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| My experiences at Milsim West's Darial Outpost |
Milsim West. The premier host of milsim activities in the Pacific
Northwest. With successes such as Breakout Barbaria, Darial Gate, and Crimean Crisis
(to name a few), how does Darial Outpost stand on Milsim West’s impressive
repertoire?
Darial Outpost was the sequel to Darial Gate and follows
Milsim West’s tradition of using a linear story for multiple events. After
attending Crimean Crisis (which also followed the Darial Gate storyline), I was
quite excited to sign up for Darial Outpost. Sean Lai had boasted about how
Darial Gate was the best event that Milsim West has ever hosted (ignoring the
fact that the area of operation is visually appealing). I knew I had a lot of
planning ahead of me and a lot of work to do on my ruck (and kit) because of my
recent admission onto 9th Group as a probie. This included researching and
collecting resources to sustain myself for three days (since I have never
camped before) and to update my kit to a semi-proper Combat Applications Group
Impression. Thank god I built a solid relationship with Alphonzo Hall and Zakk
Dunn who were great resources on both subject matters. I felt that I would have
been unprepared otherwise.
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| My Darial Outpost kit (doesn't include my TSSI m9 Medical bag or my ruck) |
The week before Darial Outpost, I had finals and graduation.
This left me very little time to get ready for the event. After coming home early
Friday morning (the day of the event), I should have had a few hours of sleep
before my voyage to Leavenworth, Washington. However, this timeframe was used
to jerry-rig my USGI sleep system onto my Tactical Tailor 3 Day Pack. Needless
to say, I am fed up with the Tactical Tailor 3 Day and I already plan on
getting a Mystery Ranch. After an uneventful five hour trip where my GPS
decided that taking back roads going 40-50 mph was faster than going 70-75 mph
on the freeway, I arrived at the USfor parking area. It seemed that showing up
at 1400 was a bit too early since I showed up at the parking area with my
driver side window down belching Rihanna’s “California King Bed” to only Matt
Robb and Sam Roth. It was great to be around milsim minded airsofters again.
After talking for a bit, J. Warren, a member of the company’s leadership and a
Milsim West Director, told Beetus, Sam and I to get our stuff together and
start on the registration process. I felt like it was a lot more organized this
time around. At Crimean Crisis, the registration process was confusing and not
very well handled since the registration process was spread throughout an
entire complex. At this event, it was condensed into a smaller area (mostly
because of working area was smaller and the working area had to accommodate
vehicles and gear). This made the registration process a lot more streamlined
and easier to run through. It was very fitting that at the end of my
registration process, Rushing Russians - Spetsgruppa Alfa, showed up in a white
mini-van spewing Potat gossip and sporting their downward pointing “fuck
Chechnya” “gang signs” while bottoming out their van in the ditch that
separated the parking lot from the road. Why was it fitting? Alphonzo Hall,
Alfa Probie and a good buddy of mine, tackled me as soon as the van doors
opened. I should have realized that this was the trash dog’s way of
foreshadowing the RusFed forces steamrolling USfor all weekend.
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| Zakk waiting for things to start |
After registering, Sam Roth – Baker 2-3 squad leader, taught
me very basic land navigation and went through the Milsim West issued map with
us. I also ran around getting accountability of people who were showing up
since Brown, our platoon leader, was not showing up for a while. After about
four or five hours of hanging out with 9th Group guys, and a flat tire on our
“helicopter” (a janky trailer pulled by a truck), we finally inserted into the
AO at nearly 2100. There was no moonlight at all. It was truly pitch black
broken up by a vast array of stars and the occasional lack of light discipline.
We made our way up to the COP, losing Baker 2-3 along the way. After a few
minutes of confusion, I was tasked to take Zakk Dunn and Garrett Yzaguirre to
recover our lost personnel. Long story short, by utilizing our various assets
(including Duck Balls – 7’s and Ghost Hunter -7’s), we were able to find our
missing squad. Talk about owning the night.
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| The AO... absolutely amazing |
As mentioned, RusFed ran over USfor continuously all
Saturday. However, I wasn’t part of any of these. 2nd platoon was not part of
this at all. After sleeping for four sporadic hours broken up by the occasional
skirmishes staged probe our defenses, 2nd platoon woke up at 0600 sharp and relieved
the wary night watch. After a quick tutorial from Ben Brison, 2nd’s PSG, and
Nick Day, 1st squad’s ATL, about how to properly fill and stack sandbags and
the macro-perspective of forming fighting positions, all of 2nd platoon began
the tenuous job of providing security for the COP, which included developing
and fortifying fighting positions. To put it in layman’s terms, we dug trenches
and filled sandbags. Nick also had the idea of hanging sniper veils using
sticks to partially cover certain areas to provide more cover. I ran around with
Ben Brison to each and every fighting hole helping with sandbags and making
sure no one was slacking off. Eventually, after two hours, the drive to
continuously improve our fighting positions disappeared as people were showing
signs of boredom and fatigue. It was only 0800. 1st platoon were barely waking
and 3rd platoon were still napping in their sleeping systems. This was also
about the time when the sun started showing and shining all nice and hot-like. Airframes,
and PCU level 5’s were quickly being stripped in favor of boonies and combat
shirts. It was warming up fast. My job naturally transitioned from helping
coordinate the improvement effort of each fighting hole to making sure no one became
a casualty of the heat. As noon started rolling around, I had a nice system
going. For four hours, I was making runs every 30 minutes to each fighting
position supplying water and offering my personal supply of protein and carb
enriched foods to keep motivation and moral as high as possible. From what I
saw, one of the 3rd squad bravo team members (the youngest in the platoon)
yielded to the heat and was resting in the single tent that provided the COP a
single source of shade. I burned through my personal and Milsim West issued “magical
medical” water in a span of three hours and I ended up asking people to ration out
water to different groups who were short on liquids since they either packed
less than what they needed or burned through their own supply. Noon felt
different from the rest of the day. The heat was getting to everyone. Besides
the occasional break in silence caused by an admin’s ATV, and Ben and the JTAC
throwing a Pea grenade at me, no one spoke. It was hot and there wasn’t enough
water on base to keep everyone going.
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| The single tent |
However, right at 1200, Warren and his mighty chariot (an
ATV) rolled up right at noon with three large packs of Safeway Refreshe Water
Bottles (24 Packs). It was like the scene from Lorax, the movie, where they
opened the bottles of air and color instantly rushed back into the world. The
COP just sprung alive. Ben, the bison, was back up on his feet and our JTAC and
SERE Specialist started going at his Skoal with more vigor. Soon, even more ATV’s
showed up and water became less of an issue. I ran around to each and every one
of the fighting positions throwing water bottles at everyone making sure they
force hydrated. Garrett Yzaguirre did make an interesting comment which caught
me off guard. I don’t remember exactly what he said but it made me realize that
I was the one that was about to suffer from heat CAS. I popped a squat next to Zakk
Dunn, Logan Thorning, and Garrett Yzaguirre and just chugged water and had
lunch. Our discussions were fantastic and some time had passed. All of a
sudden, I hear rustling bushes behind me. I turned to look and saw a yellow
object land right at my hand. All I could think of was “oh shit”. I jump right
over a trench and a pile of sandbags and took cover. I saw Logan and Garrett
land on either side of me as a yellow TAG grenade exploded. Poor Zakk. I think
he was taking a nap. I began to make a move towards my blaster as our
covert-he-shall-not-be-named JTAC friend and Ben Brison laughing their asses
off. God damn it, I swear these two were a bigger threat than the Russians.
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| Not sure if Ben is calling a fire mission on me or the enemy... |
So you are probably wondering, what the heck was this JTAC
guy doing and how he was important to Task Force Archangel’s movement at “Darial
Gorge”? Well, you see, this JTAC was in charge of receiving fire missions and
delivering indirect fire via 60mm mortar rounds. This mortar was the highlight
of my entire event. I would have paid to just sit there and watch this bad boy
go off. The tube was incredibly realistic and the sabot was ingenious. I never
got closer than five feet but from what I could see, the sabot was designed to
hold a 12 gauge shotgun blank and when it was dropped into the incredibly
realistic mortar tube, a firing pin would strike the blank causing a very
convincing burst of energy and sound. A few seconds later, the “volley of rounds”
would land on the designated coordinate that Mr. JTAC had calculated. Just to
note, Mr. JTAC had to also calculate angle, and direction that the mortar had
to be facing. One of the most iconic moments in the event was when a Russian
mortar unit climbed a section of rough terrain known as “Cardinal” and began
shelling us. This caused significant casualties which I had to help. I even
dived on an injured patient since there were rounds landing near us causing me
to become causality as well. Mr. JTAC and the Russian mortar team battled it
out for nearly an hour with skill and precision that could only be obtained by
attending ten John Lu events (ignoring all the military training that Mr. JTAC
had). Eventually Mr. JTAC landed one square in the middle of the Russian mortar
team, destroying the mortar and killing everyone but one. I already got my
money’s worth right there and I never even fired a single BB.
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| Mr. JTAC and friends raining freedom with the 'merika cannon |
Eventually, 2nd platoon was rotated out on patrol into the “Cardinal”
area and everyone was hyped and ready to go. Motivation was high and you could
see people ready to “take it to the enemy”. We did have a technical with a
mounted 240 that could be used to help with our violence of action against the
enemy. It didn’t really help. After moving half a mile down one of the main roads,
we came into contact with Rushing Russians - Spetsgruppa Alfa. They were not
happy. As I learned after the event, they were apparently eating lunch or some
shit when we came strolling by. This angered them and as a result, we got our
shit rocked.
It was dead quiet then all of a sudden 7.62 blank fire
opened up and BB’s started flying. I saw a few people go down. Ben and I
instantly ran to the side of the road and took cover. I dragged a causality into
the ditch I was in and told a person passing by to help with buddy aid as I
linked up with 3rd squad alpha team who was making a push forward. This was
foolish. What I should have done was hang back about an additional 100-200 feet
of where I was and set up a casualty collection point (CCP). Instead I decided
to be a proper BB war hero and try to go towards the patients rather than
having them brought to me. As I made my way to the closest causality that
required my attention, I made eye contact with a person in a partisan suit. I
knew him. Alphonzo Hall. I made eye contact with my future roommate as he shot
me right in between my eyes. I screamed and acted out my kill as 3rd squad
bravo team clear out the swamp area Alphonzo was in.
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| Garrett getting ready to head out on patrol |
Eventually someone passing
by finally provided me aid and I was back in the fight. This is where you would
think I would sprint back 200 feet to set up a CCP. Nope. I instead sprinted
back to the opposite end of the road about 20 feet and set up a CCP there.
People were healed and started moving back while a mix of 1st squad alpha team
and the 3rd squad leader provided cover. Here I would like to take a moment to
mention CF112 who was shot for the third and last time. Rest in pieces CF112,
you and your blank fire rifle will be missed.
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| A view from the technical |
Anyways, as we began moving back, I noticed that people were
running past a member of USfor who was shot and down. What happened to leaving
no man behind? I voiced this out to 1st squad alpha team, who rallied
together and made our way slowly towards the patient. After some extremely
effective bounding we were able to extract him and a few other people with the
help of 3rd squad, who provided rear security during extraction.
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| I don't think they like our decision to fall back |
From here, my time at Darial Outpost began dwindling down.
After a little while, my team’s leader had to leave because of personal reasons
(emergency related) as well as Garrett, Zakk Dunn and Logan (health related).
Sadly, I had to leave as well because of personal reasons. I guess someone
decided that my unoccupied house would be great to burglarize. All in all, the
event was a success. It lived up to its standard of “milsim” and its focus on
realism was outstanding. One of the only improvements I would ever offer to the
Milsim West staff is to make the chain of command more transparent. I still to
this day don’t know who our commanding officer was.
Until next time!
