Hundreds of soldiers train in Ocala to respond to terrorist attacks, natural disasters

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For approximately 70 days, about 500 troops from around the country have been in Ocala, training to respond to natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

“As a soldier we are taught to train like we fight,” said US Army Airborne Capt. Christopher Smith. “What that means is you take every situation as real as possible because if you’re not well prepared and treat situations like they’re real, you won’t be prepared for when they are real.”

The soldiers learn rescue techniques to be used in various situations. For example, soldiers must be able to extract survivors from inside and underneath cars and bombed buildings.

There is also training for decontamination if a biological weapon was used in an attack.

Training concluded this weekend.

Michelle Plitnikas wrote this story online.