OPERATION BALKAN HAMMER - Oct 26-28th 2007 - Camp Navajo, AZ

[deathbydanish]

For me this military sim was the most exciting and fulling airsoft play I have yet to experience. I am so thankful for all of those who had a part in making this event happen! From the friends I made and the experience I gained, this sim was absolutely priceless. I do have to admit I fell out of character once or twice, but in all I felt like the grunt I was.

Your Friendly Turret Gunner,

Julius Sacco Jr.

AkA: CzarVein

Did you grab your mag? You left one in the turret, it helped out a little when we were running low on ammo for one of the humvee runs.

[Julius]

lol all my mags found their way back to me. lol I tend to drop and forget about them in the heat of battle. Thanks to those who made sure they got returned. The only thing I lost was a mag for my glock that I never used. NOTE: I have a mag of somebodies that has a green pull hoop with green tape, I think there is initials carved into thr top of the mag that read "JL"

[Maxtor21]

Just an outstanding game.  Alot of memorable moments throughout the weekend, and got to meet a bunch of great people.  my most memorable moment of course being getting the drop on drew and his men (who thankfully didn't step on me as they passed me.)  good job by everyone had a blast, can't wait for the next chance to take the field with you guys.

[KILO 42]

Originally posted by Argent_Intel:

Guys...
Out fucking standing
Great weekend...
I am pretty beat-up...sore, tired and ragged...
I almost don't know what to say...

REGT and Mercy (and a morning Cameo from ED (HF)) I had an absolute BLAST...

I had a really great time, REGT guys did a top shelf job all weekend...first time I have seen the group really play at that level, with that kind of stamina and intensity (first 11.5 hour day started at 0400)

Way to really step up and bring all the training and patrolling to a focus
Too many really stellar momments...

1st Night OP ORD /FRAGO Brief...

REGT running IA drills and patrol skills in the dark in the freezing cold into the wee hrs on the Quad (thanks KILO!)  :|_|:

Dark 2 hr RECCE in the freezing cold ("Rough" Insetion and miss-drop) all objectives located and completed without detection from the SERB HK Team...(Great quiet Point work by Woody!!)Location and RECCE of FOB

Long RECCE / Border Incursion

Location of SERB Vehical / Armor elements

Location/ destruction of SERB Technical and Forward Patrol encampment

Location of NATO Pilot / Crash Site Location and GPS tagging...(tasked as a blocking/harrasment force...Arrived onsite well ahead of 10th SF / Ranger Detachment assault force, SERB QRF and Armor  was underway with Pilot abduction.performed Hasty Raid ambush and  conducted a successfull assault of location (Held by a much larger SERB Mechanized Infantry unit) in an attempt to interdict ongoing SERB recovery efforts... RECOVERED essential Crash Debris, "Sanitized" area with Thermite and Exfiled

Location GPS tagging / concealment of Tactical Warhead... for 10th SF Recovery
(I believe this was all conducted before 0900)

More to come...

You guys pushed hard all over the AO all day over some of the meanest terrain... and EVERY SERB unit wanted our heads
All the great Armor / AT moments are yet to come...(too many "Pvt. Ryan" moments to recount...)lets hear some of your observations and moments...

BTW...Squad worked like a MACHINE in Contact and on IAWe inflicted some HEAVY damage every time we came under fire
TEAM really made it what it was...

Good to see all the Regulars...Jen, Doc & Co.

Great to see and Hang and Play with MERCY (our LO...always a pleasure and a challenge) and KILO (SERB Advisor) (who so graciously dogged us and chased us the whole time with his HK team and CT QRF)..thanks for that Brother!

-Game staff did a great Job...missions / props and set-up was very cool and interesting...game design challenging and immersive...and for the first time someone really stepped up and "USED" the Vehicals...the ARMOR was not SHY

MAC-V Staff...you guys did a great JOB and we will put our heads to this and get you a propper and constructive AAR to help you guys grow...we are happy to support your efforts...as for this event you should be very pleased with the GAme you built...Great Time! good mix of Mil-Sim and Action, Very Fun AO...and YES much better than a Lionclaws type event... I think the size of the event is important...Smaller games are ALWAYS better quality...we will work on getting you that Event AAR on the criticals

-Thanks for the Hard work!

-Thanks for the Game!

VERY Fucking C O O L...

Argent Intel

Originally posted by Apple Jacks:

As for my AAR, here are my inputs:

Sustain:
- Vehicles (obviously!): This added a significant amount to the dynamics of the gameplay.  They allowed for a more rapid timeline to achieve dispersed objectives, allowed for wider use of a large AO by a small number of personnel, they added significantly to maneuver options, necessitated more rapid maneuver and movement decision-making, and significantly emphasized the roles of support and heavy weapons roles (SAWs to hold off large numbers of dismounting troops and heavy weapons to repeatedly hold off vehicles)

- Advisors: Looks like you took a great lesson from Recondo School here (or if you came up with it separately, good on you!).  The presence of semi-admin cadre along with the squads allowed for super-smooth evolutions, eliminating unnecessary stalemates and the inevitable search for that last enemy hiding in the bushes somewhere.  Gameplay could be adjusted from all sides on the fly, depending on the flow of the scenario - this allowed for almost non-stop operations the entire op.  The advisors also facilitated a team that had just been wiped out getting back into the mission more quickly, "recommending" a place for the defeating team to fall back to and then moving out his or her own troops accordingly.  Having a dedicated cadre constantly engaged to orchestrate the action made a huge difference in the experience and really made for a great experience.

- Props: Radiological devices, command tents, ejection seats, parachutes, blank-firing guns, etc ... all show tremendous dedication to the realism of the experience and professionalism of the op environment.  This is such a small effort in terms of planning, relative to major logistics like booking the AO, getting food coordinated, and developing the actual scenario plot-line, but is too often overlooked.  You guys pulled out a lot of details in the scenarios that really added to the "cool factor".

Improve:
- Schedule: For a two-day op to have nearly 11 hours of play on the first day and only 2 scheduled for the second day is a little uninspiring for the "less didcated" troops.  It is tough to get your ass kicked one day and then get up early, gear up, and get motivated to go out for only 2 hours on the next day, knowing that you still need to pack up, clean up, and more than likely make the long drive home afterwards.  The second day showed a significant drop in player attendance, especially on the IFOR side, due mainly to this factor.  This could be remedied by spreading the scenario out more between the two days and hiring more staff to do set-up and tear-down (even if it means kicking the registration fee up by $5-$10 or so per person) in order to allow for maximum time on the field.

- Communications: At many times, our unit felt very detached from the Command staff.  Unless we had an advisor with us, we felt very unclear of the actual objective and the status/disposition of adjacent friendly forces.  There was no talking between units (with the exception of the advisors) and Command was often difficult to get ahold of (due to being committed for driving vehicles and dealing with real emergencies).  All completely understandable, but next time a few more dedicated staff members could drastically improve communication and coordination between forces.

- Training: You guys did a great job setting up your challenges and integrating them into a smoot hcoherent scenario.  However, I think some of the objectives may have been a little complex for the average airsofter who might be interested in participating in your events.  The caliber of the participants and the complexity of the scenarios you incoporate could be elevated on the spot with some dedicated, planned training sessions (a good idea for the first night, maybe).  The troops in our squad that had little experience recon'ing and patrolling benefitted greatly from the opportunity we had on Friday night to conduct IA drills and rehearse our SOPs.  Not to say that I recommend making all your ops Recondo-like with lots of training, but some dedicated sessions would really would really motivate participants to get out on the field and practice their skills and would better equip less-experienced players to deal with complex objectives,at the same time growing the airsoft community to demand higher-quality ops.

Like we have been saying, this op and future MAC-V events have the potential to be "Recondo-like" in magnitude and experience.  People will be talking about your ops, for sure.  

If any of us Regiment-folk can help in planning or executing future events, I have no doubt that we'd be willing to go all out for you guys.

Cheers! Apple Jacks

Originally posted by Argent_Intel:


Aggreed 200% on the Training on day 1... a formal 1/2 day on FRIDAY of some Basic IT (Hand signals, Basic understanding of IA Drill, DA Drill, Bounding / Scrolling and Basic Patroling Skills would really help out all of the newer players...even if this is a very BASIC lesson

We had two players who joined us on the British 3 Commando Unit (BIO and PRINCE) who had never played the way we do or had the benifit any of that type of training and we (with some great help and instruction from KILO) squared them away in 1.5 hrs of drills on the Quad after brief...they really seemed to enjoy learning the skills and employed them with us effectively throughout both days of Evolutions


-Would also recomend more Post-Evolution Briefing to keep players focused on the flow and "plot" of the game, "this is whats going on" in the game world to help connect the individual players with the Story line and Scenarios that drive and motivate the game

For Example:
-Cut the "lunch time" with a Command Brief / AAR's for Squad and Unit leaders to then back-brief their squads while they Eat/Hydrate/Reload and Refit in deployed 360 security

-LOVED the Ammo restrictions BTW!! added a great tension factor to our situations...Could have made re-supply even more sparse to keep things really interesting!
 :|_|:
Good Times!

[Wicked-Mpact]

FragOrder 2 (Find Recon Pod)
Location North West of Serb FOB
CT QRF unit established heavy contact with members of the SAS (Regiment) after taking casualties SAS pealed back from North to South. As several members of the main element of CT1 followed on foot. CT2 orders were to circle to the east with ASOV and dismount a quick 3 man team of boarder guards to attack the SAS from the east to west. CT2 then picked up 4 Serb Rifleman from Saguaro 1 and continued to surround the SAS from the south, after following a rough path on the south border the exact location of the SAS was lost, until Kilo 42 advised to dismount and Listen from our overwatch position on a elevated hill. Shortly voices and BBs were in the air, the SAS were just meters away on the bottom of the hill, the QRF dismounted some were hit immediately and some were scrambling to get to any cover, and the closest being even closer to the enemy. Then some of the firing shifted from CT2 to CT1 who was closing in from the North . CT2 medic Victor3 used this moment to save SPC. Ryan by low crawling and dragging him back to the cover of the vehicle(pictured below) Narrowly missed by rounds just overhead. More brave medic rescues were performed by Gage and James from S1 and CT2 was soon up 100% just in time to sweep though and secure the SAS area who had just eliminated all of CT1.

Great Fight guys!
(Center of the Picture you can see Ryan with the red rag and Victor3(Ed) just infrot of him pulling him though the grass and back to the ASOV)
[/b]

[-MAD- SARGE]

CT2 medic Victor3 used this moment to save Pvt. Ryan by low crawling and dragging him back to the cover of the vehicle(pictured below) Narrowly missed by rounds just overhead.

Oh I got demoted. I'm no longer special, lol. GREEN!  

Hell yeah! Great job Ed!  Those rocks about ate up my hands and knees. I know they were cutting you as well.  I'm going to put you in for the Airsoft Medal of Honor  :lol:

[infinitydragon11]

Awesome game everyone! Very fun and very intense... I can remember a little incedent where us saguaros were standing at the top of a hill after kilo told us to bunker down and get some rest, but one of our boys had just taken a nasty spill after chasing down a humvee and was taken out of the game and we apparently wanted some revenge lol! We ended up standing at the top of the hill watching the two technicals the UN had left drive around seemingly avoid us. I dont know if they really were or not, but it definatly seemed that way... and it got our blood boiling. The whole team stood out in the open screaming at the top of our lungs in hope of getting someone to engage us. After we ran out of breath we saw the entire british commando squad come walking out of the woods below us all wearing death rags due to the combined efforts of CT and our command track.

A small moment of glory before our last push towards the enemy FOB...

Great times guys... too bad this couldnt be a monthly thing lol!

[Doc Hollywood]

Speaking of nasty spill.... how is the knee ?

Doc

[stoneaglewolf]

I have uploaded the emails to the site:

http://www.combatchallenge.org/opbh1/

If you have more then zip them up and send them to me.

[Jags87]

looks like you guys had a killer time wish i could have been there.

[OCHO]

Great photos.  

Do we have a target time for BH2?

[yammie r6s]

Speaking of nasty spill.... how is the knee ?

Doc

dustin's knee is doin alright. he's got a couple of appointments set up to have it examed soon. he's a trooper though so he'll be ready for the next op.

as for my thoughts.. f'n a what an awesome weekend. from scenarios to use of vehicles. WOW seriously even as my first op this was bad ass. and i can't wait for the next one. very intense and realistic, met and played with a lot of cool people. thanks again to the organizers, advisors, and sponsors. i hope to see all you at the next one! cuz saguaro will be ready

[Dbld]

The knee does still hurt.. not gonna lie. Thanks again Doc.
This OP was Fantastic(First OP).. thanks again to Mark, Chris and Chad for all of the organization and missions.... And Kilo. Almost forgot Kilo. Looking forward to the next op.