This morning we went to the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center, or KASOTC for short, which was about half an hour north of Amman.
Basically King Abdullah II noticed this unused quarry and decided to create a spec ops training center. With enough money thrown at it, it became one of the best training centers in the Middle East, and maybe the world? Many countries send special operations forces and specialized police teams to train here and compete in the annual Warrior competition.
KASOTC has a lot of very high tech simulations for missions. For example, they have a giant commercial airline plane to practice hostage situations. Inside the plane they have dummies, cameras, speakers, sound effects, smoke, smells, etc. to make it as realistic as possible.
Another facility was their village to practice urban warfare missions. As we drove through the village, we heard gunshots, planes flying overhead, smelled gunpowder, and saw an explosion from a gas station 20 feet away from our bus. It was awesome. About as hooah as my summer has got so far.
Another facility was a building used for training raids and building searches. The interior is customizable so rooms and hallways can be modified however they need. The rooms are designed for different challenges operators will face in their careers. It also was awesome.
AT KASOTC we saw a lot of US Army guys, which was a strangely familiar site here in Amman. In the past two months of summer since I finished school it's been easy to forget that I'm a cadet and do military training back during the school year.
KASOTC was definitely one of our cooler excursions.
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