In addition to the Marine role-players, civilian actors will portray members of the community. This will be the first time the Marine Corps has tried something like this. Hollywood International Films was contracted by the Marine Corps to search for extras and principal roles for the terrorist exercise. Marines acting as civilians know how the scenario is supposed to go, they do what is expected of them - even as terrorists. We've typically had Marines play the parts of terrorists in the past.
Marines make lousy role-players.
For instance a Marine role-player will grab the rifle of a peacekeeper because they know that it's not loaded with real ammunition during training. This makes them recklessly over-aggressive. Along with the civilian actors, MCWL tested several concepts and technologies during the experiment. We took an approach of trying to couple technology with some new procedures for the 21st century. The Navy-Marine Corps team has the ability to bring food, water, shelter and medicine from the sea and provide it to a city such as Oakland, Schenkel explained.