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FORT DRUM, N.Y. (AP) - Col. Rick Mitchell did three tours of duty in Iraq, flying dozens of patrols and bombing missions over the desert landscape.
Even so, the veteran Air National Guard pilot did a double-take the first time he saw what appeared to be a Muslim cemetery and a mound of ruins on Range 48 at the U.S. Army's Fort Drum in upstate New York.
"It looked just like way it looked over there. It's going to give our pilots some firsthand experience in recognizing and identifying these kinds of sites from the air under fairly realistic conditions," said Mitchell, of Merrimac, N.H., who flies with the 118th Fighter Wing out of Connecticut.
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