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New Training Facility Aimed at Preparing US Personnel for Uncertainty Abroad

Agence France-Presse

   BLACKSTONE, VIRGINIA - Suffocating white smoke engulfed the corridor as
   the sound of gunfire rang out, with the blinded U.S. officials inside
   crawling to safety by latching onto one another's clothes and groping
   the wall.
   The scene was not Benghazi or other war zones but the normally quiet
   forests of southern Virginia, where the State Department on Thursday
   opened the largest training facility of its kind, part of a bid to
   better protect U.S. personnel abroad in uncertain times.
   The Foreign Affairs Security Training Center, stretched over 550
   hectares (1,350 acres) at the Army's Fort Pickett, offers instruction
   on everything from rushing out of an urban riot to slamming the brakes
   on wet asphalt to basic martial arts and emergency medical skills.

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