An armored vehicle probes for IED’s. Down the road, a mother clutches her baby, as U.S. troops take down an insurgent in hiding.

But this isn't Fallujah—It’s Fort McCoy.

And it's where Staff Sgt. Jason Hinchley and his fellow soldiers get their training before they head to Iraq.

"I’m trying to be prepared for any mission we might need to do over there,” he says.

Hinchley's part of the 724th Engineering Battalion of the Army National Guard. This isn't his usual day job.

"I’m a correctional officer,” he describes.

But today, his supervisor from the Department of Corrections Jason Acherberg went along to view training missions.

"It's very significant. It's an opportunity to see what they go through when they leave us,” says Acherberg.

The Employment Support for Guard and Reserve put on the event to give the average employer a look into what soldiers do on a day-to-day basis. Mike Hallquist says bosses who see their employees in action with the military gain a greater respect for those who deploy.

"A lot of them have no idea what they go through, they've never been in the military,” Hallquist says. “Then they realize, ‘Oh my gosh, these guys are busy!’ Each one of them out here is a leader. They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t.”

Soldiers we spoke to on today’s training missions say the technology they use at Fort McCoy has advanced since their earlier deployments, and now more accurately reflects the machinery and maneuvers used currently in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the training grounds at Fort McCoy, the soldiers use tactical “towns” with actual signs in Arabic. Those acting as townspeople often come from the Middle East and are privately contract through the military to aid in training exercises, so troops get a better feel for what it could be like overseas.

Acherberg says seeing what Hinchley goes through has helped the pair form a closer bond.

"We're actually going to miss him more but we understand what he needs to do,” he says.

The 724th engineer battalion will deploy next month after more extensive training.

On Sunday, more than 550 soldiers from the 1st battalion, 151st field artillery are returning to Fort McCoy following a year-long deployment in Iraq.