Marines, SEALs confirm training on Indian reservation

By J. Harry Jones
Friday, April 22, 2011 at 5:35 p.m.

Marine and Navy special-operations forces have trained at a privately run camp made unusual because of its location — on the remote Los Coyotes Indian Reservation near Warner Springs — and the Navy SEALs in Coronado plan to use the site soon for a new survival-training course.

The facility, called the Eagle Rock Training Center, has at least two firing ranges, a helipad and shipping containers being turned into a mock Afghan village, according to two men at the site on April 6.

Meanwhile, a three-minute marketing video obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune details what the facility might become — the country’s largest private training facility for the military and law enforcement, according to former Blackwater Worldwide executive Brian Bonfiglio, who is featured in it.

In the video, which three people said they saw last year on a website that no longer exists, Bonfiglio touts the center’s benefits:

•The centralization of many types of drills — shooting firearms, rappelling from helicopters, breaking into mock Afghan and Iraqi homes.

•Diverse terrain on the 25,000-acre reservation, which includes mountains and valleys.

•Proximity to military bases in San Diego County.

Nearly two weeks ago, Bonfiglio and Sean Roach described the site as a paintball course, film center and place for cultural and language-immersion training. Roach, an entrepreneur with businesses listed in Nevada and San Diego County, said he came up with the Eagle Rock concept about six months ago.

In 2009, though, an article in the magazine Military Training Technology identified Bonfiglio as the center’s founder.

Bonfiglio, a former vice president for Blackwater (now Xe Services), provides the voice-over for the video as he explains a full-service program that includes a headquarters complex, a set of firing ranges and other combat and tactical training. The advertisement includes professionally produced footage, such as scenes of troops armed with semiautomatic weapons maneuvering around buildings and shooting at training targets.

“Eagle Rock Training Center is a private entity created to meet the substantial need on the West Coast ... for specialized training of military and law-enforcement personnel in the tactical and strategic operations for combat and counterterrorism,â€