Residents in the southern part of the county will hear more gunfire and booms and see more military traffic as training and operations at Camp Atterbury ramp up.
The base near Edinburgh is training 6,000 Indiana Army National Guard troops through Aug. 20. About 13,000 troops are training at the base total, said Capt. Jessica Cates, public affairs director.
The number of soldiers training at the base is the largest number since active mobilization training ended in 2012, she said.
Military officials are telling residents that they will share the road with more military convoys, see more air movement from the military and hear more gun fire as a brigade trains at the base.
Some of the training may be in the evening and at all hours of the night, she said.
“There will probably be extra traffic and more than normal,” she said.
And residents who live near the typically-closed back gates of the military installation on County Road 500W and Georgetown Road in Edinburgh will see military convoys and hear more activity from the base as those gates are being used during the exercise, she said.
Thousands of troops are doing annual training at the base for evaluation, which will include training for multiple scenarios, artillery fire and some movement as the troops also prepare for national evaluation on their skills, she said.
Motorists also may see increased convoy traffic on Hospital Road and U.S. 31 near Edinburgh as the troops get around the base, Cates said.
Part of that training could happen in the middle of the night, since troops don’t always know when they will be evaluated and at what time of the day, Cates said. So, they must prepare for the same scenario at all times of the day, she said.
“Little things are different for them when they operate during the night time,” Cates said.
