks like we are getting to fight against her own people here. it looks like you guys are trading to invade the inner-city . it is mighty strange because everyone is training to do some thing overseas. it does not look like overseas training. it looks like this is right here in america and that is kind of scary because of the situation where he can i get police locked up for what they are doing to civilians. and the stuff that is going on here in america. it is kind of damaging.

you all are doing so they secretly here, i think. guest: herbie, that is not really true. what we are doing is training u.s. soldiers to operate in any contingency around the world. when you look at what the u.s. army soldiers do, they have to be able to operate from disaster relief to high-end military conflict. that is what the center is designed for. to be able to replicate any environment we might have to fight in. as we said, we are in virginia and that is where we live. we are stationed in the united states. the center is located here, so it is convenient and easy to train on. really what you said is far from the truth. we want to be able to replicate any environment where our soldiers might be able to fight. as a said earlier, we used to train very rudimentary training facilities with simple concrete buildings and our soldiers were not prepared as well as they could of been by just adding a

little bit of texture. this facility is designed to increase soldier survivability and save lives in combat. that is what it is for. i think if we put it in that context, that is what the u.s. army is doing with this facility. (202) 748-8000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. for mountain and pacific, (202) 748-8001. for active military, (202) 748-8002. our guest is colonel john petkosek. john from pennsylvania, you are up next. caller: hi. i am concerned like the last caller. i sell your facility on the internet. i saw someone in john deere caps saying please is a my guns. i've seen your videotape. what safety, or what do we have to guarantee us that these training facilities are not

being used to confiscate our guns in case of another economic meltdown like we had in 2008? like the gun confiscation that went on during katrina. u.s. troops in afghanistan walk the streets of new orleans and confiscated every gun that was there. what do we have to guarantee that we will be protected from that non-happening in mass like it did in katrina. thousands of guns were confiscated by regular army and national guard units. guest: i cannot speak about what happened in katrina, but i can say i do know everything on the internet is not necessarily true as we see it. you come back to what the facility is designed for, we shared very openly. there are no secrets to be had. the united states constitution is what protects us and that is what the u.s. army is for, to support and defend the constitution.

and i would hope that all of us -- our listeners and viewers out there would appreciate what our soldiers are doing for this on a day-to-day basis. it is the opposite of what you articulated. host: if the idea is to come up with solutions for situations across the world, how are the solutions? developed who comes up with the strategies? guest: when you talk about the subterranean piece, i think that is a great example. when they realized we had difficulty whether it was operating in afghanistan or in bunkers or how are your gun get into these places, what we were able to do is look at some the historical samples -- examples in the past. the last on the u.s. army faced a threat like this was in the tunnels of vietnam. we looked at howard that our soldiers fight their. how do they fight in open our. -- open our --okinawa. we use the facility to build

underground bunkers and realize if there is a metal door, how will we breach the door? once we do that, how will we get in there? what if we have to evacuate casualties? we develop material and nonmaterial solutions. a particular way to carry your kit. or we realized he might need a different kind of get to operate in an environment. how are you going to brief? one of their fire and smoke? how are you going to operate? that is one of the great things we do here. once we do that, what is really special about this particular organization and what we do for the army's we have the ability to take that we weren't and institutionalize it. that is what we -- it is about. how quickly can the army learn. when we talk about what is special about the u.s. army, it is not about the tanks of the ships or the things that we have. it is the people. and our ability to adapt rapidly , more rapidly than our adversary is really what is

special. i think this is a location where we can adapt quickly and you can see change happen right here. host: before we go too far in this topic of asymmetric warfare, defined what it is in english. it defines a change in nature as far of those that would use this type of warfare and can't -- conflict zones. guest: what i think about is there are two dissimilar forces. the way that they approach a fight with equipment they have. you don't attack an enemy's strength, you attack his weakness. the best way to articulate is the way world war i was fought. that was asymmetric conflict. it was all about who of the most guns and him and hammy soldiers you can get on the ground. the armies were essentially the same and it was whoever could get there the fastest with the most. you had to similar forces clashing. at a point during that war summit he came over the idea and

said what we put a machine gun under the cover of armor and we called it a tank. that is an asymmetric approach to try to overcome your adversary by attacking his weaker point. that would be able to attack with a tank. that is how warfare evolved. if you're going to succeed in conflict, you don't want to attack your enemies strength. when you going to a config like that anyone soldiers to survive and come home, you want to make sure it is not a fair fight in that u.s. soldiers are equipped as best they can and best repair for that type of conflict. host: our urban centers the new battleground? guest: when you look at what is happening in the world today there is a huge population growth. you look at the growth of the megacities all of the world where there are millions of people in very close quarters. if conflict is going to occur in regions like that, we want our soldiers to be able to understand what they have to apply in those environments. you want to do it here in

virginia the first time we call on her shoulder to have to figure out how you're going to get to the top of that five-story building with no elevator, no rope. host: lenny from arizona you are next. ahead. caller: good morning, colonel. i went to alert our citizens and get an excellent nation if we could for jade helm 15 which is all over the internet. it involves 10 states and there will be civilians participating in towns like big spring, texas. could you explain the magnitude of that and what the purpose that is? apparently they have crisis actors in their enemy soldiers dressed in uniform and nonuniform. critics when it to us? thank you very much. guest: unfortunately it is not selling i am familiar with. i cannot really explain that.

i do know that those type of things are things that we do here. we give our soldiers the opportunity to work in an environment where there are civilians and soldiers. one of the things i could talk about, unfortunately, i don't know about that particular exercise, but when you talk about soldiers operating in an environment with civilians one of the things were looking at here is a program of using autonomous robots. we take a number of robots that can operate independently and walk up and down the streets. we can dress them up and uniforms or a civilians and we can use it as a chance here to trainer soldiers how to discriminate between primitive -- friendly forces and those that need to be evacuated. that is one of the great things we can do here at ap hill. host: tim in florida, your next. caller: good morning. i wanted to do differentiate the people between the

politicians and the patriotic individuals like the kernel there. i am wondering when we are doing international foreign warfare -- urban warfare, where be going around the world and getting involved in international urban warfare? we are hated everywhere. people come here to do things i could do in texas. there is only one of you were that. why can't people mind their own business? i thought we were broken only have this ongoing military in parts of the country. a lot of the people i speak for, we support people in the military. we do not support people's formulae these wacko policies by overthrowing the government of ukraine and putting in people who were not elected because there's trouble with russia and they are in the crimea and they are interfering with the

u.s. starting problems in the middle east. thank you. guest: you bring up a good point. the world it has changed quite a bit in just a short time that i've been in the military. when i first came into the army what really drove the military strategy was something called airland battle. we had to win against an enemy. i was a lieutenant in the cold war was still going on. that was the war we faced. it was a math problem. we had have better tanks and aircraft and we had to be able to fight a force that we know in a very symmetric way. the world has changed. the army has changed with it. the army has change their operating concept to say what we want our soldiers to be able to do now? that is fight in a conflict -- complex world were asymmetric threats are out there. this facility that you see here today is meant to replicate that so we can prepare our soldiers to do things where we might not know they're going to operate in the future.

i really think that the facility itself here is designed to serve our army and help our soldiers face the challenges they are going to face in the future. we really do not know what that is going to be. it is a very, gated world of their and things have changed. we want our soldiers to be agile and adaptive leaders and soldiers so we can do, is what our nation asks host:. host:host: ford ap hill in virginia. 300 acres devoted to these buildings reaction you this morning. also, tunnels underneath and very structures on the campus. justin from petaluma california. go ahead. guest:caller: i have to reflect what a lot of the colors have said today. this is just very scary stuff. this looks almost like american

cities rather than being prepared for what we are going to face in other countries. as the colonel said, we have be prepared for this and all of that. this is almost almost -- every caller and i think everyone understands this is a very scary and new thing that the military looks like it is going to be taking on. they could be against its very own people. the american people. everything i have seen except for the one mosque has been in english, main street. main street. host: but our guest respond. guest: what i would say is that it is a very, gated world out there and you should not find it scary or frightening.

it is reassuring that we are fighting our soldiers to be able to operate across a broad spectrum of facilities. as i said, i have been in the army a little bit of time and we walked through the woods learning how to fight in the would like and how to navigate with a map and compass and areas like that. and then came to realize that when we were called by our nation to perform a mission, we were operating in an urban center. and how we did that, whether it was us helping soldiers operating in the current conflicts that we must recently operated in, all of those were it in an urban environment. we had to learn how to operate in and among were people are. the u.s. military as we operate across the world, there are enemy forces and they makes themselves and with family forces all the time. the robot example i gave. we need to be able to have her soldiers discriminate between

what is friendly and what is enemy. when i was growing up in the army, one of the things he used to say about our soldiers is no soldier is doing the right thing when they do the right thing when nobody is watching them. our soldiers are disciplined in doing the right thing. as the world changed, we have to build ask her soldiers to do the right thing when the whole world is watching because there are a lot of things out there on the internet. whatever we do is going to be out there and broadcast. we don't have any secrets to hide. this is a great opportunity for us to showcase what are people -- our soldiers are doing for the iraqi people. -- american people. host: you do have a church in a mosque. what are the relevance of the structures? guest: it could be a church today and a town hall tomorrow in a store the next day. what is important about the environment as we replicated, we

wonder soldiers to be sensitive to the fact that all these things are going to be encountered when they are out operating around the world. we all know the media reports of soldiers causing harm to our cause by being insensitive to those things. i haven't is located here, we can sensitizer soldiers to the fact that you will be operating around places that are since -- sensitive. that is the kind of thing people will be emotional about how we want them comfortable operating in an environment here in virginia because for they go forward. -- before they go forward. an earlier commander of the group used to say you have to become double being uncomfortable. -- the comfortable being uncomfortable. we have to not only become double in these -- and be comparable in these situations, our soldiers have to be able to thrive. that is what we are doing here at fort ap hill.

we are providing all these cues that'll make them think because that is what we want our soldiers today. our motto is think, adapt, and participate. that is what we want our soldiers to do in virginia before they go into harms way. host: you are hearing from colonel john petkosek, talking about this training center and asymmetric warfare. next is vincent in dayton, ohio. go ahead. caller: sir, my question is for the national guard units and domestic law enforcement authorities also using the center for their training. guest: vincent, all different types of units use this facility. it is a national asset, a military asset. it is used all different times.

even this afternoon it will be used by a unit coming in as a law enforcement unit to understand how to operate in these environments. it is not just the army. it is the joint force. we use this facility by the army navy, air force, marines, other government agencies use it, and they use it to come here so they can train to do what we're going to ask them to do, wherever that might be around the world. it is used by a number of organizations and all of those organizations are able to benefit from the investment that the american people made here in virginia. that is what we are trying to do here. we built this facility and it is great. it is one of those places where you can broaden the possibilities for training the things we might not even have thought of. that is what we are trying to achieve here. sometimes we learn from our partners in that respect.

we might work with other organizations that say here is a way that you can go down into a tunnel and be able to brief that we might not have explored. this is one of those places where we can share information. host: are there international partners a coming train? guest: they have come here periodically. for example, one of the things we might do is typically what we do in the asymmetric warfare group is we work by, with, and through other u.s. organizations. we might not necessarily work with foreign forces, but other elements do. one of the things we look at his what soldiers, upon a facility and it might be an ied making facility or a lab are one of those kind of facilities, we replicate them here. a can see it firsthand here before they are faced with that in reality. it comes to mind because one of our recent partners here as we've been working with is the mexicans.

they have come to look at the facility to differentiate between a drug lab and in ied lab. if you break this glass jar and some kind of gas comes out and it injures either soldiers a law enforcement, that is the kind of think we want them to do here before their face with that challenge real-life. host: susan from arizona, good morning. caller: it is so nice to hear you. colonel, i want to thank you. i want to thank you and all the military. because if anything ever happens to the united states, i hope to god that you guys are standing next to us to protect me and my family. for the last seven years i feel i have not been safe here in the united states. me and a whole bunch of people. i want to thank you.

keep doing what you are doing here train those military is because when they will need them to save us. so thank you and god bless you. guest: thank you, susan. i really appreciate that. i thank you for this opportunity because the chance for us to showcase what our soldiers are doing for the nation is really our obligation. there is not a lot of chances where we get to interact with the people we come from. the soldiers that are here from every state in the nation and it is us. we are a reflection of our society. and a chance for us to highlight what great things are soldiers are doing for our nation and around the world, it is always a pleasure. i do for your call. host: rebecca from virginia, go ahead. guest: thank you so much for all that you all are doing and the soldiers that are training their and are deployed. i know you work hard everyday to prepare them and thank her that.

how long does it typically take a unit to stay there and be trained before they are deployed or send out into the field? guest: rebecca, it really depends on the unit and the mission they are being called on to do. i cannot answer that specifically. units that rotate through here typically are here for short periods of time. it's not a place where stations are -- place where soldiers are stationed. when i was younger i was stationed at fort drum, new york. we came down to forta ap hill to train for several weeks. as i reflect back on this, it was a couple of years before this was built. i would've been able to really benefit from these facilities. typically it is a couple of weeks that soldiers, go here to train. --, and go here to train. it typically takes about a

two-week amount of time is help our soldiers become agile and adaptive. a lot of people talk about when you look at soldiers and what you want them to be and how you want unveiled to react? you want them to be confident responsible, trustworthy. all those intangible things that you wanted soldiers and good citizens. those things are hard to train. if you ask someone how to make them responsible and adaptable that is a huge part of our effort here. we bring them through and pedro saw some of our soldiers training. we build scenarios to challenge our soldiers and put them in the uncomfortable

put on some protective masks like cast mass, and they will do some training out to about 50 meters in the near future. that is sort of the phot -- the focus for the event. in the recent past, they have done other training.

>> why is this type of skilled training important to the overall warfare? >> we are by our nature -- an army goes out throughout the world. it is very important that your combat skills are well honed. it is part of any units preparation for this kind of eventualities. we happen to focus on the pistol and rifle marksmanship more than probably your average unit because we do not know what sort of situation our divisors -- our divisors are going to encounter, especially when embedded with other units. host: again, that was lieutenant colonel justin sapp. regina from virginia, you are on