In 2002, the U.S. military tapped Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper to lead the opposing forces in the most expensive and expansive military exercise in history up until that point. He was put in command of an inferior Middle Eastern-inspired military force—essentially a fictional Iran—and his mission was to go against the full might of the American armed forces.

In the first two days, he sank an entire carrier battle group. In fact, he had achieved such great success so fast that it prompted the U.S. military brass to cry foul.

The exercise, called Millennium Challenge 2002, wasn’t just big. It was huge. It was designed by the Joint Forces Command over the course of two years to include 13,500 participants and numerous live and simulated training sites.

The idea, mandated by Congress, was to pit an Iran-like Middle Eastern country against the U.S. military, which would be fielding advanced technology that the United States had not planned to implement until five years later. It would begin with a forced-entry exercise that included the 82nd Airborne and the 1st Marine Division. When the Blue Forces issued a surrender ultimatum, Van Riper, commanding the Red Forces, turned them down.