By Allen Hamrick
Ever since the beginning of this country, common folks like you and I grabbed pitch forks, old farm muskets and whatever else could be found to defend our keep and our country. Our freedoms have been relentlessly pursued and will always be until our freedom is abused to the point that there is no foundation of the human life forfeited for it. Soldiers throughout the years have stood in the field facing the enemy with nothing but a knife and a gun, charging into a hail of gun fire and going toe to toe with the best equipment they had at the time at the price of their life. In every war, every conflict the United States has been involved in, from the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan, our military has evolved and continues to evolve into the greatest fighting force in the world. We have overcome many obstacles to get there. When the Germans built the Panzer, the greatest tank in the world during WWII that was said to be unbeatable, the American fighting force overcame that obstacle by utilizing the smaller tanks they had to defeat them, though inferior to what they were up against. They are the ones that remained dedicated to the people, to their oath to defend at all costs the Constitution of the United States, and at all costs they did. Freedom and liberty for you and me at home was a cause to squash the oppressors who would try to deny their country and their people those rights.
There is a reason we are the best. Our force is highly trained every day to be the best by some of the highest qualified individuals in their respective fields. They have top of the line equipment, from boots to battleships, made by the best companies in the world that allow our men and women to become the most feared military in the world. Creating and testing to create better equipment for the soldier in the field and in the air is paramount to stay ahead of the game. There has to be training facilities that mimic battle zone areas like the forest, cliffs, fields, houses, bunkers, tunnels, or towns our soldiers may encounter. The United States military is some of the best trained to go into situations where hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis have decimated a region. During those types of disasters a collaboration between the military and the first responders – fire, EMT / paramedics and law enforcement are often the rule of the day. They train in the same techniques although in different areas with different means. That is until now.
Nestled in the hills between Clay and Nicholas County at the old Fola Coal site is an up and coming training facility like no other. The Civil-Military Institute (CMI2) has been breaking ground on what will become not only the top training facility in the United States for military and civil entities but, by their very presence, a great opportunity for Clay County to grow into a community that will be a point of interest for travelers and people looking for a place to spend a vacation. Construction began roughly eight months ago, and they are well on their way to finish construction this year. CMI2, along with SAAB, provide for the creation and testing of the newest in military technology ranging from field testing war time and disaster communication to creating war time and disaster scenarios for the military and civilian response units.
All the analysis and data received in the training is used in the designing and development of even better equipment to stay on the top of the food chain in today’s ever growing high tech warfare. Their involvement in the design, field training new equipment, and problem solving the encounters our elite military would come in contact with is a dominant issue. The success of our fighting force depends on it. If you need more information or just want to learn more, visit them on their web site https://cmi2.org. Job postings can also be found at indeed.com.
SAAB, which you may think of as a car manufacturer, is a company that provides top notch equipment for the troops to train with from communication to real life action gear to mimic what a soldier would use in real battle situations. Together, these are companies who take all the risks necessary to accomplish the end result and that is to make our military the ultimate war machine and to give the local response units a place to work out the bugs of their response before they ever encounter it in the field. How does it benefit Clay? Part of their goals is to ultimately benefit the county of Clay with job opportunities, promote business growth and see that the people of Clay grow into a community full of expectation and vision. Don’t forget to check out their site; jobs will be posted as they grow.
There will be many military exercises in the coming months and years as the area grows into what they have envisioned it to be. Right now, they are using all local people to construct buildings and lay foundations for new buildings. They have developed a city of storage containers built so that any danger that military or response teams may come up against in the field, they will be able to work out the logistics, from an Afghanistan type battle field to what they may stumble upon in a disaster. On April 17, 2023, the 101st Airborne will begin a simulated air assault using Blackhawks, Apaches and Chinook helicopters; it will be the longest simulation that they have undertaken in 10 years. They will be flying over Clay County on their way to the landing zone. So, put that date on the map and put the word out that there is no invasion – it is our military in action, and we get to be a small part of it. There is a lot that can be written in detail about these two businesses, but it would take a book. Thanks to companies like CMI2 and SAAB, our future, and our homeland will stay secure, and future generations of Americans will remain defended by the best.
