Nevada left out of 7-state military exercise

The largest multistate training exercise ever conducted by the Army Special Operations Command is scheduled to begin July 15 on private and public land in seven states in the Southwest and Southeast.

Noticeably absent from the list is Nevada, the nation’s hallmark state for conducting large-scale military exercises.

The eight-week exercise, code-named Jade Helm-15, will involve at least 1,200 troops, aircraft and equipment from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

“U.S. Army Special Operations Command has conducted multistate training exercises before but Jade Helm-15 will become the largest,” according a fact sheet released by the command.

Arguably, it would be suited for inclusion with training operations that routinely involve hundreds of aircraft and personnel at Nellis and Creech Air Force bases, and the sprawling range north of the Las Vegas Valley.

The Air Force’s 3-million-acre Nevada Test and Training Range and the Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., where air-to-ground Green Flag exercises are conducted, already have villages and infrastructure in place to simulate combat against insurgents.

But Army special ops commanders want their troops to experience more realistic situations in different settings.

The exercise “relies on training away from military installations to expose Army Special Operations Forces to unfamiliar conditions,” command officials said.

Yet some military installations are being used for Jade Helm, just not Nellis, Creech or Naval Air Station Fallon or Hawthorne Army Depot in Northern Nevada.

“The military installations selected best fit with the training scenario environments,” a command spokeswoman, Suzanne Nagel, said Wednesday.

Planners selected diverse terrain on private and Defense Department land in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. Access to private tracts was offered at no expense to the government.

“Controls are in place to ensure there is no risk to persons or property,” the fact sheet says, adding that participants will use only “blank” ammunition, and soldiers won’t be used for domestic law enforcement.

Critics in some host states have expressed concern that Jade Helm-15 conjures images of martial law and violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the U.S. military from enforcing state laws.

“Jade Helm does not have anything to do with martial law,” officials said.

They also debunked broadcasts by one outlet, Next News Network, that posted a video June 22 linking Jade Helm-15 to a recent NATO exercise and saying it “could most likely be targeted at Russia and China.”

Nagel said, “The reports from Next News Network are not accurate. There is no connection between the two exercises.”

Next News Network claimed in 2013 that a temporary Army Reserve motor pool operating out of an old car lot in northwest Las Vegas was a secret base for martial law. Army Reserve officials quickly denied that was the case. They opened it for a tour and explained that it was being leased temporarily until the George W. Dunaway Army Reserve Center opened this year in Sloan, 19 miles south of Las Vegas.

Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2.