“Keep your head down or you’ll lose your teeth.” Those are the last words I heard before getting into the Humvee. Less than a minute later I was upside down, dangling from the ceiling with my head pinned down between the floorboard and the bottom of my seat. I could see four other passengers struggling to get out. We all survived the crash but we could hear shots being fired outside. That’s when we knew we were under attack.
The Humvee wasn’t real. Neither was the ambush. The total chaos was. All part of what the Army calls Humvee Egress Assistance Training – or HEAT – showing troops what it’s like, and what we need to do to survive when a Humvee rolls.
That simulator we were tossed around in may look like some sort of Army-inspired amusement park ride, but this is very serious business. Everyone inside that box has a job to do when we rollover and we’re all depending on each other to do that job and do it well. One small mistake, and someone could get seriously hurt.
Scratched on the side of the simulator were the words “Vegas Hit List” with notches showing the number of people who didn’t remember to keep their heads down.