Milsim West: Darial Outpost - 2nd Platoon Medic Perspective

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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. 

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.

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 1^st 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.

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!