Joint foreign-Brazil exercise 'CRESCENT FIELD' began 36 hours after capture

Thirty-six hours after the capture, two governments held an exercise that nobody had announced and nobody published.

Type: DOCUMENT
Date of Record: 1996-01-22
Source: Bilateral exercise schedule [FICTIONAL]

Abstract

Single page schedule for an unannounced bilateral training exercise hosted at a base within ground-transport range of Varginha. Exercise commenced thirty-six hours after the alleged primary capture and concluded four days later with no public after-action statement. Exercise is not listed in either country's published calendar.

Artifact Inventory

Exercise name: CRESCENT FIELD (designation per schedule)
Start: 1996-01-22, ≈36 h after primary capture
Duration: 4 days
Public listing: Not present in either country's calendar

The schedule

A single page bilateral exercise schedule for CRESCENT FIELD has surfaced from a foreign archive. The schedule lists a host base within ground-transport range of Varginha, a participant roster including Brazilian and foreign units, and a four day duration commencing on 22 January 1996. There is no after-action statement attached and no published announcement preceding the exercise.

What the schedule lists

The activities listed on the schedule are unusual for a hastily convened bilateral exercise. They include "environmental sampling," "specimen handling familiarization," and "transport coordination, secure cargo." These activities do not appear on the regularly published joint exercise calendars for either country in 1995, 1996, or 1997.

The schedule is unsigned, but the formatting and routing are consistent with foreign defense scheduling templates of the period.

What followed