Several Soldiers peered down and into the culvert, looking for the telltale signs of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

Standing nearby, Sgt. 1st Class Ian Robb triggered a simulated IED that exploded to the side of and behind the dozen-and-a-half troops.

The explosion clearly caught everyone off guard.

"Culverts can be a decoy," explained Robb, a veteran of four deployments and a counter-IED instructor at Joint Base Lewis-McChord's Warrior Training Academy (WTA), as the smoke drifted away.

"What the enemy does now is plant an IED by the side of the culvert and trigger it when we inspect the culvert."

It was a lesson the 18 Soldiers assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) would not forget.

"We offer a unique program," said Capt. Devens Vogt, the academy's operations officer. "We provide a one-stop shop to assist commanders in their preparations for deployment."

Commanded by Lt. Col. Gary King, the mission of the WTA is to provide fellow commanders with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) on Soldier skills by way of the outcomes-based training and education model. In other words, Soldiers undergo a predetermined number of hours of classroom instruction before going out on a range or lane to put into practice what they've learned.

The three areas of concentration at the WTA are combatives, marksmanship and asymmetrical warfare/counter-IED detection.

All branches of service - active duty, Guard and Reserve - take advantage of the academy's courses. "We had a group of Marines go through here the other day," said Vogt.

Since IEDs have been the insurgents' weapon of choice, improving the ability of Soldiers to recognize the threat is still of vital concern.

Before beginning the training, Robb quizzed the squad on the three types of explosives (homemade, commercial and military) used to manufacture an IED.

As for the Soldiers from the 160th SOAR, they continued to move slowly down a 200-meter long lane, designed to challenge their abilities to spot indicators of where an IED might be.

Wrecked cars, run down shacks, command detonation wires and piles of rocks waited ahead. As the Soldiers proceeded down the lane, they came upon a circle of rocks; hanging on a nearby tree branch was a piece of grey tape.

Something was clearly wrong.

"Your instinct is to move or drive to your right around this; it looks too out of place," said Robb as he pointed at the circle of rocks. As the Soldiers moved around the obstacle in the road, Robb stopped them again. "The enemy could be leading you into a choke point where he can attack you."

To demonstrate, he walked a few steps over to a nearby large pile of broken concrete blocks, and with his right foot overturned one chunk of concrete that concealed a 130mm shell. The Soldiers were standing next to the shell.  The point was made.

Mounted in vehicles or not, if the simulated IED had been real and had been detonated, the results would have been significant.

As Robb and the Soldiers continued down the lane, they began to use the lessons they had learned in the classroom setting more efficiently and to greater effect.

At one point, Robb stopped the group and explained the five-part process (planner, financier, bomb maker, delivery person and bomb emplacer) insurgents use to make and place an IED.

The Soldiers continued down the lane, inspecting cars and buildings.  As they progressed, their skills at spotting IED indicators continued to improve. By the end of the training lane, they had impressed Robb.

"They've done a good job," he said.