Survival tactics from generations past are making a comeback in Fort Carson training as soldiers prepare for a potential ground war in Europe.

“How do you survive in a battlefield that is transparent because you’re always under observation?” asked Col. Tony Keller, commander of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team “Camouflage nets, face paint, masking techniques, things that we probably did really well 30-40 years ago.”

Most Fort Carson soldiers with 1st Stryker Brigade wore face paint Monday as they talked with community members at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad about their vehicles — some outfitted to fire 120 mm mortars or launch grenades. A small contingent of the community traveled more than two hours to learn about the vehicles, weaponry and site that spans 235,000 acres and regularly hosts Fort Carson training.

Some soldiers sported foliage around their helmets to obscure their silhouette, a simple solution to help them survive, Keller explained.

The soldiers are expected to test their survival training lessons, and many other skills, as part of the Lethal Ivy training exercise involving about 4,000 soldiers and lasting through Sept. 6. The large-scale training is expected to prepare them for a trip to the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson in Louisiana, formerly Fort Polk, Keller said.

He expected the exercise to ramp up Monday night as a helicopters, an infantry battalion and an artillery battalion practice an attack together. Once they complete the attack, they will dig in to defend the area they took.

Real soldiers represent the enemy during the exercise, which Keller said is somewhat choreographed but also prepares the brigade for its next challenge at the Joint Readiness Training Center, where live rounds can be used in training.

“We’re going to see how the friendly forces doing the attack react or actually fight through,” Keller said.

The infantrymen are essentially playing laser tag during training, Keller said, and their equipment will let them know if they were killed or injured from a shot.

Those practicing firing mortars have the satisfaction of a quick firecracker to fill in for their real shell, and then receive a verbal notification if they hit anything, explained Staff Sgt. Jerry Wayne.

In a real fight, the cannon would fire high explosive rounds, white phosphorous rounds that can melt large amounts of equipment and illumination rounds to light up the battlefield, he said.

When the brigade travels to the woods of Louisiana for training later in the year, they will face the added difficulty of navigating a wooded environment in the hulking eight-wheeled vehicles, explained Staff Sgt. James Brunson.

The woods in the training center will also offer good cover to practice digging in and concealing the vehicles in such an environment, often with the help of bulldozers and camouflage nets, which extend from the vehicles and are covered with branches and foliage.

Individuals will also be expected to dig their own ranger graves or modern foxholes in the swampy Southern woods, Brunson said.

It’s training he said he expects could be applicable in a ground war.

“I think it’s going to be good training value for this brigade going into a wooded area, especially if we have to go to Ukraine or Russia,” he said.

The war in Ukraine was heating up Monday as the country faced one of the largest air attacks from Russia of the war, the Associated Press reported.

The barrage of over 100 missiles and a similar number of drones began around midnight and continued through daybreak, killing four people and injuring more than a dozen.