‘Danger’ on the screen means safety in the field at Sill
September 20, 2009
The Lawton Constitution
BY MITCH MEADOR
Fort Sill soldiers recently participated in the making of WILL Interactive Inc.’s newest training simulation, “Danger Close.”
According to Sharon Sloane, CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based enterprise, “Danger Close” was shot here over a three-week period. Professional actors were used for the most part, but Fort Sill officers and non-commissioned officers appeared as extras.
“We had just wonderful support from Fort Sill in terms of production. They provided locations, equipment, subject matter expertise and just excellent general support for the production itself,” Sloane said.
“This was really and truly a post-wide effort,” said Joe Kirby, now chief of NCO Enlisted Education at Fort Sill, but at the time of the project senior instructional designer in officer education.
Sandra Pokorny, Fort Sill’s Design and Evaluation Branch chief, said Col. Dan Karbler, commander of 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade, had to play a scene two different ways, angry and frustrated with the way convoy operations were going in one outcome and happy and content in the other. The Impact Zone was used for a fight scene, Comanche County Memorial Hospital offered space to shoot a hospital scene and Range Control was involved on a staged medi-flight. The Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security and the 479th Field Artillery Brigade also had a big part in the production.
An Oklahoma City agency advertised an open casting call, and auditions were held in Lawton and Oklahoma City. Some 40 actors tried out for parts. Once it was cast, Col. Allen Shell ran a Friday evening boot camp for the actors, showing them how to salute and which pieces of body armor go where. The next day the actors were taken to get haircuts.
“We’re very proud of the way they behaved. They were very respectful. They got into the script,” Pokorny said.
Maj. Brian Anderson, formerly with the ROTC program at University of Central Oklahoma, portrayed “Capt. Anderson” in “Gator Six” and was so committed to the concept that he returned to serve as a technical adviser on “Danger Close.”
As always, it takes a lot of postproduction work to create the finished product. Balanced against the video portions of the simulation are text screens asking roleplayers to make choices.
“There are actually two playable characters whose roles you assume in the simulation,” explained Sloane.
One is a platoon leader — a bright young lieutenant who has the benefit of schooling but doesn’t yet know the ropes. The other is a platoon sergeant who represents the wisdom that comes with years of experience.
“The overarching goal of the platoon sergeant is to bring everyone home safely. The sergeant brings to his job seasoned experience,” Sloane explained. “They each have their storylines which intersect among many common issues.”
“Danger Close” emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the two. It’s important they have a positive working relationship, because that’s critical to unit functions and how they will perform their missions.
But this simulation opens with what Sloane calls “the spine.” The leadership team has gone into combat with problems that were not resolved in pre-deployment. The necessary respect and trust for the platoon to function at its maximum effectiveness simply isn’t there — and things are about to go disastrously wrong as a result. Deaths occur because this critical relationship between the leadership team is malfunctioning.
“From our point of view, from the instructional side, if you don’t grab the students’ attention right up front, he’s lost. So with the big bang and everything going wrong, and all the action and the fear that’s engendered … then it stops, and you can change it,” Pokorny said.
“Danger Close” was designed with second lieutenants in Fort Sill’s Basic Officer Leader Course in mind. It’s currently being used by NCOs at the NCO Academy. Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Bliss, Texas, use it in their classrooms as well.
The WILL Interactive motto is “play it out before you live it out,” so students get to back up the simulation and make better decisions to alter the outcome. Sloane said there is a continuum of possible outcomes, from the best possible to the worst, and anything in between.
“If you fail to resolve problems appropriately, you can have a suicide in the unit. You can have an individual with performance problems,” she said.
“Everything in these simulations happened somewhere, to someone. We don’t make up random things. Everything comes from extensive focus groups,” said Sloane.
Personnel from WILL Interactive conducted some of these focus groups at Fort Sill with a broad range of senior officers, NCOs, soldiers and lieutenants, so that they could bring different perspectives to the shaping of the training tool.
“We’ve had really good results from the field,” Pokorny said of the finished product. Three military transition teams have given it excellent reviews. The NCO Academy instructor who used it as a lesson said he had trouble keeping it to his four-hour block, because students wanted to go on talking about it for up to six hours.
Kirby said the video is exceptionally good from the standpoint of keeping students emotionally engaged.
The simulation uses the same behavior modification platform as in previous Army programs. It’s one that has been proven to impact the choices that people make, particularly under stress, and improve those decisions, Sloane said. The lessons learned in the simulation may not have immediate consequences, but because the role-players remember what decisions they made and the outcome of those decisions, it personalizes the learning experience and makes it real. It provides a “reach-back” that students will remember and apply, in some cases, years later.
Something similar to what was in the simulation happens in real life, and it kicks in.
“It’s what we call ‘sticky content,’” said Sloane.
“That’s the engagement part — the emotional engagement, and it’s an area that’s not often explored, but the Army with its Army Leadership Program is moving towards that now. We’re hoping that this research that we’re doing will help advance that leadership training. It’s not just soldiering. It’s leading, it’s critical thinking, it’s more on ethical decision-making,” Pokorny said.
WILL Interactive has now produced over 50 VEILS (virtual experience, immersive learning simulation) for the Army, the National Football League, the FBI, large hospital chains and many other organizations.
