A ‘War-Torn’ Town Will Be Built at Camp Pendleton to Train Marines : Warfare: Buildings will be manufactured to simulate conditions that troops encounter when they enter places such as Grenada, Panama, Beruit and Kuwait City.

The spanking new town that will soon rise on a 27-acre tract near Aliso Creek on Camp Pendleton should look like it’s been through the wars.

The new hotel will be badly damaged by bombs dropped from an attack aircraft. Half of a nearby apartment building will be gone, destroyed by rockets. A townhouse will be ripped in half by rounds fired by a tank. An exterior wall and several interior walls in a multistory office building will be destroyed by artillery shells.

But shells and rockets won’t be responsible for destruction in the as-yet-unnamed town. Rather, the 30 buildings will be a manufactured--some say in an almost Disney-like fashion--replica of what U.S. Marines encountered when they entered war-torn towns and villages in Grenada, Panama City and Kuwait.

The $5-million to $10-million town at Pendleton is one of three urban combat training facilities that the Marines are building at bases in the United States. The Marines last year dedicated a similar facility at Camp LeJeune, N.C. A third urban combat training facility will be built at Quantico, Va.

The town’s function as a training facility is straightforward but the project is ripe with contradictions for the architects and contractors who will build it.

“We’re taught to build things complete, and here we are trying to build buildings with holes in them,” said Chuck Soulant,a senior cost estimator for San Diego-based Ninteman Construction, which has bid on the project. “It’s almost like you’re being asked to build something for Disneyland.”

Marine instructors will use the eerily realistic facilities to teach Marines tactics needed to survive in the gritty world of modern urban warfare. The need for increased urban combat training became apparent during the 1989 Panama invasion, when more than 200 Panamanian civilians died as U.S. troops fought to dislodge firmly entrenched urban guerrillas.

The newest generation of urban combat training facilities evolved from simpler teaching tools created during the Vietnam War. Then Marines on training exercises entered villages consisting of thatched huts.

Recent experiences in Grenada, Panama, Beruit and Kuwait City emphasize the need for urban combat training, said U.S. Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer Randy Gaddo. “We’re moving away from jungle wars, Gaddo said.

Many of the structures will appear on the verge of collapse, they will meet building codes and withstand constant pounding by thousands of Leathernecks.

In addition to realism, the Marines are placing a premium on safety, said Neil Larsen, a former artillery officer and a principal with Architects/Larsen/Carpenter, the San Diego-based firm that was awarded the contract to design the village.

Handrails will be installed to help break the fall of soldiers who slip while scaling sloped roofs on multistoried buildings.

Upper-story floors near walls that have been “destroyed” by artillery shells or bombs will be finished in rough-textured concrete to alert Marines that “their next step might be out into the air,” Larsen said. “We don’t want some soldier who’s just had the heck scared out of him accidentally falling three stories.”

Architects won’t be able to keep snakes out of the buildings but “critter traps” should limit the number of four-legged pests, Larsen said.

Still, the carefully planned village will be a “scary place to try and take over,” Larsen said.

The buildings will incorporate devious “mouse holes,” trap doors that enemy soldiers can use to travel between floors. Enemy soldiers also will be able to hide in stairwells and elevator shafts.

The town will look like a typical American town, but its layout is designed to prepare troops for action in a European village, a Central American town or a Pacific Rim city.

While the Marines prescribed the desired level of destruction, it was up to the architects to create the blueprints.

“I drew heavily upon my experience of watching World War II moves late at night,” quipped Ron Rogers, a senior project architect with Architects/Larsen/Carpenter. “I thought, ‘imagine what a building would look like if a shell exploded . . . maybe the floor slab would (be destroyed) and the walls would go out at a 45% angle.’ ”

Architects eventually developed nine distinct “rubble types” that will be incorporated, alone or in groups, into walls, ceilings and floors. One rubble pattern mimics minor damage from a bomb or an artillery shell. Another calls for construction of a hole that is large enough to walk through.

Architects anticipate that individual craftsmen will do their best to make the damage appear realistic. For example, crews might use trowels on freshly poured concrete floor slabs to mimic the impact of an artillery shell. Or, they might pound away with sledge hammers.

In an era of military budget cutting, the cost-conscious Marines also dictated that the village be maintenance free.

Consequently, the town will be built almost entirely of concrete and mortar block, two of the toughest and cheapest building materials available. Windows won’t be framed with glass, and doors will include heavy-duty “kick panels” designed to absorb abuse from hard-charging Marines.

Roads will withstand constant use by a variety of military vehicles, including M-1A1 tanks and Light Armored Vehicles. Some rooftops will be sturdy enough to act as landing pads for CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters.

Window frames will be strengthened to hold grappling hooks thrown by soldiers who scale building exteriors. Floors will be reinforced in order to support the sandbag fortifications that troops will erect to fortify their positions.

The Marines’ desire for a realistic town sent contractors off on a scavenger hunt.

Builders have scurried to find covers, hoses and nozzles--but not the functioning guts--of pumps to be bolted on islands at the town’s mock gasoline station. They are pricing telephone poles, fire hydrants and signs that will be installed in public spaces, and calculating the costs of picnic tables, swing sets and fences for public parks and residential back yards.

But the town won’t feature the familiar blue U.S. Postal Service mailboxes found on corners throughout the country. Architects rewrote mailbox specifications after Uncle Sam refused to sell the boxes because wayward Marines might try to post letters at the mock boxes.

The mailboxes, flag poles, fire hydrants and swing sets were installed to make the town appear realistic, they also serve a deadly purpose: “Each of those items can be used against you during war,” Rogers said.

While contractors will build the structures, the Marines will handle interior decorating. Depending upon what type of exercise is being conducted, the Marines will stock the town with everything from vehicles and urban guerrillas to innocent bystanders whom “Marines are likely to find in a hostage situation,” Gaddo said.

The town has also been laid out to take advantage of Camp Pendleton’s diverse geography, including the hills and valleys that surround Aliso Creek.

Amphibious troops will be able to land on a nearby ocean beach and attack the village--after filing through tunnels under nearby Interstate 5. Troops will also arrive by air, in some cases landing on top of buildings in helicopters. Marine aircraft from nearby bases will add another element of realism.

Mechanized troops and the infantry will be able to enter the town on newly constructed roads. Or, they will be able to travel along the usually dry bed of Aliso Creek--or through the town’s storm sewer system, which will empty into the creek.

While there will be no live fire within the town’s limits, troops will practice with live ammunition at a planned grenade house, a live-fire range and in a close-quarters battle range.

In the grenade house, troops under the watchful eyes of instructors will unleash powerful hand grenades in the building that will be constructed of old tires mounted on poles.

At the live-fire range, Marines who successfully storm six strategically placed buildings will subsequently commence live fire on “enemy soldiers” hidden in nearby hills and valleys. Marines and architects used the CAD system to ensure that building occupants won’t be in the line of fire.

Troops will also fire live rounds in the close-quarters battle range.

The range will include buildings with heavy rubber walls that act as bullet traps. Bullets will pass through the rubber sheets and be deflected downward by solid steel walls.

The buildings can be used to simulate hostage rescues, Larsen said. Once the door is blown off with special charges, troops will use explosives to “stun” the life-like paper and cardboard dummies inside.