Military scenery

Editor's note: As a special service for our readers, WND is running a series of dispatches from Allan Wall chronicling his transition from civilian life as he prepares to fight with his National Guard unit in Iraq. Allan will write for us as often as he is able in order to let our readers vicariously experience what people in his position are going through. We hope you will check regularly for Allan's dispatches and encourage your friends and family to do likewise.

Fort XYZ has acres and acres of beautiful scenery. It has forests and hills, ridges and rocks, rills and creeks and plains. As my National Guard unit goes about the base, training for Iraq duty, we see these things.

And it's not only Fort XYZ. All the Army bases and camps I have been to in my National Guard career have some great scenery.

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I recall my Army Basic Training years ago in Georgia. As I was getting ready to throw grenades on the grenade range, I gazed upon the beauty of the green, wooded hills before me. Yet here I was getting ready to cast an instrument of destruction.

Life is full of paradoxes. And this is one. Army bases, dealing as they do with death and destruction, also showcase some beautiful American scenery. They function as parks and wildlife refuges. They play a part in preserving the environment.

There are several reasons for this. For one thing, you just can't develop much of the base's territory. You have to leave a lot of it undeveloped so soldiers have room to maneuver for training. This is true whether the soldiers are maneuvering on foot or in vehicles.

Other parts of the base are used as firing ranges for small arms, machine guns, artillery, tanks and other fighting vehicles. These areas have too many rounds laying on the ground, and some of them haven't exploded. You can't have people traipsing around out there, so they are used only for target practice.

As a result, much of the base is never developed, and remains in a natural state.

The Army has bases throughout the country, which makes for a great variety in flora, fauna and landscape. Thick woodlands of various types, as well as prairies, jungles, swamps, deserts, etc. They can all be found at America's Army bases.

Most of this spectacular scenery can't be enjoyed by your average American – only by soldiers who are training, and they can't always appreciate it. When you're doing a tactical combat exercise, much as you would like, you can't always stop and smell the roses. But you certainly have to pay attention to where you are and where you're going.

On one exercise while training at Fort XYZ, we passed down a wooded hillside into a large valley, which we crossed, moving tactically, of course. Then we climbed another wooded hill, and arrived to an overlook position on the other side. We remained there the rest of the day and throughout the night, observing the traffic on the road below. A beautiful place indeed.

There is even a cooperative program for the environmental protection of wildlife species, and civilian biologists work at Fort XYZ to manage these animal populations. Some areas can't be entered because they are habitats for endangered bird species.

So, even though you can't see it yourself, Fort XYZ is doing its part for the environment.