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Deep in the Mojave Desert, a small Alaska Native village corporation--The Tatitlek Corp.-is engaging in a unique way to serve its county, shareholders and state.
Tatitlek provides role-players who support realistic predeployment training conducted by the Marine Corps at Twentynine Palms, Calif. The critical training teaches Marines the skills they need to anticipate and effectively respond to real-life combat situations in Iraq. Tatitlek's role is to provide foreign language speakers and civilians on the battlefield to interact with the trainees, as well as experienced project managers.
Mojave Viper, as the predeployment training is called, is designed to be as real as possible. The training site resembles an actual Iraqi village with a marketplace, cafe, mosque and other common buildings. The village is populated with Arabic-speaking, culturally garbed role-players pretending to be Iraqi citizens. For added realism, there are weapons and explosives, as well as Hollywood-style makeup featuring blood and injuries. The trainees get a first-hand opportunity to react to the role-players in varying scenarios.
"The training is all about protecting the lives of Marines in Iraq, as well as the lives of civilians," explained Tatitlek President and CEO, Roy Totemoff. "Our troops have an important and dangerous mission, and our goal is to assist the Marine Corps with providing a realistic training experience so they know what to expect and so they make mistakes in a controlled environment--before they are deployed."
As part of the training, the role players assume various characterizations to create convincing situations. For example, the foreign language speakers typically portray religious leaders, mayors and members of opposing forces, embedded interpreters, and others in simulated cultural roles. They're generally foreign-born American citizens who have the language skills and life experiences required to replicate real life in the combat zone in question.
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On the other hand, the civilians on the battlefield include a large number of military veterans. Their experience in readiness and predeployment provides them with the background to effectively act as refugees, military resistance operatives, terrorists and victims of terrorist attacks.
The role players are a key component in producing authentic predeployment training exercises. In fact, the training is so realistic that it recently garnered national exposure from a Fox News Channel report. Tatitlek has been working at Twentynine Palms since April 2006 and is proud to be a part of the Marine Corps training program, Totemoff said.
"We know that this is one of the most important military training programs in the country, so we were not surprised that the program is receiving the national recognition it deserves," he said. "We are pleased, however, that Fox News featured our role in the process, though the credit all belongs to the Marine Corps."
BIG OPPORTUNITY
Tatitlek has five subsidiaries: Tatitlek Management Inc., Tatitlek Contractors Inc., Tatitlek Response Services Inc., Tatitlek Training Services Inc., and Tatitlek Support Services Inc. (TSSI). Role players for the Twentynine Palms training contract are provided through TSSI and rendered through the division known as Tatitlek/FPTS--which stands for Force Preparedness Training Systems. However, the official name is seldom used when referencing the company's simulation training services, according to Totemoff.
"We originally believed that we should have a military-sounding name so our customers would take us seriously," he explained. "Instead, our contracting officer told us that they were proud to have awarded this important contract to an Alaska Native village corporation, and they would like to see the name Tatitlek displayed more prominently."
Totemoff can certainly agree with the concept of bringing prominence to the Tatitlek name and corporation. He heads one of five Alaska Native village corporations within the geographic region of Chugach Alaska Corp., an Alaska Native regional corporation established by Congress under terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971.
The village of Tatitlek is a small community located 30 miles south of Valdez on the eastern side of the Tatitlek Narrows. Originally, it had 215 shareholders who each received 100 shares of settlement stock in 1972, according to Totemoff. Now, due to gifting and inheritance, there are approximately 320 shareholders. "We have about 95 residents in the village of Tatitlek today," Totemoff said. "The rest of our shareholders live in Cordova and Anchorage, as well as in other Alaska cities and Outside."
With a traditional fishing--and subsistence-based culture, Tatitlek offers fish-processing and oyster-farming as a means of employment for some residents. It also has a state-owned lighted gravel airstrip and a seaplane landing area, and air charters are available from Valdez and Cordova. The Twentynine Palms contract is a major achievement because it brings broader economic opportunities to The Tatitlek Corp. and its shareholders.
VAST TRAINING GROUND
Twentynine Palms is home to the world's largest Marine Corps base. As the premier training facility for Marine operations, it draws military personnel from all over the world for Combined Arms Exercises. Each year, nearly one-third of the Fleet Marine Force and Marine Reserve units--a total of about 50,000 Marines--participate in the base's training exercise program, according to the Twentynine Palms Web site.
The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms provides live-fire, combined arms training that promotes the readiness of operating forces. The Combat Center is a vast training ground. Located in the southern Mojave Desert, it is roughly three-quarters the size of the state of Rhode Island. This provides ample room for realistic air/ground combat training exercises--including the type of training supported by Tatitlek.
The Mojave Desert is an arduous place for predeployment training, with its steeply sloped mountains, incessant sand and extreme heat and cold. Tatitlek's role players work long hours for days at a time, often with little access to showers and other comforts. But the work force remains steadfast because of the critical nature of the training.
INVALUABLE THEATER
The rigorous training taking place at Twentynine Palms is a form of "live" theater. And everyone plays his or her part, including Interim Project Manager Jim Cooney, a retired Marine colonel with 31 years of service. It's Cooney's job to effectively oversee the training exercises and related supportive services to ensure the trainees are properly prepared to survive in Iraq.
Typically, Marines complete the training in the ground-combat-arms unit. Many of them are set to deploy several months after completing the training. "All of the units who are going to Iraq have to go through here before they go to Iraq," Cooney said.
The training program averages 10 intensive days. It employs up-to-date tactics, procedures and scenarios that are relevant to Iraq to replicate what deployed Marines will face when they arrive there. The training is based on a Mission Scenario Events List of about 20 unscripted scenarios that trainees execute with the role players. "Yesterday, we had a bank robbery.... There are certain expectations that the Iraqi police and Marines are supposed to use to respond to this event," Cooney said.
The Marine Corps considers the realistic exercises to be invaluable training, said Cooney, who served in Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Somalia. "I would consider this a dress rehearsal for what they're going to face in theater.... This type of training saves lives."
Actually, it's a dress rehearsal full of surprises, since the trainees have no clue what, when or where a scenario will unfold. One minute, they could be attending a mock party or wedding. The next moment, a riot or hostage situation could erupt. The spontaneous incidents force trainees to engage in a very rapid and thoughtful decision-making process, Cooney said. "We really give them some strong challenges in what we call the human dimension of war," he explained. "They come into a sophisticated scenario with no predictable outcome. It's far better that they make mistakes here rather than in Iraq."
Tatitlek supplies about 375 thoroughly screened role-players at a time for the training exercises. About 80 percent of the role-players--all of whom are employees, not independent contractors--are from places like Iraq, Jordan and Egypt. Having "live" contact with role-playing participants is a crucial element in delivering effective training, Cooney said. "Our role-players go in there and provide a stimulus for the Marines to try to get them to react in a certain way," he explained. "It's all about the heart and mind; that's why the role-players are so invaluable."
The realism of the training can be overwhelming to some Marines, as they encounter exploding mines, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire engineered by San Diego film studio Strategic Operations Inc. At times, real actors who are amputees are brought in to portray bloodied attack victims. "To some folks who have never seen anything like that, it's extraordinarily powerful," Cooney said.
TATITLEK'S SUCCESS
The role-player training is turning out to be a successful venture for Tatitlek, according to Totemoff. Tatitlek has received positive feedback from participants and has been awarded a new five-year contract worth approximately $35 million annually. "However, the real success can only be measured when the Marines we train come home safely," Totemoff said.
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