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Further Reading

Atlantic Resolve

Atlantic Resolve '94, the exercise that some military officials dubbed "the new REFORGER" -- because it supplanted what would have been the 25th Return of Forces to Europe exercise -- employed soldiers from the Birmingham, Ala.- based 87th Army Reserve Command as the simulated ground opposition force. Air Force and Navy reservists played their respective "red" roles, "attacking" targets on Atlantis from computers at the Warrior Preparation Center in Einseidlerhof, Germany.

Military leaders around the world watched the eruption of ethnic hatred and territorial warfare in Europe. The political leaders of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands were not going to stand by. Just before the "North Titanian" army attacked "South Titania," the first of some 200,000 NATO troops -- most of them U.S. military -- began landing by air and sea on Atlantis, the fictional European island they shared.

U.S. Navy gunners on Aegis-class cruisers watched for incoming Silkworm missiles from inside their combat simulators aboard ships docked in Mayport, Fla. And M1 Abrams tank and AH-64 Apache helicopter crews stood ready to engage the "enemy" from simulators located at Fort Knox, Ky., and Fort Rucker, Ala., respectively.

Some of those who actually came to the Grafenwohr Training Area in Germany, where U.S. Army, Europe, hosted the exercise, became "puckmeisters," the people who moved icons about on computer screens. Most of the 2,500 soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Div. from Wurzburg, Germany, played the "blue" ground force. Simultaneously, other soldiers manned simulators at the Grafenwohr-based Simulation Network, and real-life 1st Armd. Div. soldiers actually maneuvered tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles over terrain at the Combat Maneuver Training Center at Hohenfels, Germany.

Some 12,000 actual players were involved in Atlantic Resolve '94, including roughly 2,000 allied soldiers. Among the 10,000 U.S. participants were soldiers from the 30th Medical Brigade's 67th Combat Support Hospital from WYrz-burg, who conducted 16 actual field surgeries and held daily sick call for the entire exercise population. Compared to an estimated $54 million spent for REFORGER 1988 -- $23 million of it in maneuver damage alone -- Atlantic Resolve cost taxpayers about $15 million, USAREUR officials said. And training, they assured, didn't suffer.