COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - It's a typical day in Iraq for four Colorado Guardsmen. They know their task, which is the same as always - conduct convoy operations. They are about four hours into their mission; a mission they've run before.
But today there is an abandoned vehicle where one hasn't been before. The driver hones in on it, the truck commander discusses it on the radio, the gunner watches his sector of fire looking for suspicious activity, and two other Soldiers scan endlessly for signs of improvised explosive devices out of their windows.
The driver knows this route inside and out, but the vehicle distracts him. He intensely focuses on the car and forgets about the bend in the road. Suddenly, their Humvee careens off the dirt road and starts tumbling down a hill.
"Rollover! Rollover! Rollover!" shout the troops in the vehicle. Training sets in. The gunner braces himself, the Soldiers grab onto the gunner, and they all brace for impact.
The Soldiers, shaken and slightly injured, survive thanks to realistic vehicle rollover training they went through before deploying - Humvee Egress Assistant Trainer, or HEAT training.
Although this scenario is fictitious, it's not an impossibility for Soldiers, including the soon-to-be-deploying Soldiers of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion, 157th Field Artillery, Colorado Army National Guard.
Beginning in 2006, the military launched a new way to train Soldiers how to survive a vehicle rollover. HEAT training allows Soldiers to experience a rollover in a controlled environment so if it occurs, they are more likely to save their lives and their buddies'.
"Are we ready?" asks Sgt. 1st Class Christina Sepulveda, a member of the Colorado National Guard's Pre-Mobilization Training Assistance Element, who is about to engage the switches to initiate a vehicle rollover for Soldiers assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 3rd Battalion, 157th Field Artillery, Colorado Army National Guard.
"Let's roll!" shouts a Soldier from inside the vehicle.
With that, Sepulveda adjusts the switches, and the vehicle begins rotating.
At first it's just a slight angle - only 25 degrees. Then she rotates it to 30 degrees.
The Soldiers are relatively quiet inside the vehicle until she begins rolling the vehicle.
"Rollover! Rollover! Rollover!" shout the four Soldiers in the vehicle.
Suspended by their seatbelts, Sepulveda leaves the vehicle at 180 degrees after doing a few 360 rotations.
"We spin them to disorient them and to get them accustomed to what it feels like to hang by their seatbelt," she said.
Over the intercom the Soldiers grunt and ask each other if they are ok.
Sepulveda gives the verbal command, "Egress." With that, the Soldiers conduct a land egress. They must determine which doors still properly function, help one another egress and pull security once out of the vehicle.
After the Soldiers successfully conduct a water egress, their training is complete.
"It was great training," said Staff Sgt. Marion Jackson. "It gave me a different view about vehicle rollover and how you have to work together as a team to escape the vehicle in water and dry land."
All Soldiers assigned to 3rd Battalion, 157th Field Artillery are required to successfully conduct the vehicle rollover training prior to deploying to Iraq later this year.