Northern Virginia Daily
War Zone
By Natalie Anzolut
While an armed gunman stands by, journalists are spread out during training at Massanutten Military Academys Camp Lupton.
Just as the Massanutten Military Academy bus crosses a low-water bridge, an explosion pierces the quiet morning countryside in Shenandoah Country.
Men - wearing masks and firing automatic weapons - seem to spring from every direction, after waiting alongside the morning dew for just the right moment to lunge.
The bus stops. The bomb was planted alongside the road as a distraction - only a prelude to the two-legged terror that descends from the bushes, old barn and outbuildings. They storm the bus quickly, efficiently and go to work.
One-by-one, black hoods are roughly placed over the heads of the passengers, who are pushed from the bus and lined up with these faces to the metal. Others are shoved into waiting vehicles, doors slammed behind them. Those remaining sit in total darkness, awaiting the next move from their captors.
The whole kidnapping takes place in silence, which, at times, seems louder than the birds, continuing to announce the new day, now dark to the hooded victims.
The scene is just outside Woodstock at MMA's Camp Lupton, transformed on this recent day to a place of civil unrest, violence and nerve-frazzling uncertainty. The once bucolic setting is violated by fear as the camouflage-wearing assailants fire their guns into the air, using the blasts as exclamation points for their message. All is not always as it seems and should never be assumed to be.
A journalist is covered with a hood and taken oft the bus by an armed gunman.
This is a lesson consultant Tim Holleran teaches with the element of surprise as a textbook and gun-toting goons as instructional aides. Helleran and his men traveled from the United Kingdom to the Shenandoah Valley, where they are now conducting regular training sessions for the first time in the United States.
Their students - or "captives," now lying face down on the ground, their pockets being emptied - are journalists from all over the world whose work takes them to war-torn countries and other volatile areas.
Holleran seems pleased with the "hostage scenario" as his men methodically process the victims, taking their items, cigarettes, cellphones, jewelry, and dumping them into plastic bags. Blanks continue to be spent after guns are cocked and held to the victims heads and jammed into their backs as reminders. Control is removed; their kidnappers snapping it up second-by-second.
"They don't know what is going to happen. It gives them a little taste of the shock of capture," says Holleran, who works for the U.K. based firm Centurion Risk Assessment Services Ltd., specializing in scaring and preparing people for the worst. The Hostile Environments Course is designed to present these scenarios, safely but realistically, to prepare participants for situations ranging from kidnappings to mine explosions.
"Some people make mistakes," says Holleran. "This is the place to make mistakes."
A gunman leads a line of journalists around Camp Lupton.
At the Ramada Inn in Woodstock earlier this March morning, Holleran end his men, all former military personnel from the Royal Marine Commandos and special forces, watch as journalists continue to arrive, asking if there's time for some coffee and eggs.
There's time.
While the remainder of the 18 media representatives, who come from new's organizations such as Reuters, the Independent Television News and the Freedom Forum, are checking in, the Centurions are busy planning their kidnapping.
This will mark the fourth weeklong training course Holleran and his men have conducted at Camp Lupton through a cooperative arrangement with MMA, which allows use of its classrooms and the camp, and provides transportation. The first training course was held in October. Centurion representatives learned of the training site after visiting the Arlington-based Freedom Forum, where they decided to expand their program to the United States. MMA came up with a package, says Holleran, including the land and necessary accommodations.
Back at the camp, the scene is frenetic. Are there enough hoods for the hostages? Weapons have to be test fired. Explosives mixed.
An armed gunman holds one of the journalists hostage on a table while he Is filmed for later viewing.
"We'll be setting up at the bridge. It will all look pretty innocent," says Holleran, his English accent seeming to add formailty to what will soon be chaos. "A load of madmen will come running from the bushes."
Grabbing his walkie-talkie, Centurion John Rows explains he will be the one who parks near the bridge and tips off the kidnappers. He will then drive his Ford Expedition behind the bus to prevent it from turning around.
"As soon as the bang goes off, we will tell them to get their heads down and get the bags over their heads," says Holleran, as the scene around him continues to become more and more sinister.
While the remainder of the 18 media representatives, who come from new's organizations such as Reuters, the Independent Television News and the Freedom Forum, are checking in, the Centurions are busy planning their kidnapping.
Journalists, who ware taken nostage as part ot Lamp Lupton's training session, are walked blindfolded in a chain outside Camp Lupton by their captors.
This will mark the fourth weeklong training course Holleran and his men have conducted at Camp Lupton through a cooperative arrangement with MMA, which allows use of its classrooms and the camp, and provides transportation. The first training course was held in October. Centurion representatives learned of the training site after visiting the Arlington-based Freedom Forum, where they decided to expand their program to the United States. MMA came up with a package, says Holleran, including the land and necessary accommodations.
Back at the camp, the scene is frenetic. Are there enough hoods for the hostages? Weapons have to be test fired. Explosives mixed.
"We'll be setting up at the bridge. It will all look pretty innocent," says Holleran, his English accent seeming to add formailty to what will soon be chaos. "A load of madmen will come running from the bushes."
Grabbing his walkie-talkie, Centurion John Rows explains he will be the one who parks near the bridge and tips off the kidnappers. He will then drive his Ford Expedition behind the bus to prevent it from turning around.
"As soon as the bang goes off, we will tell them to get their heads down and get the bags over their heads," says Holleran, as the scene around him continues to become more and more sinister.
Once the journalists have completed their course on kidnapping, they will take a walk in the woods to be shot at in the afternoon, he says, topped off with a little mortar barrage. The next day they will face live casualties and learn to administer first aid, while later in the week, a psychiatrist would arrive to help the students understand post-traumatic stress disorder. The week was to conclude with a mine explosion near a refugee camp, where mass casualties would be the ultimate test, but high water would leave the bridge impassable.
"It's a lot of hands-on work with live casualties," says Holleran, before assuming his position in the brush.
He has been with Centurion, which began in 1993, for six years. In the beginning, most of the company's work was in the U.K. for the British Broadcasting Corp. The companies' client list - which also includes such notables as The Associated Press, NBC and Amnesty International - began to grow. The New York Times is sending down a group of journalists to Woodstock for training, he says.
"We look at the course as a health and safety course. It's just a little more exotic," says Holleran, grinning.
What the ex-military men often find is that people who tend to keep their distance, and are a llttle leery at first, begin to function as a group.
The group activity this morning was about to wind down. It's not even lunchtime and they had all been kidnapped and brutalized to a chorus of gunshots.
After all of the captives were prodded, robbed and terrorized for what seemed to be an eternity, they are told to stand up and form a human chain. Shots continue, an ever-present reminder of the ever-present uncertainty of the situation. All are on guard as one-by-one they are told to kneel and their hoods are removed. The last victim receives an enthusiastic round of applause from his colleagues.
Coffee and cookies await the group before journalists head to a 'debriefing' to find out what in the heck had just happened.
Reuters reporter Claudia Daut sips tea. Most of her colleagues are based in Latin America, she says, where street shooting and riots can be common occurences. Reuters requires that its employees take the training.
"It will better prepare you for anything that might happen," says Daut.
MMA staffer Steve Hollingsworth, standing nearby, is the designated driver that takes the reporters to their fate at the bridge. "I get shot and get to come back to life every time," he says, obviously enjoying the assignment.
Centurion Paul Hoskings leads the debriefing and explains what the journalists should be on the lookout for when in unstable countries. A loitering vehicle might be a sign of trouble, he says, and reporters should avoid setting patterns to alert potential captores of their daily routines. Hoskings asks the students what they noticed on their trip.
"I saw nice countryside and thought I'd like to come back and go fishing." an ITN reporter offers, laughter erupting in the room.
The session covers nearly every aspect of hostage taking, including the correct way to breathe when a hood is shoved over your head. Holleran urges participants to never carry anything that they aren't willing to lose when traveling to work in these locations. Information obtained from scraps of paper and photographs in a wallet can be used by kidnappers as psychological weapons to further unravel victims. One journalist raised his arm to show that the kidnappers had missed taking his watch during the search Holleran refers to the item as a "big bonus," in that it allowed the hostage a tiny sliver of control, if only the passing time.
Holleran says the most rewarding part of his job is when he hears back from a client who put what he learned to work to survive in a real-life situation. Centurion's curriculum, which includes such training as survival in different climates, biological and chemical warfare, and mines and booby traps, is all in a day's work to some.
"These are the things you are going to get involved in if you are going to a war zone," says Holleran. "But at the end of the day, it's still the hit of the lottery."
