Great Falls Montana and Map202

[MajorH]

Tripler;

I just noticed your note saying that you are at Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls Montana.

Have you noticed Map202? The starting point for that map was Great Falls. Later it was modified quite a bit to look more like a smallish version of Baghdad.

Map description follows.

Map 202. Low fidelity representation with a very slight resemblance to Great Falls, Montana. 29 km by 28 km. Grid 6448 to 9376. Released 25 Apr 2002 for U.S. Army exercise use.

Roads and rivers at all map edges are correctly positioned so that a real world, large scale map may be used for events and movements occurring outside the area of this map - such as for higher headquarters play. However, the interior area of the map does not accurately portray the real world layout or nature of the city of Great Falls, Montana, nor the terrain and vegetation around it, nor the road system.

Most non urban, low terrain is coded as Rough 2. Most high ground is coded as Rough 3 with central areas coded as Rough 4. Most wooded terrain is coded along the treeline as Rough 3 with some Rough 4 interiors. Urban terrain varies from Rough 3 (gray tint) to Rough 4 (black tint) with a few open/clear areas which can represent plazas, parks, open air markets, bus parks, and or construction sites.

The road system is very poor. Roads and streets drawn with a gray center and a dark outline are game significant. Roads and streets drawn with only a thin dark line are not game significant.

Significant features.

640511 to 930680 Missouri river
640639 to 761598 Sun river.
735635 Industrial facility.
750610 Railway yard.
750636 TV/radio station and or antenna.
725585 Civilian airport (Great Falls International Airport).
769566 Waterworks.
812609 Presidential palace/residence #1.
799627 Presidential residence #2.
845618 Presidential residence #3.
821609 Sports complex with large parking lot.
845620 Military base/barracks/presidential guard.
840632 Railroad spur to military base.
865610 Military airfield (Malmstrom Air Force Base).
850640 Main electric switching station for city.
763597 Highway bridge (requires a bridge marker to be placed by umpire).
764609 Railway bridge (requires a bridge marker to be placed by umpire).
764614 Highway bridge (requires a bridge marker to be placed by umpire).
787628 Railway bridge (requires a bridge marker to be placed by umpire).
788628 Highway bridge (requires a bridge marker to be placed by umpire).
849643 Railway bridge for military spur (requires a bridge marker to be placed by umpire).
911680 Hydroelectric dam and power facility. (requires a bridge marker to be placed by umpire).
880500 Special facility such as a laboratory, a factory or storage for special weapons, a prison, a POW camp, a terrorist training camp, etc.

Undefined locations to be specified by umpire:

National government buildings/area.
City government buildings/area.
Hospital.
Police station/s.
Fire station/s.

 

[Tripler]

MajorH,

Yes I did. I noticed you mentioned it in another thread, and I immdediatly opened it up on realizing your post. It's a damned good map of town, with MAFB and the local airport in view.

I wish I could see my house from here, but that would give OPFOR a good shot at killing me before I killed them. :laugh:

One question though, sir, what made you choose Great Falls?

Tripler
I've thought of doing Minot, ND for quite a while.

 

[MajorH]

What made you choose Great Falls?

Colonel John Antal.

In early 2002, TacOpsCav was a commonly used support tool for the tactics curriculum at the US Army Armor School at Fort Knox, especially in the Captains Course. It was used constantly at the small classroom level to illustrate and exercise plans and orders that the students developed in conjunction with tactics lectures. TacOpsCav also supported large quarterly exercises that involved hundreds of students from multiple classes or multiple courses and (a few times) multiple schools.

The CO of the 16th Cavalry Regiment wanted a TacOpsCav map that would support an exercise theme of urban cordon and assault. He gave me very specific instructions as to the desired nature (key points) of the urban area that was to be the center of the map. He also wanted the map to be conceptually similar to Baghdad but without actually displaying a map of Baghdad. Although the interior of the TacOpsCav map was not expected to be perfectly accurate, there was a requirement that it be accurate at its map edges so that real world US maps could be used to portray distant areas outside of it and the lines of communication leading into it.

I then spent a long weekend touring the US via "Delorme Topo USA". I scrolled along every major and minor river system in the US looking for a city that resembled Baghdad. Great Falls, Montana was the best match that I could find for the aerial images that I had of Baghdad. A week later I delivered the final map and everyone seemed pleased with it.