Army
Rattlesnake And Rifles: The Fictional World Of Fort Polk
Deep in the heart of the American state of Louisiana lies a Middle Eastern 'country' like no other.
Based in the Deep South, Atropia has 17 villages, complete with markets, places of worship, civilians to protect - a job that most recently has fallen to the British Army's 3rd Battalion The Rifles (3 RIFLES), going up against their US counterparts in Exercise Rattlesnake.
The ‘country’ is made to be as real as possible with hundreds of actor’s role playing as everything from policemen, politicians to ordinary townsfolk.
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Fort Polk is home to the fake state and has been used since the Second World War as an elite urban training area.
The 20,000 acre Joint Readiness Training Centre has also been used to train American soldiers for the Korean War and Vietnam.
Exercise Rattlesnake marks the first time that British troops have trained at Fort Polk in almost a decade.
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