Most notably, and adding a specific and complex layer to this type of warfare, civilians blended with adversaries, all played by instructors who ambushed us with paintball guns. Beyond every corner, window, or doorway lurked a potential ambush. The urban battlefield was highly constricted streets and buildings funneled us into close quarters with our enemy. Tactically, MOUT was very different from the traditional combat we’d already studied in the Marine Corps. military-speak for high-intensity urban combat, like what’s unfolding in Gaza. This faux city was called “MOUT Town.” MOUT-Military Operations in Urban Terrain-is U.S.
Twenty years ago, on what looked like a movie set built in the Quantico woods, I learned how to fight in a city.
