The operational planning environment within the Air and Space Operations Center (AOC) can appear more like an office than a combat system. Yet, the operators in this setting are responsible for planning entire air campaigns within their assigned combat theaters. Despite the importance of this mission, training typically is ad hoc, relying on traditional on-the-job methods. This paper describes the initial development and assessment of simulation-based training technology for operational planners. Immersive Training for Operational Planners (ITOP) is an information simulation environment along with scenario authoring, instructor management and synthetic role player (SRP) technologies to provide realistic team training for AOC Strategy Division personnel. In an AOC training research exercise, operators, researchers and engineers were brought together to assess the effectiveness and realism of this system. Participants reported ITOP provided effective training relevant to other training activities available for operational planning. Materials and SRP communications were also reported to be realistic and added value to the training event. These findings are discussed along with future research and development efforts associated with this project.