In Country  AAR

June 2009, Wolcott, CT

"This game was kickass it was the best airsoft game I have ever played. I enjoyed every moment of it."
       -- stuman17 June 29,2009

NVA Preparing to assault FSB Kathy

NVA AAR - Mr Spank, FilForce

First off
THIS GAME WAS EPIC!!!

But that was because it wasn't just a game. It was an event. And I'm afraid that words and pictures alone just can't convey the epic scale and feeling of this event. Originally I had zero interest in 'Nam-soft, and I just ended up at one Battlesim game, and now I think I'm hooked.

Due to last minute miscommunication HeadKill and I were only able to participate in the Saturday portion. I feel really bad for 2nd year in a row not being able to participate fully.

Here's what we missed Friday night (YES FRIDAY):
Chu Luc (NVA) had moved into the area.
Set up camp. IN THE RAIN! There was even hail.
Mad fire. IN THE RAIN!
Commenced political indoctrination.
Might have been some training.
Slept in the field.

Saturday:
Cooked rice.
Might have been some training. Maybe just how to make camo-rings.
Arrived and had some breakfast. Plain white rice, luk-warm.
When we arrived they were making camo-rings, they taught us, and we made our own.
We had formed 3 squads.
More political indoctrination.

Camo Ring (click for larger version):


Then went on our first mission: recon. This is when we went through swampy terrain, and crawled on my belly through a swamp to get into our secret observation position. Watched the GIs assemble for their own thing. We drew diagrams of what we saw and did a head count. There were 3 recon units. One of them had used a recoiless rifle to harass the GI camp, and we watched them panic and scatter. Some were frozen in place. There was a casualty that was carried out in a stretcher.

Then we extracted. Back at the camp we consolidated our observations.

Then we had training on different types of ambush techniques.

Then we made a sand-table diagram. Using rocks, and sticks, and dirt and leaves we made a model of the camp based on our observations and started planning our raid plans. Just a proposal. We needed permission from higher ups to commence the attack. As a real army would.

Sand Table Diagram:


Then we were sent to practice what we learned. Set up in ambush, sent out bait/feint. We laid in wait for a long time. They were on to our plan. So we changed our plan. It is our land! And we will fight on our terms! Then there was lots of combat. All around. 360 war! We heard our sister squads engaging in the background. GIs barking orders and wailing in pain. Eventually we cleared the village with our reduced squad. Slice and Tan were MIA. The village was just down the road from FB Kathy, so it seemed like a platoon was sent in to retake the village. I was reloading at the position closest to the base. HeadKill and tall-guy were away from me. Then the US forces arrived. And US forces arriving is like when the Circus comes to town. Massive and loud and sometimes actually entertaining. I was in a tower like structure, and they didn't know where I was. I was literally on the other side of just a couple of mm of plywood from them! They were engaging the farther targets like the tall-guy. This is where I failed on 2 fronts. Comrade Sgt. ordered a withdrawal from the village. That would have been a suicidal run which I felt did not comply to my Chu Luc oath. I held my position. As did HeadKill and tall-guy. So my first failure was to follow an order by my commanding officer. My 2nd mistake was in executing my ambush. I had killed two GIs. One at a lot closer range that I wanted to shoot him. We were supposed to act out getting shot. When I shot him, his cries of pain and disbelief were very real. I should have let more GIs get into my kill zone before giving away my position. Blind-firing is acceptable since its real in that theater, and safety kills are purely a courtesy. I was biting my lips because I didn't want my teeth shot out by a GI who pokes his gun right around the corner. In retrospect, I could have at least stood up and safetied or sprayed some GI's hiding around my position. A hand grenade would have been perfect. I let one guy poke his gun around and just old him you got me to avoid injury. Then I was searched. Only thing of interest I had was Jolly Ranchers. He repatriated the candies. Some other GIs repatriated a radio set, but those lazy and weak Americans didn't want to carry it all the way back to base, so later we recovered it For The People! We regrouped and returned to our base camp.

Then we debriefed and conducted more self evaluations. Even though I felt we had done very well, following orders of our Comrade Sgt., he was upset we didn't heed the call to withdrawal, even though we felt it was with in our oath to stay and fight to the last man in that situation.

Then, dinner was had. We had ramen instead of more rice.

Through out the day work on ladders was being conducted. The ladders were for breaching the wire and for carrying out fallen comrades. It was made from rope and trees that we fell. It is our land, and it gives us what we need to fight the imperialists!

Then the higher cadre came to visit our unit. They told us of the psychological affect we were inflicting on to the Americans. For our success, Comrade Sgt. Lang was awarded a TT33 with holster and belt.

Then they reviewed our sand model and listened to our raid plans. We were granted permission to carry it out!

Then we prepared for the raid. We had ditched our camo-rings and head gear because they would only hinder us in our new mission. To make up for the lack of camo-rings and head covers, we tore up a GI parachute and made capes out of them. We used the ashes from the fire and water to make black face paint for our faces and hands. We removed our color of the day scarves/kerchiefs. We were issued ordinance for this mission. We made our way out of base camp, creeping our way towards the GI fortifications that we had snuck to earlier. This time we were going to breach the wire. A sapper team was going to blow the gates down with satchel charges and the ladder teams were going to breach the fence after Comrade 1st Sgt. had sabotaged the American generator.
BOOM! Followed by the GI's lights going out and comrade 1st Sgt. killing more Americans. Our cells went into action. The team with the recoiless rifle began shooting into the base. Americans were cowards and called for 'Alamo' early on and men were ditching their entrenchments as they ran to the center of the base. We poured into their base screaming and firing. I actually managed to aim and kill a GI at night, because there was a bonfire behind him and I was able to use that light and shoot at his silhouette. Because we were limited for safety reasons to semiauto fire only, it proved to get difficult to get as many kills as we would have gotten otherwise. But we did get to kill many of them. To create a realistic experience for the American players, we were pulling back and attacking again and again to create the feel of a real NVA attack that would come in waves.
Tracers flying everywhere, smoke, grenades, yelling, charges, crawling. But there were times of trying to move as stealthy as possible and holding position for a long time. Sometimes going back and forth between positions to carry out ambushes on our terms. Learning not to engage. And lots of working as a team. Having to follow orders. This was the most milsim event I have ever attended. And I dare say probably one of the most milsim events on the East coast. Pine Plains and this are probably neck and neck. And this event doesn't have the budget of the US Army to have all the resources and man power to put together the facilities and supplies. Only thing truly more Milsim is Op: East Wind held in MO (over a weak of this kind of immersion, but not 'Nam themed).

It all felt awesome. It was an impressive experience on a massive scale. And the turn out wasn't that big as some of our NJ and NY regular Ops, but it was the right kind of people for the most part, and that with all the production value by Battlesim made this a truly incredible experience. Even though it feels like playing as NVA we get much less cool stuff than the US side, a GI told us when we were leaving that we were on the funner side.

More FF really needs to show up to this. Its a good break from regular airsoft. Its educational. Its not all shooting, there's time to eat. Impressions can be close, not 100% right for NVA, in the pictures you can see modern footwear, and AK74s. And day-of, they had uniforms and pith helmets to borrow just like last year. Next one up in Ground Zero will be 9/12-13/09.

As with every Historical Milsim game so far, I feel I have learned valuable lessons that I will apply in the future.

Du Ko!

Patrol Reports from Squad Leaders: B Co. 1/501st 101st Airborne

Witness Statement, Note last paragraph

AAR From Zach Litras Fox 2/5

What else can i say besides WOW? this event was something akin to liberty canyon on crack! between the medics running around, the smoke, the FSB. it was unbelievable. as tim said HUGE thanks to all event staff. The only thing that left a sour taste in my mouth was the sunburn and bug bites (obviously both were my fault).

We (Fox 2/5) arrived a day early and helped with construction on the Firebase. I walked in expecting the same old firebase Kathy we had during liberty canyon... To my surprise the firebase had at least doubled in size, and was now a maze of trench lines and bunkers. We got to work immediately when we got in, as our luck would have it it started pissing rain and hailing right when we had to get the GP medium up. after it was finally up the rain stopped and the sun came out. Go figure. To my surprise there were actually missions being run friday night, so there was actually shit going on. the NVA team, basically in its entirety also showed up friday as i understand it? so as kken said we got 48 hours of unexpected namsoft in. Another very pleasant surprise.

Some memorable moments...
when i got wounded attacking the NVA/VC base, i was lying on the ground looking up at the sky through the trees and i just thought to myself "fuck, besides the excruciating pain and the bloody mess, this is as legit as it gets." When doc ran over i raised my head a little to see what was up, he just told me to stay down and he'd take care of it. he had me apply pressure on the wound. A big + to bodhi and all the medics. You guys MADE the event. without the medics it wouldent have been nearly as good as it was. The NVA basecamp itself was like taking a step back in time too. with all the flags and rice bowls lying around, it was breathtaking. For the most part the Marines stayed in the wire and were held in reserve as QRF for the LRRP dudes. When we did leave the wire we were either rolling with Capt. Warren around the AO making sure shit was running smoothly, or hanging back providing security for the CCP, so we really got to see some different aspects of the event. During the night attack an unnamed person (don't worry tim i won't say your name) stole my eyepro so i had a great little stint as a corpse in the marine bunker. even though i spent the entire time in the fetal position, completely cut off from the rest of the guys (i could hear boots quite well throughout the whole ordeal though ;) :D ) i still felt like i was in the nam 100%. One thing i really enjoyed about the NVA basecamp assault were the stick grenades. for those of you who weren't there, or didn't see any, They were little wooden sticks with cardboard heads and a bomb bag inside. when i was playing dead in the bunker one landed right next to me and i thought to myself "shiiiiiiiit..." So whoever made those NVA stick grenades hats off to you.

My favorite parts of the entire event however, were just the parts where we sat around shooting the shit with all you guys. lots of you just hung out with us in the marine bunker for a while and the friends we made at incountry greatly exceeded my expectations. Especially During the stand down a number of us had a nice fire going and were sharing stories about the day etc. i REALLY enjoyed that part, you guys were great and i can't wait to share a fire with you at the next event.

Overall the amount of effort put in by the event staff, the lrrp guys, the NVA/VC and just the regular attendees in general so greatly exceeded what i could've even imagined, i really really really can't wait to ruck up for the next event.