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War Revisited
Posted on Tuesday, January 17 2012 @ 12:48:57 Eastern A long time ago, I wrote a blog about growing up with the military, and what it could mean should I have to go to war. Well, I had to. Given my job choice, it was inevitable. The primary mission at Minot, ND is nuclear security. We don't send troops often, but my squad got picked from Global Strike Command to do time in the desert. We would be providing close security for VIPs conducting the "hearts and minds" talks with locals. As a warning, some of this is going to be graphic, and maybe offensive. If you don't agree with this topic, you don't have to be here. The first issue we ran into was due to unit cohesion. We just found out that one of the Army guys was gay. One of the religious guys on our squad lost his mind and refused to stack up. We were about to secure a derelict gas station to use as a brief rest while maintenance was done on the Hummers. We decided on dual entry to separate the quarrelers and we made a fast breach. No hostilities or suspicious packages. Now our cross jumper accused the gay man of flagging him with his weapon. The shouting match attracted the attention of a nearby goat farmer, who had access to the basement without our knowledge. He ran upstairs and knocked down a shelf that was blocking a door we hadn't seen. Unfortunately I was the closest one. Frantically yelling, the man grabbed for my rifle as I raised it. Given his position and mine, the quickest option was to smash my weapon into his face. The corner below the barrel and at the top of the magazine well struck the man in the mouth. Teeth on metal. The scream of anger and pain. The man went down hard at my feet, and I launched my right boot to keep him down. Steel toe boots make a specific sound when they hit flesh and bone. More teeth came out, and I split his lower jaw in two. I'd kicked him under the chin. Our next issue came from a misfired IED. The charge disabled our Hummer, but only briefly. When stopped, we got rushed by three men. Being in the killzone of an ambush might be the worst place to be in the whole world. We bailed out of the left side while our gunner engaged to the right. With a disabled vehicle, you have to fight through the ambush while the other vehicles flank. The massive eruption of gunfire from our heavy gunners was thunderous. The house on the ridge above us was being torn apart from both sides. The three men sent to kill us had pinned our heavy gunner and advanced. Close range combat is a nasty, nasty thing. You can see the anger, the sweat, you can smell the piss and the blood. What lasted only twenty eight seconds felt like forever. I pivoted around the hood of the hummer to return fire and release our heavy gunner from suppression. My M68 was on almost full blast, and I set the dot on the left side of the man's heart. This is my biggest worry. This is why I hesitated to join. This guy probably had a family. He looked old enough. He didn't act at all afraid of his weapon or his impending doom. The viscious snarl told me he was fully dedicated. The first thought through my head was an apology. I told his wife, his son, his daughter, his brothers....I told them all that I was sorry to take him away. I also have a family. I hope they would understand. My first shot went true. The first round is a tracer, and I watched it go through him and continue up the hill, striking the house. Given how I was leaning on the hummer for suppert, the recoil of my rifle put my dot on the mans angry mouth. I quickly squeezed again and sent another round into him. This round cut the brain stem, and removed the back of his head completely. The round must have hit a tooth and tumbled. He went down like a ragdoll. It looked very unnatural. I took the time to throw up before I backed around to check my team mates. My heavy gunner was stuck on the handle that rotates the turret, trying to get out, and my grenadier was engaged in hand to hand, and losing. The man had just gotten a hold of him and threw him over his shoulder, judo style. My man hit the ground hard, but had pulled his M9 out and fired first. As he fired, the assistant gunner opened fire as well with his M4. The man stumbled backwards right in front of me. I hooked an arm around his neck and pivoted my hips around to throw him. He was dead before he hit the ground, and he lay face down, motionless. After all of this, in the 8 months I was deployed, I fired my weapon twice. Two rounds changed my life. I now think about staying in or getting out. Will I be that lucky next time? But, will the that replaces me make the wrong choice and let his team get killed? At least you respawn in battlefield. To my fellow vets, thank you for your service. OSS [ 1 Comments ] [ Post a Comment ]
My Job, in the style of Ke$ha!
Posted on Tuesday, April 27 2010 @ 08:00:42 Eastern Wake up in the morning feelin pretty s----y [ 2 Comments ] [ Post a Comment ]
Wedge formation, fire on me
Posted on Saturday, November 14 2009 @ 22:41:29 Eastern Everybody went out and got it. Tons of people stood in line in the middle of the night to get it. Millions are still playing it, as we speak. Yes, obviously I'm talking about Call of Duty. I, like so many others, went out and got this game. Although, I was intelligent about it, or so I thought. Maybe the others were just foolish. There were about a million people in line all night long at Gamestop, waiting for their preorder. I walked in the doors of the BX, walked past the big line, past Gamestop, and into the main shop. It's basically a Walmart in there. You can find a little bit of everything. The neat part about it, was that they didn't take preorders. They had plenty of copies of the game, but no line. I walked in, paid for the game, and walked back out. You wouldn't believe the looks I got as I held my new copy of the game on my way out, just showing it off to the suckers standing in line.
Well, much like everyone else, I've been playing it since I got it. I had to work the next day, but it was a short two day cycle. Fifteen hour shifts don't leave much time for gaming, but we were on a short week (that is sadly coming to an end). That means that I got a three day weekend. Once I got the multiplayer ins and outs, I naturally started doing better. I'm steadily climbing my way up the ranks. I was playing with some buddies back home, and one of them decided to ask me: "Hey, do you use any of the **** the military teaches you in the game?" Personally, I laughed at this. Now, not everyone is in the military. I know that. Even a lot of people in the military aren't taught ground combat tactics, outside of the simple things learned in basic training. Two man tactics like "High-man/low-man" work to some extent, but the big wedge formations, rules of engagement, disciplins and whatnot just can't work in a game like this.
When I'm moving down an alley, I'm naturally shifted to either wall. I'm usually crouched, too. When I'm moving down the alley with someone, if they're crouched, I'm standing, and vice versa. This way, should we encounter enemies, I won't be in his way, and he won't be in mine. This is also a good method to clear corners. I'll keep my weapon down the alley while he, crouched, will pie the corner. This covers the dead space, or, area you can't see. Little tactics like this work in any game, but my friend was assuming that I should be doing better because I've gone through a lot of ground combat training. Real world, I'm pretty good at it. Urban warfare is my nich. But in a game like this, real world tactics hardly work. Running through the village in a tight wedge formation looks pretty badass, but really just makes you a very easy target. People in the real world don't run around and jump and throw frag grenades and knives and shoot rockets and whatnot just like that. A wedge formation works because it covers all areas of attack. Everybody has a field of fire that slightly overlaps, providing total protection. It's even better with a fifth man dedicated soley to rear security. When somebody's head pops up, there's always going to be at least two team members who will see him, and put rounds on him accordingly. In call of duty, when one guy runs around the corner blasting with an RPD, it doesnt matter who sees him. Someone's going to die, and your whole formation is going to be messed up from that. Real world enemy psychology aside, nobody ever takes the body armor into account. With the body armor I wear every day, a 9mm round will not go through the vest, even without the plates in. With the plates, it will stop a 7.62x54mm round. The AK-47 fires a 7.62x39mm round. The M240B (which, by the way, weighs 27 pounds on its own, and is NOT a weapon generally carried on foot. It's a mounted weapon. Where's the 249?) fires a 7.62mm round, too. I'm getting off topic.
To put it bluntly, you can't expect real world tactics to work in an arcade game. The stuff works great in ArmA or Flashpoint, but not in Call of duty. It's still fun to try sometimes, because if by some chance you pull off a smooth sweep of the village, it's extremely satisfying.
What tactics do you all use in your shooters?
OSS [ 4 Comments ] [ Post a Comment ]
They made me eat it.
Posted on Wednesday, September 23 2009 @ 18:29:10 Eastern "42, this is 2, be advised, WSTI is picking up a lone signature in the north treeline. How copy?" I heard my radio squak from my vest, without warning. It startled me, as I'd been sitting alone in the silence for eleven hours now. That's... read more...
Generation Xbox
Posted on Thursday, May 14 2009 @ 18:47:13 Eastern It was hot that day. I could see the heat shimmering in the air all around. The sound of silence was almost deafening as I sat on top of the hill, waiting. Seconds turned to minutes as my nerves went crazy and my adrenalin started pumping. The met... read more...
it's not so bad here!
Posted on Thursday, May 7 2009 @ 16:55:01 Eastern I recall about six months ago, I informed GR that I would be heading out for basic training. Well, I did that, and it sucked, like I thought. In all honesty though, it wasn't physically difficult. In fact, the PT was mostly a joke. It was the thou... read more...
War
Posted on Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 14:01:47 Eastern As a child, I was always interested in war. I had it in my head that since my mother was in the Air Force, as well as my father, that they had both been to war. They had me hooked on the military life style. I tried to learn about anything and eve... read more...
Dynamic Sphere
Posted on Tuesday, September 9 2008 @ 19:18:01 Eastern This is an advanced method, but a very simple idea. Picture yourself inside of a sphere, with a diameter of your height. Now, you do not want anything to intrude on you, or enter your sphere. The idea is that you do not stop the attack, but redire... read more...
Judo
Posted on Sunday, September 7 2008 @ 01:32:44 Eastern Here's a little information about Judo, since the few of you I've talked with seem sort of interested. Here's Judo how I see it: Judo.
FALCON PUNCH!
Posted on Friday, September 5 2008 @ 16:55:09 Eastern Around a few forums lately, I've been spotting a lot of threads about the fighting in a lot of video games. I'll start with Metal Gear Solid 4, making an example of "CQC"... read more...
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