Operation East Wind VI - March 9-17, 2013

[aswayze]

I don’t think we had anyone from Az.    We had some guys from New Mexico and as usual guys from SoCal but no Arizona this time around. 

[nukeduster]

There are several of us from DCOPS planning for next year for sure. Already starting to gear up, just takes a lot of planning to get 9 days off of work and life.

[aswayze]

Don't I know it buddy! 

Start early, read up and shop smart on gear.  Cost is pretty reasonable for everything if you look for it slowly and nab deals but can be a bear if you have to do the last minute run to the butt pumping retail store for everything. 

Make sure you make your way over to the East Wind forums if you have any specific questions or are having a tough time sourcing anything. 

I am STILL getting gear moved back from the field...  Should basically be done by the end of next weekend I hope then I'm off to a flurry of work trying to get everything scrubbed up and ready for next year before taking a whack at the wave of new stuff that has shown up to work on. 

Example: 



We had 2 M151 trucks this last year.  They proved to be unbelievable in the field.  Truck 6001 logged over 350 miles out there doing support stuff, motor recon, carting small units here and there etc.  Everyone loved them.  We now have 4 more of these in the pipe to get fixed up before next year including one dedicated front line ambulance version. 

[wolfenblaze]

Hey if ya got a 60 grand ya can get a Mock Abrams http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/British-Centurion-Main-Battle-Tank-Armor-Tracked-Military-Vehicle-/271191055650?pt=Military_Vehicles&hash=item3f243f1d22  or ya can get a m548 for only 30 grand. Though i gotta admit there a some  of 5 tons on Ebay for Decent prices.

[spazz]

nuke, id be interested in rolling with you guys to this next year.
aswayze, what are the rules on cameras ie: contour,gopro cameras? i like to film my stuff.

[aswayze]

Heavy armor does not lend itself well to airsoft, particularly in a place with as rough of terrain as we have at our East Wind AO.   Pretty easy to ignore a tank out there if you're infantry, just go on the 50% of the field that is WAY to steep and tough for tanks to go.    The little stuff is really where it is at.  5 tons are ok as well but the deuces seem to get around a lot better offroad. 

@Spazz cameras are all good.  Just try to make it blend in as much as you can. 

[nukeduster]

If you go with us, we're still trying to decide german or us forces at the moment.

We all like flecktarn, but finding full-metal g3's these days is pretty hard and the plastic ones flex quite a bit in the middle, especially when firing prone, and two of my guys need to buy rifles for the event either way.

[aswayze]

The plastic G3s have all actually held up quite well.  I personally still prefer the Classic Army metal ones but we've not seen a major failure out of a TM or a JG plastic body on a G3 out there. 

[spazz]

dont suppose a g3-sd would count a period correct? well since i dont believe they actualy make a real one.
nuke: if i go it would probly be with usa forces. i have to figure out what kind of rifle i need for that.

[aswayze]

Nope, just the standard as issued G3 versions. 

Besides out there, less is more. 

[nukeduster]

We're not 100% we want to do German, but half of our team so far who has commited to go want to go as german. Partially because we have G3's already and partially because flecktarn is such a good camo pattern and its a good excuse to buy some.

[nukeduster]

We've now basically committed to going Bundeswehr. The two of us have G3's now, and a third from my team is probably going to run a G36.

Starting the collection of flecktarn and other associated stuff.

[aswayze]

The big one to look for in all of this, believe it or not, is a compass. 

You CAN use any military compass that reads in 6400 mils and/or degrees but for cool factor a genuine German compass takes it. 

Watch slowly and carefully and be ready to strike when one comes up. 
Watch out for:

East German or Russian compasses being sold as West German.  East of the iron curtain, they believe that there are 6000 mils in a complete circle where as we in the west know that there are 6400.  Grab a compass that does not match your friends and watch what happens when someone gives you an azimuth! 

Replica or civvy compasses.   They are NOT acceptable at all.  Almost all are complete and utter crap.   It will not pass PCI.   Back before we started hardening up on this we used to see a lot of missions blown by crap nav that all too frequently had cheap Chinese compasses at the root of the problem.   You are coming to East Wind for the feeling you get when you succeed at a mission, make sure you're giving yourself all the tools you need to do that. 

BGS (Bundesgrenschultz or border guards) Bezard compasses.  These are VERY nice compasses but since the BGS never deployed and always operated in the same area, they have "fixed" the true north vs magnetic north issue by adjusting the scale on these to match the inter-German border.   In short, while quite nice, they are not accurate in our area of the world. 

It seems like a weird thing to worry about or look for right now, but I have sure seen a lot of West German guys running around with their hair on fire over compasses in February.