He’s tough, he’s rigorous and now he’s on TV.
Capt. Mitch Utterback, ROTC freshmen instructor at San DiegoState, is the camp sergeant major on Combat Mission, a new realityshow on the USA network.
Four squads, comprised of six non-active military and lawenforcement professionals, compete in training exercises and combatmissions for a grand prize of $250,000. Exercises range from hostagesituations to plane crashes.
Filmed last March at Camp Windstorm, a simulated military base inthe Mojave Desert, Utterback ran the daily operations for all theactivities that took place. He worked with the squads on following aparticular routine of base contests; his job kept him occupied from4:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day.
Filming lasted for one month with only three days off.
On every show, viewers can hear Utterback yell “Fall in” whenteams line up for roll call in the morning.
“Overall, working on the show was a gratifying experience,”Utterback said. “Like anything you do that requires you to call onyour knowledge, skill and ability to accomplish an important task, itleft me with a feeling of a job well done.”
Utterback worked with Rudy Boesch, one of the contestants from thefirst season of Survivor, who was the camp commander. He supervisedthe base and was responsible for briefing all personnel on camprules, training exercises and mission objectives.
“Mitch was very instrumental working alongside Rudy,” AndreaTiano, USA Network publicist, said. “The guys had a lot of respectfor him.”
Utterback has been affiliated with the Army Special Forces since1983. He made contact with Davis Russo, a producer for CombatMissions, who wanted him to compete on the show.
Russo and March Burnett, another producer for the show and formerSurvivor producer, were familiar with Utterback’s work. Utterback hadcompeted three times in “Eco-challenge,” Burnett’s show where fourteams raced non-stop for 6 to 12 days over a rugged 300-mile course.
He also helped direct one of the events and was the chiefinstructor at the Eco-challenge Adventure School when it operatedfrom 1996-97. Producers Burnett and Russo decided Utterback would begreat for Combat Missions.
Several months before filming, the military introduced a policythat prohibited anyone currently in the military from competing onthe show. They didn’t like the original concept of the show, whichset two teams from different military services against each other.
Eventually, the show was changed to have teams of all specialoperation units. But the policy for the military was alreadyestablished, and Utterback was not going to be able to compete on theshow.
They still needed someone to work with Boesch. Utterback suggestedthe idea and the producers agreed.
Utterback started working for the ROTC program on campus lastsemester.
Combat Mission airs at 10 p.m. Wednesday nights on USA.
