If your biggest dream is to dress up as an Afghani villager and help simulate a war-like environment to help train National Guard soldiers, then your day has finally arrived, buddy. That’s right, next month the National Guard will be holding large training sessions in Fort Chaffee aimed at preparing soldiers for life in the combat zone by simulating an Afghani village.
Sounds lame, right? Well, this ain’t your momma’s Afghan simulation, my friend. No, no, no. This is the big time, complete with Hummer’s (haha), machine guns and “moviestyle pyrotechnics” (AKA “big ass explosions”).There won’t be any live fire, but I’m guessing that there’ll be plenty of bangs and booms to satisfy your lust for explosions. If everything goes well, a $ 20 million mock village complete with mosques and a soccer field will be added a few years down the road… although I’m hoping that we’ve left the Middle East at that point and a $20 million dollar training village is no longer necessary. But I digress…
Private casting companies have been hired and are holding open casting calls that started yesterday and will run from 2-7 through Saturday at Fort Smith’s Residence Inn by Marriot. As long as you’re 18 or older, are a legal US citizen (‘cause illegal aliens are just dying to do this kind of stuff), can provide two forms of ID (Your Blockbuster card doesn’t count, dude. Sorry) and can handle 12-hour days in the heat, then you’ll be considered. If your an Afghani, I’d image they’ll hire you on the spot… Sort of like being an Australian and applying for a job at Outback.
Oh, did I mention they pay $90/day and offer free meals? That works out to $7.50 an hour for a 12-hour workday. Hey college students, if you still haven’t landed that summer job, this might make for an interesting one.
The purpose of the training exercises are to help train soldiers to work with the civilians, learn certain cultural norms, spot bad guys and to simply train them in various military exercises. They’ve hired many Afghanis to help make the simulation more real. In addition, they’ve hired Najibullah Niazi, a former United Nations interpreter from Afghanistan, to help them with the cultural aspect of the training.
Anyway, if you’re needing something to do next month, I’d imagine that this would make for a pretty interesting job.
PS – It probably wouldn’t hurt if you told them that you really like that Three Doors Down video you’re forced to watch before every freaking movie. Sure you’ll be lying to their face, but who cares if it helps you land the gig, right?
