Hypothermia: Preventing the Silent Killer

Winter airsofting is one heck of an experience. There is no doubt about that. Gameplay is slower, more methodical, and it’s a different kind of fun. Even with this fun, it’s important to prepare yourself appropriately for the weather. Without taking the appropriate precautions, you can fall victim to an environmental emergency.

One of the most common environmental emergencies during the winter is hypothermia. Hypothermia is when the body gives off more heat than it can generate and artificially intake. Hypothermia occurs when the body drops below 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the internal temperature the body needs to maintain in order to function properly. The body can lose heat through four different mechanisms:

• Radiation: When heat is given off into an area or object that has a lower temperature than the radiating object. A person standing outdoors in subfreezing temperatures radiates heat to the surrounding cold atmosphere, primarily through extremities.
• Convection: Convection is the process by which heat is given off into adjacent cold molecules. Thermodynamic laws dictate that heat travels to areas that lack heat (also known as the cold). Convection exists purely because of these thermodynamic laws that exist.
• Conduction: Conduction is when heat is passed through a colder object by direct contact. Water is an excellent conductor of heat. Water will conduct heat 240 times faster than air, which is why a patient immersed in cold water is subjected to more rapid progression of hypothermia than a patient struggling with the cold.
• Evaporation: This is when liquids is heated to a gaseous state, causing a loss in temperature. This is the process of perspiring, which is one of the regulatory mechanisms a body uses to maintain normal temperature.
• Respiration: This is when air heated by the body is exhaled into the atmosphere and replaced with cooler ambient air.

Symptoms of Hypothermia:

The symptoms of hypothermia are categorized in stages in order to make it easier to recognize. These stages can progress at an undetermined rate, especially when liquids are involved.

• First Stage: The body shivers in an attempt to raise its core temperature.
• Second Stage: There is mental apathy and loss of motor functions
• Third Stage: There is a decreased level of responsiveness and freezing of the extremities (fingers, toes, etc).
• Fourth Stage: The vital signs begin to decrease and slow.
• Fifth Stage: Death.

When you are attempting to access body temperature, you should feel the patient’s torso and abdomen. This is the best indicator for body temperature since you are verifying core body temperature. If it is cold to the touch, you should check verbal and motor responses. If the patient is shivering, then they may be in stage one. If shivering is absent, check for stage two and stage three symptoms for motor function and verbal imparities.  

Skin color will progress from normal pink to red then pale then cyan as hypothermia progresses. It will also become stiff and harder.

Caring for a Hypothermic Patient:

Care for patients with hypothermia begins with their removal from a cold environment as well as the removal of any and all wet clothing. The patient should be gradually be warmed by the use of blankets and warm liquids to the groin, axillary (underarm area), and the cervical (neck) regions as well as the core area. Digesting of warm liquids is at the digression of the patient and should never be forced.

Localized cold injuries, such as frostbite, may occur in extreme hypothermic situations. To minimize damage to these extremities, splinting and a gradual rewarming of the injured extremity should be considered.

Ways to Prevent Hypothermia:

Preventing hypothermia is easy and the nature of airsofting lends to the use of effective cold weather gear while staying compliant with stereotypical militaristic looks. Fighting hypothermia means that you are attempting to combat heat transference mechanisms.

• Using Appropriate Layers: This is critical to combat ambient air and water. If you expect the weather to be colder but with dry conditions, consider a soft shell and a waffle layer with a thermal layer. If you expect rain, then consider a hard shell instead of a soft shell or a soft shell with water wicking abilities.
• Staying Dry: Staying dry is extremely important to hypothermia prevention. Note the fact that I stated earlier. “water will conduct heat 240 times faster than air”.
• Redundancies: Bringing extra layers and backup layers is heavily important. These extra layers will determine how well you stay dry and warm in the long term. I personally bring two soft shells just in case my outer layer becomes wet.
• Stay Hydrated: Staying hydrated is extremely important in the summer and the winter. Digestion of warm water is not only better for hydration but, in the winter, it is easier for you to stay warm while having a warm core.
• Be Realistic: Being realistic is easy. If you feel that you are too cold, then stop and warm up. If you feel that you are losing feeling in your fingers, then combat that by warming up your extremities. It’s so important that you are proactive with hypothermia because recovering from hypothermia might involve a trip to the hospital instead of slinging BB’s.

CPR: The Successful Failure

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation. CPR. I remember sitting in junior high school and high school health class, rolling my eyes for every “CPR training session”. Secondary education spent entire months dedicated to teaching CPR. Why? I saw no point in them because I thought I’d never end up in a situation where I would need CPR. I thought everyone and everything was invincible. Now, at the end of my 4^th year in college, I can see how important these procedures are. I have also seen a very inconvenient truth about CPR. No matter how much we learn or how much class room time we spend on CPR, its failure rate is definitely higher than its success rate.

The point of CPR is designed to preserve brain function. If done properly it extends the chance for resuscitation through other means, naturally or artificially. Idealistically, the factors of success with CPR include:

• Compression depth of at least two inches
• Compression rate of at least 100 compressions per minute
• Allowing the chest wall to recoil fully between every compression
• Minimizing interruptions

The problem is that CPR is only designed to preserve brain functions in the event of cardiac arrest. The probability of CPR actually restarting the heart is statistically low, in contradictory to Hollywood’s glorification of CPR. It can only limit tissue damage and minimize the amount of damage to the patient’s brain. This problem stems from the manual nature of CPR. It’s similar to putting a Band-Aid on a two inch laceration. You aren’t addressing the main problem, instead you are attempting address the main problem indirectly by attempting to solve a different issue. It will help, there is no doubt in that, but overall it is a daunting task.

So you might be asking, who is this guy to bash on CPR? Well first, finish the paper. I am not bashing CPR but rather I am taking a very critical stance about CPR and two, I have been in 5 separate incidents that required CPR. One of the most notable situations is why I started exploring the realm of emergency medicine. It was a 55 mph head on collision that I ran across. In that situation, CPR was pointless but attempted none the less. I did what I was taught in high school, 30 compressions, 30 breaths. I did not allow the chest to fully decompress because I was in shock and not thinking, and my CPR technique was old. I really can’t help but think “what if” questions, such as, what if I was more up to date and aware about the “advancements” in CPR techniques. The advancements in CPR techniques include the movement towards soley using compression rather than balancing compression and artificial resuscitation (rescue breathing).

The second situation I was in that included CPR was the most recent. I noticed a huge change in my mentality towards medical situations. When I came upon that accident with Sean while driving up to a Spokane Airsoft operation, we ran across the aftermath of a drowsy truck driver. I was calmer and more educated, which led to initial success in quasi-securing the patient without having any of the proper “tools” to C-Spine.  I don’t even think Sean knows this (since he was actively rerouting traffic for first responders) but we had to do a very awkwardly positioned CPR.  I will note that we had no other choice and that we did our best to give the patient proper spine support. We had no choice. I was in the proper position to do compressions so I did so (while my temporary and BLS qualified partner continuously checked C-Spine and her support).  It directly led to success. She began breathing roughly and her pulse became more prominent (although still week). Although it led to initial success, after paramedics and firemen showed up, she died. I did attempt CPR again but to no avail. The blue palm was ominous.

  

CPR isn’t a nuclear option. Nukes work and they work well. Think of CPR as a last resort. I will be blunt; I think CPR is futile but necessary. If you need to do CPR, you have a more critical issue at hand. However, as discouraging as I am, advancement in medical technologies and practices have increased our ability to sustain and even improve brain functions during a medical emergency. It’s not only critical for people to know these potentially life-saving procedures but I feel that it should be a requirement. As negative as I was earlier, I hold the view that if we can spend 50 minutes of our time learning simple techniques can one day save a life, and then it’s worth it. On top of that, public automated electrical defibulators (AED’s)  are becoming more prominent and the technology integrated in these AED’s are simple enough to use that I have seen 10 year old children successfully apply AED’s to dummies.

You may be confused by my point so I will sum everything all together. CPR’s job is to preserve brain functions and is highly unlikely to restart the heart; however CPR is highly glorified. It is not the save all technique. In fact, statistically, it is questionable at best. However, CPR is a necessary failure. CPR can and will continue to save lives. Even with increased availability in AED’s, we need to make sure that we aren’t technologically reliant. We need to take time out in our day to learn life saving techniques, not only CPR, in order to make sure when the time comes, if ever, that we are prepared.  Don’t consider my failure stories as a discouragement to learning CPR; view them as a lesson to be learned from. CPR can potentially be a life-saving technique and it may grant your patient one last chance to say good bye. CPR is a successful failure.

Crye Precision Versus Condor Outdoor: Understand Value and How That Affects Our Decisions

As players continually develop into the airsoft culture, one way or another, they are exposed to two types of players, “speedsofters” and “milsimmers”. These titles aren’t meant to offend anyone but rather they give us a realistic perspective of each group’s ideologies. The hardcore “speedsofter” just wants to play. They don’t care about looks and are dedicated to practicality and sending BB’s down range. The hardcore “milsimmer” not only prefers a different kind of gameplay but a different kind of approach to purchasing gear. Dedicated impressionists will shell out hundreds of dollars to a single plate carrier to reenact military personal for an airsoft game. So why is there such a large difference between the hardcore speedsofting consumer and the hardcore impressionist consumer? Why does one consumer so highly value condor and another so highly value Crye. Well let’s explore this from a consumer behavior point of view.

The first thing we need to go over is how customers process product attributes (feature) to value. By figuring out how people establish values, we will be able to understand how customers make purchases based off of these values. Before that though, I am going to slow way down. There is a lot of business and consumer behavioral terminology that applies to this. I will attempt to simplify everything and break it down piece by piece.

The process of identifying product attribute and creating value out of these attributes is known as the means end chain. The means end chain consists of four parts: product attribute, consumer benefit, executive framework, and personal value. You can see it denoted below.

Product attribute can be defined as the product features and specifications. It’s what the product is at its rawest form. For instance, if we look at Crye G3 combat pants, they offer internal knee pad placement, different pocket placement, breathability, and beaver material as their choice for stretch material.

Now that we established product attributes, we can lead into consumer benefits. The consumer will evaluate product attributes and see if they can gain some kind of benefits from it. For instance, the internal knee pads (an attribute) can be seen by a consumer as a way to add comfort. The “comfort” is a consumer benefit. Since we have comfort, companies can establish executive frameworks. Executive frameworks are basically marketing strategies. I really don’t want to get into that. All you need to know is that executive frameworks gives us our leverage point (a selling point) that we can use to create value. Crye Precision probably recognizes that their internal knee pad slots give consumers more comfort. They basically have found their leverage point. They can how create marketing strategies to brand themselves as “more comfortable” which gives the consumer a numeral value for this comfort. Basically, the price of the item is what we perceive as value. We assume that price is value.

So how does this help us? Price is the key. If we assess both groups, the hardcore speedsofter and the impressionists, we find that their price sensitively is absolutely different from one another. This translates out to that they value different things. As obvious as this is, most debates forget this simple fact. Impressionists believe that quality is the most important attribute to making a purchase decision. They believe in value accrued from the future value gained from that one time purchase. The value of impressions itself cannot be ignored as well. Impressions are the mainstay of military simulation. Without impressions, there would be little physical differentiation between speedsofting and milsim events. The value or enjoyment that people gain from impressions cannot be underestimated. This is why impressionists are relatively price insensitive. They are willing to pay for that additional value gained.

The hardcore speedsofter is a completely different story. They just want to sling BB’s downrange and stay within a reasonable budget. This budget is their consumer benefit and Condor’s leverage point. Condor attempts to address the budget minded airsofter. In fact, a lot of companies try to keep costs down so they don’t have to compete directly with real steel companies or else they will have to provide the same value that the real steel companies provide. They address the need for budget equipment to price sensitive customers.

When one sides argue Condor or Crye, it makes me roll my eyes. There is so much more than just “this is better”. It comes down to what the consumer values the most. Even though this read addresses the extremes of one side or another, we can assume that most players are a little of both. There is a time and place for everything and this rule doesn’t exclude Crye Precision or Condor. 

The Truth About "LiPo Ready" and LiPo's Simplified

So what is a lithium polymer battery? Lithium polymer batteries belong in a class of batteries that uses a lithium base to create direct connection to power one way electrical systems. Basically lithium polymer batteries will provide power to your motor. So how is this different from nickle based or alkaline based batteries. Well the answer is in the amount of potential lithium based batteries can give systems. There is a reason why lithium batteries are used for laptops or in medical equipment. They are extremely reliable and extremely powerful for its size. They can be used in the cold weather better than nickle metal based batteries and they can give you great trigger responses. Since it provides more power and more punch, a lot of airsoft manufactures have capitalized on an idea called "lipo ready". They argue that you need a "better" gun in order to run lipo batteries.

Well I hope you do at least do some engineering KWA...

You want to know the reality of lipo ready? It's a marketing tool to lure in uneducated airsofters (like... literally... not meaning to insult anyone here). It was developed by KWA marketers (who hired a marketing firm down in California) to brand their rifles and to give it an additional perceived value boost. It also gives perceived quality ques about the product. It teases consumers into thinking that the gun is made better for specific use with lithium based batteries. Basically it is designed to show the consumer that this gun has incremental innovation. In reality its a myth. Its an idea created by marketers (like me) who are trying to increase sales.

I thought this was lipo ready...

When you think "lipo ready", you think 1) arcing and resistance and 2) gear train durability. In all reality most guns already have this. For 1, you technically don't need a mosfet (variable resistors, that may or may not be computerized) or low resistance wires to run lipos. The amount of wear a 7.4v 21 amp (1400 mah 15c) battery is less than a 9.6v 1600mah nimh (which runs at an equivalent of 8 C btw). The amount of amperage your motor technically needs is around an average of 30 amps meaning that feeding it more amps will decrease stress on the motor. Also most trigger contacts are using alloys resistant to arcing. Arcing is when there is a plasma discharge between connections that typically oxidizes the contact points. This oxidation causes impurities in the connection points which makes the connection less efficient. In worse case scenarios, it will prevent connection between the two points. Mosfets are thought to prevent arcing but in reality they wont prevent arcing, it will only decrease the amount of arcing caused by your gun. Mosfets puts additional stress on the gun by adding resistance to your electrical system (however I still recommend it for an 11.1 since it technically does help with arcing). It comes down to the end user to decide if a mosfet is for them. Doing a proper cost benefit analysis will go a long ways.

Example of a computerized mosfet

The second issue is gear train durability. Angle of engagement (AoE) and shimming is a HUGE must but most companies are already correcting AoE and already shimming their guns as part of their initial design. It really comes down to the materials being used. Is your piston a low density polycarb...? Then switch it out! However most polycarbs (and most materials used in the gear train for that matter) is already strong enough to handle lipos.

Even the best fails if it doesn't have the right support (Siegetek Gear strip)

Now realize it's not the lipos itself that cause issues. Problems are caused the by-products of lipos (and all lithium based products). Because of the increase amperage to your battery, you will see your motor running faster because its pulling the amps it needs to actually run efficiently. This causes your internals to move faster which means that you will reach your product degression rate faster. You aren't really putting additional wear on it, you are running it more efficiently. Each gear has only a certain amount of cycles before it dies and each spring can only retract so many times. By running it faster, you are just reaching these predetermined numbers earlier.

Also one more thing, your motor will only pull what it needs. Just because you plug in a 22.2v 100 amp battery doesn't mean it will pull all 100 amps. It will only pull 30 amps if it needs 30 amps. WOAH hold on. what is this random voltage, amperage bull crap? Well lets go over all that! Lets take a 7.4v 1400mah battery with 15-25c.

7.4v: This refers to the voltage of the entire pack. Since each cell holds 3.7v, this pack must have 2 cells wired in series. The common pack voltages you’ll see for airsoft use will be 7.4v and 11.1v, however, we are starting to see people screwing around with 22.2 and 44.4 battery backs to stress test their guns.

1400mAh: This is the capacity of the battery in milliamp-hours. Although not exactly, mah can be see as how long your battery will last. The larger the capacity, the longer the battery will last.

15-25C: This is the c-rating. The c rating is the discharge rate of the battery pack. This is how much the battery pack will discharge at one time. The first number normally denotes the constant c-rating. The constant c-rating is how much your battery will typically discharge. The second number normally tells us our burst c-rating. This is the absolute maximum your battery can discharge at one time. This normally happens during amperage spikes or if the motor pulls more than needed.

So how did I get those amperage numbers earlier? Here! I will show you that as well! The equation is pretty dang simple:

(C Rate x Capacity)/1000 = Discharge Rate (in Amps)

We can use the battery above as our example. Our constant c rating is 15 and our capacity is 1400. So if we take 15 and multiply 1400, we get 21,000 then we divide by 1000 and that gives us 21 amps. Pretty easy stuff!

In all reality, lithium based batteries are as common as nickle metal based batteries. They have more electrical potential and will make your gun function faster, better, and more efficiency. There is nothing to fear about lithium batteries. Most suspicion towards lithium based batteries are from older subpar (B and C level lithium cells) that were prone to catastrophic failure. Realize that most modern A level lithium batteries are top notch and actually take a lot to make them explode. My father, an electrical engineer, struggled to set one off with a hatchet and matches. We actually had to start a lead explosion in order to set it off. Saying that, there is some important facts that you need to know about them. 1) if your rounds per second (RPS) decreases, you need to disengage and change out your batteries. Lithium batteries have a very stable energy output (in comparison to your nickle metal batteries). When you shoot a nickle metal battery, you will notice that your battery will slowly decrease RPS over time. This will eventually lead to your gun not shooting anymore. A lithium battery will continue to show the same amount of RPS over time but then suddenly decrease is the charge reaches below 3.5v per cell. At 3.5v, your cell will only have around 4-5 percent remaining. In order to prevent damage to your lipo cell, you will need to change it out and charge it.

Well then... this escalated quickly.

Another thing you will need to understand about lipos is how interlinked each cell is to each other... but wait... what is this "cell"? A lipo cell is a cell that provides 3.7v. Each cell connected to provide a total voltage. These voltages compound on top of each other. If you have 2 lipo cells, you have 7.4v and if you have 3 lipo cells, you will have 11.1v. Easy enough! Its super important that these cells are charge and kept at similar voltages. Uneven voltages is an indicator that your battery is not good to go anymore. In order to charge these cells simultaneously, you are recommended to use a balancer. Even though you don't have you, realize that most if not all lipo users use balancers. Its a huge risk to charge otherwise. Most chargers will attempt to charge one cell at a time without a balancer.

One last thing I feel is important to note. There is NO difference between RC lipos and airsoft lipos. They are exactly the same compound and just come marketed to different target markets. Airsoft lipos do have the advantage of normally fitting buffer tubes and handguards (or where ever you wish to store your battery) but RC lipos tend to be cheaper. Just do some serious shopping before investing in "airsoft lipos".

Looks like this guy didn't read my blog about lipos... escalated quickly.

Multicam Variants Officially Released

Today, Crye Precision officially released four new variant camouflage patterns based on the ever popular MultiCam; Arid, Tropical, Alpine and Black. Each is designed for specialized use while the classic MultiCam transitional pattern continues to be great for more universal wear as it tends to blend into most any environment. While Transitional and Black are available for order now, Duro Textiles will have the other new patterns available for order soon.

MultiCam is the combat-proven solution for concealment when operating in widely varied and mixed terrain. While MultiCam is suited to an extremely wide selection of environments, we have developed three new patterns that are optimized for narrower areas of operation. These new patterns work well with the primary MultiCam pattern to meet the needs of these extreme environments, thus expanding the performance envelope of the MultiCam family to cover nearly every possible environmental condition. The MultiCam patterns can be used alone or in conjunction with each other to meet nearly any operational requirement.

The same user now has more system-level options. For instance, a MultiCam chest rig can be paired with a MultiCam Tropic uniform for a known jungle deployment. Similarly, a MultiCam vest and pack can be paired with a MultiCam Arid uniform for activity within an open sand and rock desert. MultiCam Alpine is best suited for any environment encountering significant snowfall, while MultiCam Black is designed to offer domestic agencies a distinct and authoritative presence suited to law enforcement operations.

The MultiCam patterns were developed to provide maximum effectiveness across diverse operating environments with a minimum logistical burden. The patterns all have distinct roles but are designed to work together as a system to meet the needs of nearly any operating environment, all while helping the wearer do so with the least amount of kit possible.

MultiCam: The base – the original combat-proven pattern that offers the widest range of environmental effectiveness – ideally suited for apparel & gear that must be employed throughout mixed or varied environments.

MultiCam Arid: A pattern intended for open sand and rock – ideally suited for apparel when working exclusively in bright open desert terrain.

MultiCam Tropic: A pattern intended for deep verdant jungle use – ideally suited for apparel when working exclusively in a dense jungle environment.

MultiCam Alpine: A pattern intended for snow-covered areas – ideally suited for over-garments and gear covers when/where snow cover is present.

MultiCam Black: While not a geographically-based pattern, MultiCam Black gives law enforcement groups a sharp and authoritative presence suited to domestic L.E. operations where projecting a strong and distinct image is a critical concern. MultiCam Black is designed to complement a wide range of existing armor and gear colors (for instance, green or black vests both look well-matched when paired with MultiCam Black uniforms).

More information can be found here:
http://soldiersystems.net/2013/11/26/crye-precision-releases-new-multicam-patterns-and-reinvents-website/

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Personal Take:

My personal take is that Crye Precision is attempting to spread its wings in order to capitalize on the DoD's need for a department wide area-specific color schemes. For example, the marines currently  have MARPAT, while the Navy can be issued AOR II (NWU III). Even though multicam works relatively well in most environments, Crye Precision is right in designing area-specific camouflage patterns in order to give users more options while being deployed to specific areas. I am a huge fan of the alpine. I am really hoping that alpine is made into overwhites. That would be incredible. In my opinion, it is better than standard overwhites because it breaks up the solid coloring. This make it harder to see with the naked eye. I am also a HUGE fan of the tropic coloring and pattern. I feel that it would fit very nicely (if the testing holds true).

Only time will tell if these patterns will work as effectively as multicam, or if they will work at all.

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Personal Take:

More photos to "crye" over!

Operation: Narcoleptic Reindeer AAR and More

Well where do I begin? So f**king much happened today that it is mind blowing. It began at 4 am. Since my friend, Sean, and I lived three hours away from Spokane Airsoft, we had to wake up at a horrible time. It wasn’t too bad though, we lived off of chocolate covered coffee beans and Amp energy drinks. We departed around 6 am and began our journey. I learned so much about the Rushing Russians that it isn’t funny. I learned about the FSB, the wars, Chechnya, and so much more. It was mind blowing. The Rushing Russians are straight up a sub-culture. There is no doubt about it. About 20 minutes outside of Spokane, we saw something out of place. There was a tree in our path and there was a semi-truck lodged in the median. It was obvious that the situation was fresh and developing. It also looked desperate. I am not trying to fantasize the situation, reality is that there was a semi truck with smoke coming out of the front and the trailer was tipped on its side. The driver was frantically running around screaming for help and a lady was calling 911. Sean and I didn’t hesitate. We jumped into action. Luckily, there was a fellow EMT trained person who was on the scene (he was also just driving by). I had Sean run and grab my EMT kit while the person (we will call him Mike), and I responded to the situation. I won’t sugar coat it. It looked grim. We had to climb a ways up broken branches to get a victim. Her name was Kelsey. Kelsey was fading in and out and was in serious pain. I didn’t fully realize how much pain she was in until I finally reached the top of the cab and looked in. She was part of the car. There was rebar stuck through her abdomen, and her feet were facing the wrong direction; not to mention that she was pinned in between what looked like the dash and the seat.

Communication is key in a situation like this. Mike and I just let loose comments and orders. I would handle C-Spine, and he would check for pulse and bleeding. After a long desperate search, we finally found a pulse in the neck region. It was weak. After a few minutes, we decided that it would be best for Mike to climb down and focus on coordination of the rescue effort (Mike was a high level public servant) and because we weren’t sure our footholds would last with two people. It was a really awkward foothold. It was two branches that I had to sit on while controlling neck motions and controlling bleeding. After 30 minutes, the firemen and EMT’s were in place to relieve me of my duties. Before I left, I noted purple fingers and the slowing of breathing. Sean and I had no other choice but to walk away from the situation and let our fine public servants do the rest. It turns out that Kelsey died on scene shortly afterwards. All I know is that Sean and I did the best we could to handle the situation.

Here is a link to the news article:

http://www.krem.com/news/Semi-crashes-into-tree-on-Hwy-195-woman-trapped-231282011.html
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/nov/09/woman-dies-semitruck-accident/
http://www.khq.com/story/23923925/woman-killed-on-highway-195-saturday-morning

Anyways, we end up stopping by Walmart to grab disposable cameras and showing up to the event early. Rob asked for a sitrep about the accident and we filled him in. We got registered, chronoed, blah blah blah. Drew had issues with his Tavor so he had to borrow my mp7. Alright! We got orders to march to the FOB with assumption that anything and everything can and will be hostile. We were designated 1-1 Alpha aka Kilo. I felt going into the event that we were the most prepared unit and I wasn’t wrong. We were the only ones using formations and setting up firing lines when needed and we were the only ones doing proper halt orders. After reaching the FOB with minimal contact, squad 1, led by Travis Shinderling, was ordered to move in on the city, secure it, and set up roaming patrols and interact with civilians. No problem there! Ben and Travis then ordered 1-1 Alpha to recon the north tower as it was a known enemy hot spot. In about five minutes, we sneakily stormed, took, and set up over watch on the north tower. Piece of cake. 

After a while of minimal potshots from annoying Taliban members and such, squad 1 was tasked to escort assets from the “crack house” back to the city. Holy heck it was a walk to the crack house. After grabbing our assets, we instantly fell victim to an ambush. It was a mess. 1-2 got taken down almost instantly and Sabin (our medic) struggled to keep up with casualties. Eventually the situation was taken control of and the assets were taken back to the city without too much of a hitch. When I say too much I mean 1-1 Alpha stayed behind and literally sacrificed ourselves to get the assets back. OH! And I jumped in front of Travis to take a BB for him. He owes me one. 

It turns out that Drew was well hidden with the assets. The person who flanked us, attempted to do the same with the rest of the squad… yah nope! Dale was actually safety killed by Drew. According to reports, Drew stood there in the open and Dale ran by him. Drew, then, walked up on him and safety killed him. Apparently, it’s the first time Drew was ever safety killed.

After 1-1 Alpha recovered, we were, then, tasked with controlling an uprise in insurgent activity against the city (2-1 moved into sacred ground… which is a huge no so SA Rob gave us hell). It was one hell of a fight. We had to clear buildings and engage people in the trench systems and we suffered heavy losses from suicide bombers. We did our best though. To be honest, I am not sure how it didn’t go worse haha. I guess it’s because 1-1 Alpha stepped it up and bounded perfectly. It was clean, and shots were on target. It was a sight to behold! 

The next mission was a raid and that straight up went to s**t. The “crackhouse” had bombs being made in them, meaning that we had to take them out. Squad 2 was tasked with providing covering fire and squad 1 was tasked with a left hook. Too bad squad 1 ran into their own problems. This is where my “wtf” card comes out. There was someone with a polarstar system or something of the sort spraying full auto. I checked all the spots that I was hit by him and I literally have welts from 100 feet away. It was a ridiculous lack of trigger discipline. It was literally ten seconds of holding the trigger that eliminated squad 1’s initiative. It was straight up dangerous. Eventually we took the “crackhouse” and ousted the bombs.

The last mission was interesting. Travis had to leave because of personal reasons, leaving me in charge of squad 1. It was difficult to say the least. 1-2 Bravo kept back talking and ignoring my orders because they felt I had no authority. Aww well. I eventually got them in shape. I tasked 1-2 bravo to be the advanced team to escort assets to the “junkyard”. Yah… that was fun. It was becoming dark and it was hard to see anything. Nothing serious happened here.

At the end of the day, Drew and I received SA membership for next year for being leaders on the field. Both Rob and Ben noted 1-1 Alpha’s dedication to the event in leadership, role-playing, and training. I felt that we came out of the event with renewed confidence in Task Force Kilo and our abilities to operate as a team. I am tired now. I have been up for 24 hours. It's time to crash.

Additional photos can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.545896548829144.1073741842.443026532449480&type=1&l=c6a9fe6523

Training for Operation: Narcoleptic Reindeer

Just going to keep it brief today. I am worn out! So today was pretty awesome! Task Force Kilo and allies have a military simulation (milsim) game next weekend on November 9th, hosted by Spokane Airsoft. We are pretty dang excited! We gathered and trained today at "The Barn". This training included:

• Formations (V-formations, diamond, etc)
• Formation transition to firing lines and back to formations
• Halt orders and dealing with failures to comply
• Take downs
• Vehicle stoppage
• Vehicle searches
• Asset transportation
• Stacking and room clearing

It was pretty dang fun! There are definitely room for improvement but overall the performance and dedication from the team was great! I cannot wait to go to Operation: Narcoleptic Reindeer! We are ready to go and I feel that we are the most prepared team for this event!

Crye Jumpable Plate Carrier (JPC) Update

Here is my new Crye Jumpable Plate Carrier (JPC) setup! I have an extended baofeng setup so I decided to get the MBITR pouches that are designed for JPC's and went from there! I also ended up adding wires and a whip antenna! Extended my radio's range by a HUGE amount haha.

Preparation: Half of the Battle

So instead of waking up to a day of airsofting, I woke up to a day of sickness and the flu so I decided to hang out in front of my computer screen writing a requested blog. “How do you prepare for an airsoft game?” I will tell you one key idea behind this. Being prepared will save you from a lot of potential headaches.

I have always been that “being on time is showing up ten minutes early” kind of dude. I hate feeling flustered and I hate being late. I love showing up early, being prepared and giving myself time to soak in the environment. Showing up prepared is beyond having everything ready on time; it is having everything ready with ample time and planning your approach to the day. I am not sure about you guys but when I get ready for airsoft, I have to plan an entire day around my event. An event that goes for six or more hours and that doesn’t include the two hour drive one way. That’s at least ten hours of airsoft related activity. That’s 62% of my waking day (assuming that I sleep a minimal eight hours). I prefer not to feel flustered or nervous about forgetting anything during that ten hour period. 

Here is an example of one of my packing lists (speedsofting packing list):
Click Here to Download

Before you keep reading, I want to note that the following is what I do. I don’t want to say you should do everything I do and in all honesty, it may be overkill but it’s important to look at this from a “what can I learn” perspective. You can come in close minded and tell yourself “yah… okay… this is pretty stupid” or you can come in open minded and ask yourself “why does he do that?”

My day technically starts the day before with preparation. I start off by charging my batteries and checking their integrity.  Older batteries will struggle with memory loss and holding a charge. Since I do use older batteries, I have to keep an eye on them. I make sure I have two fully charged batteries during the day. There’s nothing like ruining an entire day because of a bad battery or a lack of charge. I, then, go through my packing list. My packing list is a detailed listening of gear and “things” that I bring during an airsoft game. It is number coordinated with each item number on the list corresponding with a number on my tangible items. After that, I sit down and plan out my entire day. When do I have to wake up? When is the latest time I can leave and still make it on time? What time should I arrive? Etc, etc, etc.

As you can see, it’s not too bad. It’s all about preparation and planning ahead. It doesn’t take long (my routine takes roughly an hour) but it will save a lot of your headaches. I hope this helped!

Operation New Dawn AAR

Well where do I begin? Besides the fact that I got lost temporarily, it was a pretty relaxing drive. It was a pretty standard wake up at five, eat some breakfast, verify my packing list, and drive two hours to the  rendezvous location. Okay, maybe it was more like three hours. I straight up took a right in Cheney, WA instead of a left. Woops! When I arrived, I was greeted by the event hosts, Northwest Airsoft. They were a bit aggressive about telling me not to park on DNR land (which was inside the gates), even though my rear view mirror clearly had a DNR pass on it. After an annoying two minutes, they finally allowed me to park inside the gate. There was a group of people just messing around with their gear and just hanging out waiting for the next truck to take them up a half mile long hill to the staging area. My fellow teammate and battle buddy Drew showed up with his friend, Parker and we hung out for a bit. After ten or so minutes, we finally loaded our gear into a truck and headed up a semi sketchy, very muddy road. At the top was a nice green clearing and about fifteen or so people chilling out. I instantly recognized Skyler, Jared, Andrew, and a few other friends. I will admit, I didn't recognize most of them. There was twenty people total. I expected thirty but I guess that didn't happen.

Thirty minutes later, NWA finally got things rolling. We started chronoing and there was some personal confusion about zip ties but that's whatever. Everyone was shooting below 400 except one person. Oh, and I finally got to see Drew's new WA GBBR! The range was more than lacking (turned out that Drew didn't install the hop-up retention spring which is cool) but there was amazing recoil and the full auto sounded awesome. Anyways, we went through the standard safety briefing and a relatively short ruck to a secondary location. The entire walk, I couldn't help but go over the safety briefing in my head. I felt like something was missing from it and that it wasn't complete. I have no clue why or what it was at the time. Afterwards, Drew mentioned that he didn't hear anything specific about law enforcement, ceasefire or related. Lucky for us, there wasn't an incident. I haven't played with a few players and I wasn't sure of their experiences.

The secondary location was incredible looking. It was relatively small reed covered lake with one rocky hilly side highlighted by rocky overwatch positions and a slower, flatter, side featured by a valley and a very aggressive hill. After a few minutes of admiring the view, we were split into teams and told of our objectives. A battlefield style "Rush" game with five capture points, two on the right and two on the left and one past the lake. We must capture the first flag on each side before progressing to the second set of flags and we must capture the second flag on each side before progressing to the last flag. The explanation of each flag and where they were at was confusing at best. I wasn't sure what was going on to be honest. Aww well, what can you do right?

After a lack of assertiveness from anyone on my team (who was defending), I decided to split into two independent squads. One side, led by Andrew, will take the hill side while my squad takes the valley. The valley was interesting. The distance from the attacking team's CCP to the first flag was half the distance of our first flag and our spawn. The valley also was a huge disadvantage for us since the attackers could pick at us well before we can set up a relatively viable defense. However, Parker was the difference maker. He was able to effectively harass the opposing team enough that our defense could solidify. We did eventually lose that first flag but that's all we needed. We had a nice hill that allowed us to bunker in and eliminate targets using range. They were stopped stone cold. One hilarious moment was when I was walking back into combat (from my CCP) and there was a gaggle of four tangos down range at roughly 300 to 400 feet. One attempted to engage and fell about 100 feet short... Skyler then stated "why do you even bother? K-21 has the longest range on this field." Probably made my day. To prove his point, I raised my gun and sent a few rounds downrange. That made them scatter pretty fast! The rest of the round was relatively boring. Someone kept harassing us on the left flank so I sent three people, including myself, to flush him out. That resulted in a futile search and us stalking the entire attacking team who thought the coast was free. Nope. It wasn't.

After a very long break, my team was tasked with assaulting the hill. After a very treacherous climb down a very sketchy hill, we were faced with a daunting task. We had to flush out five people who were on top of an impossibly steep hill. I remember looking at Drew and seeing his "I will kick your butt if you make me climb this while being shot at" look. Drew is always full of surprises. He has great knowledge of real steel and good skills on the field. He is fast and he is even smarter. He is definitely XO material. Anyways,  he suggested that we flank around right on a path lining the lake. This suggestion singlehandedly won us the battle. Parker, Drew and I spent the next fifteen minutes ninja-ing our way around the right side. We got in a firing line and slowly marched on their 6. We saw all of them turned away from us. It was almost perfect. Almost. They anticipated our move and had rear security. We got off lucky because he decided to look a different direction. I did get too greedy though. I moved up even closer with no cover. When he turned around, I had no choice but to engage. Screw silence. I gave him a healthy dose of bb's and sent him off cussing (and a few threats pointed at me... something about killing me in my sleep). Drew immediately called out three left side. Parker was too busy engaging a tango right side so I had to swing over and help. One was laying behind a small log and another was using a tree for cover. I am not sure how, but I was able to dispatch both with relative ease. I'm pretty sure they were still confused about the situation. This left one person (Drew took someone out). I ran over to give Parker some assistance and almost getting hit in the process. There was a grassy plateau and I could barely see the enemy target. I gave him a spray and sent him packing home. It all happened in literally a minute. While the rest of the team set up a firing line and started pushing forward, I spent the next fifteen minutes hunting for the capture point. Quite embarrassing to be honest. We missed it. It was right where we were... at the plateau. Skyler couldn't help but laugh his butt off. Thanks Skyler.

This is where the game went downhill. We pushed up so well. Our team kept picking them off without any effect to our momentum. In fact, we were too good. We ended up completely flushing out the second flash and had defensive positions on superior ground. The enemy team called a cease fire on our side of the field and came over to watch the fight on the other side of the lake with us. Nothing really happened after that minus me scaring their entire team by shooting across the lake. That lake had to be at least 350 feet at this point. I just had to angle my gun up a little bit and I made them scatter pretty dang fast.

The rest of the game was quiet. We were asked to go over and help and we did... but nothing came of it. Drew, Parker and I decided to call it a day. After an awesome raffle sponsored by Precision Airsoft, we peaced. I would rate my experiences a solid six or seven out of ten. It was a free game at a new location. I can't blame them for not getting a higher score. Just to note, a ten would be Milsim West level and that's 24 hours of immersive military simulation. Overall, it was an okay day.