Republic of Pineland - The Training Nation of North Carolina

There are a whole bunch of special operations forces in fighting forces all around the world, and one of the most unconventional when it comes to training is the United States Army Special Forces, or the Green Berets if you want to go by their nickname. The main focus of this particular unit of the US Army is counter-terrorism as well as unconventional warfare, which has been their main focus and mission since this part of the United States military was founded back on June 19th, 1952. This kind of thing is pretty hard to practice, so there is a unique exercise for the candidates of this branch of the US military that has been designed just to put them through the wringer called Exercise Robin Sage.

Robin Sage is a military exercise that has been going on in the United States for Special Forces candidates since 1974. During this exercise, candidates spend a month training in a fictional foreign nation and act as a guerrilla unit to liberate the country from the rule of an oppressive government. This nation is made up of fifteen rural counties that can be found in the US state of North Carolina and for a month, the potential future US Army soldiers are going to be working to liberate the Republic of Pineland!

The interesting part of Pineland is that during this exercise, the residents of these counties play along and act as if they have been citizens of Pineland their whole lives. The entire 'country' is essentially fifty thousand square miles in size, making it a decently sized nation. To put this into perspective, Iceland is about forty thousand square miles in size, so this is the equivalent of having to understand and liberate a nation that is ten thousand square miles larger than Iceland! The counties that are included in the nation of Pineland are Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Chatham, Davidson, Guilford, Hoke, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, Richmond, Rowan, Scotland, Stanly, and Union County.

The people who are a part of this interesting simulation get into the whole thing of being a part of the country of Pineland. They print a Pineland currency that is used during the exercise and are treated as legal currency known as "Don" which can get you food and other resources like you are spending actual money. There is also an entire fictional culture and history created for the country which residents are versed in when they are talking to military recruits to maintain the illusion.

That being said, a lot of the people simply combine the lore of Pineland into aspects of their real lives and how they live to help maintain the idea of Pineland being a real nation. As Lt. Col. Grant Martin of the Army Special Forces puts it, "You want to create, as much as you can, a complex and real environment with real dilemmas. It is difficult to do that without people basically playing themselves.”

Citations:

- "Army ROTC Summer Training Opportunities". Marquette University.

- "Army Special Forces: Mission and History". military.com. 2023.

- "Central N.C. residents notified of Robin Sage exercises:: WRAL.com". WRAL-TV. 1 August 2010

- "Fake nation tests tomorrow's Special Forces". USA Today. Associated Press. 4 July 2007.

- Goldberg, Maren (n.d.). "Green Berets: United States military". Encyclopædia Britannica.

- Kester, Brian (11 March 2005). "Marines train alongside soldiers at Robin Sage exercise". GlobalSecurity.org. Marine Corps News.

- Robinson, Linda (10 June 2007). "A Few More Good Men Across the military services, a push is on to expand the special operations forces". U.S. News & World Report.

- Twedell, Kelley (8 March 2013). "Robin Sage, Special Forces Training Begins Saturday". FortBraggPatch.

- William Bishop, Mac (6 March 2017). "Inside the Green Berets' Hunt for Wanted Warlord Joseph Kony". NBC News

- Venhuizen, Harm (14 July 2020). "How the Green Berets got their name". Army Times.