Four vehicles back, 23-year-old Airman 1st Class Dieter Siegelin dropped his football-player frame from the back door of a blue bus and took cover. Kneeling in the dirt in his combat fatigues, he pointed his M-16 into the western desert brush where the sun was setting. The sound of AK-47 gunfire from attacking insurgents was getting closer.

A dozen more camouflaged airmen scattered from their Humvees and opened fire on several unseen attackers to the east.

The airmen of Bravo Group had been practicing these maneuvers so often during the past two days of deployment training at the Utah Test and Training Range in Tooele County that it was almost second nature now. Surviving this attack would be the airmen's final test.

The staged attack was part of a three-day deployment training that began Tuesday for 181 members of the 75th Air Base Wing from Hill Air Force Base. The group, about half of whom had never fired an M-16, were trained in combat arms, convoy security, air base defense and first aid.

"Our main objective is to enable people when they get in the theater to come home safely, all in one piece and not in a body bag," said Capt. Jay Anderton, operations officer for the exercise.

This type of ground training is new and somewhat foreign to the Air Force, which in the past was solely charged with supplying air defense. But because of the number of newly built air bases in hot spots like Afghanistan and Iraq, airmen must now learn to defend themselves on the ground.

"We no longer have the luxury of launching air strikes from completely secure areas where there is no possible threat," Air Force spokesman Capt. Rob Goza said. "The war that we're currently fighting requires all airmen to defend themselves and their air base and their fellow airmen at a moment's notice."

The Army established the scenarios - there's no such country as Kazturkistan - and soldiers played the roles of insurgents.

During the training exercises, Siegelin and his six tent mates looked to Senior Airman Diogenes Carrillo, known as "DC," and Staff Sgt. Nick Hill for instruction. Both are in their mid-20s and had already been deployed overseas. They knew what was expected of the group.

The airmen lived in a desert city called Camp Conostra, comprising 27 tents. They worked as a team responding to air raids, insurgent attacks, suicide bombings, and run-ins with unarmed local nationals. Carrillo, a native of Venezuela, and Hill, an "All-American" looking boy from Texas, had sharp wits and kept morale high by cracking jokes and shouting encouraging comments. Despite being tired, the airmen responded enthusiastically.

Between fighting scenarios, the airmen were encouraged to eat and sleep when they could, which wasn't often. Over three days, most of the group got less than 15 hours of sporadic sleep on small cots lining the inside of a 12-person military tent.

"I was so tired I couldn't go to sleep," Carrillo said.

A lightning storm with wind, rain and hail disrupted the first day of training. Most evenings and mornings were chilly and wet as moisture dripped through the tents and into some of the airmen's sleeping bags.

"It feels like f---ing Siberia," Carrillo said Thursday when the group was awakened at 6 a.m.

The airmen never knew when they would be "attacked." Sitting in bunkers around the camp's perimeter, members of Bravo Group took turns keeping an eye out for suspicious vehicles and people moving outside of the camp.

To pass the time, Carrillo, Hill and staff Sgt. David Taitague talked about their upcoming plans and missing their children and their hometowns. Carrillo and Hill both have 3-year-old daughters and Taitague recently tied the knot. Hill said his daughter isn't old enough yet to understand what he does and why he's away from home so often.

"'Dad's at work' is all she says," Hill said.

The downtime, the attacks and the sleep deprivation helped instill in the airmen a sense of urgency, focus and a warrior mentality.

On the last day of training, Bravo Group's newly acquired skills were put to the test when insurgents attacked their seven-truck convoy traveling from Camp Conostra to the fictional Al Salaam Air Base.

The airmen responded with ferocity and gave the insurgents a tough battle. Fifteen minutes into the firefight, however, Carrillo and airman Ron Novakovich had been shot dead. Hill and Taitague and a dozen other airmen fell lifeless or injured within 30 minutes.

When the hour-long firefight finally ended, the bodies of 11 insurgents and 24 airmen lay scattered across the soft, prickly desert floor, the last bluish gray moments of dusk fading. Silhouetted on the road, unwounded survivors tended to their injured comrades and rested. Siegelin was there among the 17 living airmen and had even killed three insurgents.

"I didn't join the gaggle," Siegelin said. "As the insurgents came up I picked them off from behind."

U.S. Army Maj. Chris Chandler, who coordinated the scenarios for the insurgents, played by soldiers, said Bravo Group was the best group that the experienced "hunter team" had ever gone up against during training.

"That was a thing of beauty to watch," he told the tired airmen who were considered "distinguished graduates" by Air Force Lt. Col. Rob Rocco.

Coming from a respected Army commander, Chandler's comment was considered high praise as well as a blessing since some of the airmen will be deployed to areas of the Middle East as soon as September.

jbergreen@sltrib.com