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