Shoot House Training

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By Sarah Gravlee

BOISE - About 130 men from the Billings area recently returned from an annual training mission with the Army National Guard.

Though they've not received official orders yet, it is likely the group will be deployed next year. Soldiers spent three weeks in the desert south of Boise, ID, for this year's annual training. The men worked on everything from firing cannons to cleaning weapons. We caught up with the crew as they prepared to do home invasions.

Three short knocks. That's the only warning residents of a home get before a team of soldiers storm the house. "It's always a dangerous feat going into a house," said Staff Sergeant Lorin Peterson from Monana's Army National Guard. "It's unknown what's inside."

It was just a training mission, but the men were using real semi-automatic weapons. In a real scenario, they'd only storm a home if they received intelligence that terrorists were inside.

There were no terrorists in the home they were practicing in. The men posing as enemies are actually U.S. soldiers. Once the enemy is "killed" their body is searched for any maps, or identification cards.

"The only bad thing the soldiers do complain about is we have blanks," said Company Commander Tomas Maes. Even though it's just training, the men take this mission very seriously.

"This is always beneficial because you never know when you're gonna clear a house," Maes said. Many members of this company served in Iraq in 2004-2005. While they were there they conducted invasions of everything from mud huts to nicer homes. If they do get called to serve next year, it's likely they will conduct many home invasions overseas.

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