Coalition troops in Central Indiana for special training

Camp Atterbury is host to the Bold Quest training initiative, focusing on preventing "friendly fire" between coalition forces.

Combat identification on the ground and in the air is more difficult in the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Captain Kent Davis.

"Those lines are blurred now. The enemy is not always in a uniform for one thing, which makes it tough to identify the enemy and we find ourselves more and more operating in a sort of urban setting, where you have what we call neutrals, with a civilian population," Davis said. 

The month-long training consists of battle field simulations with troops from 13 countries and NATO forces syncing systems to help wounded troops. Dutch, Norwegian and American troops were working together to run through a situation where and IED hit a group of soldiers Tuesday.

Some of the training also happens in the classroom. Situational Awareness training focuses on the "human factor" which means training troops to make quick decisions about who is a friend and who is an enemy in the field.

Special simulation technology gives soldiers the chance to drive through enemy territory and identify IEDs.

South of Camp Atterbury, at Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex, real-life scenarios play out. An Afghan marketplace serves as the training course, where some troops play roles of insurgents and others try to detect IEDs.

"This is where we make or break our guys, because if we can bleed now then we wont bleed over there and a lot of guys come home," said Sargent Scott Morris, who guided a group of new trainees through the simulation Tuesday.

The nearly 750 troops participating in Bold Quest will continue training through September 24.