From: Adam Flinton 

Gene McAloon wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Jul 2004 11:25:00 +0100, Adam Flinton

> wrote:
>
>
>>Yup but is it the thick jungly swamp required? Don't your people still
>>have some places in/agreements with Thailand or the Phillipines?
>
>
> No, we don't. We don't take raw troops and send them to foreign countries to
> train because we don't happen to have jungles in this country. The very idea
is
> thoroughly idiotic in that troops intended to fight in jungles don't need
> training specific to fighting in jungles and that is assuming there is such
> training that would even be useful.
>
> There are a lot of things that can enhance the training of troops, but
matching
> training to terrain is the least of them, assuming it makes any sense at all.
>
>

Ignorant as usual it would seem

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/fort-sherman.htm

"Fort Sherman, a 23,100-acre facility on Panama's Atlantic side, was
on the west bank of the Canal across from Cristobal/Colon. Fort Sherman
included an airstrip, training facilities, 67 homes, dormitories for 300
people, and recreational areas. Over half of Fort Sherman's land area is
covered by tropical forest.

Much of this forest was used by the Jungle Operations Training Center
(JOTC), a facility run by U.S. Army South (USARSO) that trained U.S. and
Latin American personnel in jungle warfare and survival techniques. Founded
in 1951, the JOTC trained about 9,000 U.S. and Latin American soldiers each
year in jungle survival techniques, land navigation, waterborne operations,
and combat tactics. Fort Sherman was handed over to Panama in late 1999.
The last rotation through the JOTC took place in March 1999, and there were
no plans to replace the facility. Subsequent U.S. jungle training occured
through small unit exchange programs with other countries.

For more than 40 years, the cadre at Fort Sherman's jungle school trained
soldiers from the United States and around the world to fight and survive
in the jungle. In a relatively compact training area, the JOTC at Fort
Sherman provided virtually a full range of jungle terrain and vegetation --
tall grass lands, mountains, swamps, blue and brown water, single and
double canopy jungle. With its signature three-week Jungle Warfare Course,
JOTC trained 11 U.S. Army light infantry, Ranger and Marine infantry
battalions, more than 7,000 soldiers, per year. Soldiers were taught the
basics of jungle survival, including waterborne training, in the first
week, then advance to squad, platoon, company and battalion-size exercises
over the next two weeks. In addition, more than 1,000 soldiers a year were
taught the basics of jungle warfare to serve as the opposing forces for the
rotational battalions. "


Adam

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