Milsim West: Jump to Crimea - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

To be honest, I was not going to make a blog post at all for this event. I had high hopes for this event. Internet famous people were coming like Jet Desertfox and the Crye Pope and I was truly excited for the “jump” simulation that the directors of Milsim West really pride themselves in. After my gun went down and I decided to take up the camera, I realized that I would have a very unique perspective that I really needed to voice.

Friday morning, my SoCal friend, Alphonzo Hall, Zakk Dunn and Garrett Yzaguirre set off at 1000 sharp with trunk full of gear and a very moto atmosphere. Alphonzo, who was running as Australian, already was talking in an “aussie” accent while Zakk Dunn was blasting gangsta beats.  It was an incredibly uneventful drive highlighted by people driving 80 while texting and a Safeway stop in Seaside. We showed up to Camp Rilea near Oregon  around 1330 and just decided to hang out with friends who were slowly showing up. Ben Brison was busy trying to get registration going and I was running in between the Russian barracks and the NATO staging area doing favors and seeing friends. By the way, I apologize for the extremely dry writing. I will admit that I am not the happiest writing this but I feel that it is extremely beneficial for the Milsim West staff to get as much feedback as possible.

After sunset, 1^st platoon (the platoon I was attached to as media), was getting ready to deploy in the “helicopter” that was going to take them to drop point [OPSEC]. It turned out that there wasn’t any room for me to fit in  with 1^st platoon so I stayed behind and watched my friend “fly” away. At this point I decided to walk around to the other platoons to ask if I could join them. The first platoon I approached was 4^th who heckled me with “no press” and “media is for the weak” as well as people who attempted to touch my camera equipment, which is a hard no. After telling them to check themselves, I approached Alphonzo who suggested that I hit up “Jan” who was the platoon leader (PL) for 3^rd platoon, which consisted of the Regiment (Aussie impressionists), Development Team 6 (Navy SEAL impressionists), and War Horse (MARSOC/Force Recon impressionists). Here I actually lost track of time with the amount of fun I had with them. They were all welcoming and were extremely motivated in their role playing. There is nothing like hearing “Aussie Aussie Aussie” and the “OI OI OI” to make you really pumped to do any airsoft related activity. Here I also met Jet Desertfox, who was extremely nice and attempting to stay low key. I noticed that he was doing his normal Youtube related filming so I offered to give him some content. Hopefully 9^th Group’s media makes it on his page since I feel like it would really enhance the viewing experience. 

Anyways, after linking up with the Aussies, our transport showed up a few hours late due to technical difficulties, and we were off. Thank you to Roscoe, a game admin, who was very nice and dropped me off with the Aussies without the need to jump out of a moving vehicle. Speaking of which, I forgot I didn’t go into the jump very much. The Milsim West staff is not new to the “jumping from a plane” aspect of milsim events. They ran various jump simulations at Recondo School, which was a milsim event focused around Vietnam events (I believe – my facts about Recondo School are sourced from various secondary sources of information so they could be entirely inaccurate).  Basically the jump simulation was players to jump out of a large truck going roughly five miles per hour. Participants were taught how to use the “static line” made out of engineering tape, a carabineer, and a rubber band. Participants were taught proper commands to communicate with the jump master, and a red and green light was wired into the truck to act as communication between the “pilot” and the jump master. This was probably the most milsim thing I’ve seen in a long time. It was definitely something else. 

After jumping from the “plane”, I regrouped with the DT6 guys and made our way to the predetermined rendezvous point designated for third platoon. There we waited for a good amount of time for unknown reasons. It was long enough for me to take a good nap and wait up absolutely refreshed. A little past midnight, third platoon (and I) moved out. Here is where it gets exciting. We pushed through a pitch black forest and snuck into east side of the MOUT town. Right on queue, first platoon sent off a large amount of pea grenades, TAG rounds, and anything else that made a boom. Third platoon kicked it into high gear and immediately started clearing buildings and connexes with surprise, speed, and violence of action. It was absolutely madness. One second I was standing next to Spencer Wessels, and another I was standing next to Ducky, then Alphonzo and somehow I ended up standing next to Jet. It was an absolute blur. Buildings were cleared within seconds and the entire town was controlled by NATO/Commonwealth Forces in an impressive seven minutes and sixteen seconds according to my camera which recorded the whole assault. It turns out that third platoon has been training together for quite a while now and really pushed themselves to conquer the MOUT town in as little time as possible. After grabbing my ruck from the staging area, I linked back up with first platoon and went straight to bed.

Right at 0800 Saturday, Abe, a fellow 9^th Group teammate, woke me up to grab some breakfast. The morning started off with great promise as Ben, the first platoon’s PL, shared his biscuit and gravy Mountain House meal with me and the sun was out with no sign of rain. It’s worth mentioning here  that Milsim West has some serious luck/skill with picking out weekends for games. All three events that I’ve attended had threat of rain and cold weather but it would always turn into an 80 degree day with the sun out and about. However, this is a double edged sword, which I will explain later. I joined the company leadership for the briefing which really challenged my knowledge of military terms and strategic planning. For people coming from a military background, it was normal and relatively boring but to me, it was mind-blowing and really impressive. Sadly, the platoon I was attached with had security for the entire day. It was extremely disappointing actually. I felt that it was almost unfair since most of the platoon kept security on Saturday at the last Milsim West event, Darial Outpost. It’s not that they hate pulling security, but it’s that Saturday is the main day of the event. The platoon took security detail with pride though. For the first few hours, people were on post and really tried to keep eyes out. There was the occasional harassment patrol in the form of enemy technicals driving way over the speed limit listed on the TACSOP, armed with an incredible amount of PKM’s raining BB's  but that’s about it. However, around 1300 to 1400, people started to really succumb to the heat. Everyone had already burned through their personal water supply and became dangerously dehydrated. All the tell-tale signs were there. The lack of sweat, sluggish movements, dizziness, weakness, and the fact that no one used the porta potties in hours really made me incredibly concerned. I went from media to S4 and went on a mission to locate water.

While searching around for water, I found that most of the five gallon cans of water were empty. This wasn’t good at all. There were no admins on site at the town and eventually, I really got desperate. I walked into a building adjacent to the Australian controlled three story building and found two cases of water bottles stacked up without any sign of ownership. I still feel ethically conflicted with what I did. I took the water bottles and handed them out to the platoon. If these cases of water were yours, let me know by messaging the 9^th Group Facebook page. I would love to paypal you the money to pay for them. After handing out the water, I caught word that there was a skirmish towards the east on the opposite side of the town. Third platoon had it completely under control and by the time I showed up, they were searching bodies and regrouping to return to base. On this note, I got extremely busy attempting to find them water. With both first platoon and third platoon on base with a limited amount of water, supply started to decrease rapidly. For an hour and a half, there was only a single half-filled container of water between both platoons.  People resorted to getting water from a faucet in town which (I believe) caused a lot of people from first to become ill for whatever reason. Eventually, the Milsim West staff did regain control the water shortage and I got wind of the staging area having an entire pallet worth of water cases. While getting everyone water, I became dangerously dehydrated myself and also injured my legs and back from constantly lifting and carrying awkward shaped canisters of water. Luckily, Nick Day gave me a reality check and had me sit and relax for a while.

Around 1700, shit started hitting the fan. First platoon started taking contact from the south-east side of town. As first platoon made a move to push the Russians out, a section worth of third platoon came rolling in as QRF and provided much needed support. Too bad this was a trick to pull attention away from the north side of town where a platoon or two worth of Cossacks and Russians came rolling in surprising NATO and Commonwealth Forces. First and third platoon came thundering back pushing the Russian and Cossacks out of town. The conflict was intense in a TACSIM sort of way but it lacked essence. I remember being with Andrew Combs, a teammate of mine, who was about to begin engaging forces on a ridge. We saw two Cossacks approaching from the northwest side of the town near the connexes with their guns up in the air with two hands as if they were dead. Andrew distinctively yelled “are you dead?” They ignored the question and continued with their guns above their heads. All of a sudden, they lowered their guns and ran towards the connexes blind firing and spraying in full auto. All Andrew and I could do is roll our eyes. Andrew ended up jumping out of a window while I tried to identify myself as media. I stepped out expecting to get shot, and I did with a face full of BB’s. I waved at them and yelled at the top of my voice “UN media” which resulted in more BB’s to my body and the “call your hits you stupid [insert Asian related word here]”. All I could do is cover my camera and run. There was no spirit of the game with them.

After getting out of the death trap that was the connexes, I ran towards the middle of the town where I witnessed the gruesome death of my teammate Zooka man (Andrew Combs) from incoming artillery. Seriously though, the pyro used by the Milsim West staff was absolutely top notch. I remember one of the big pyros they set off shook the ground beneath me. Since there was no blank fire allowed per range control, Milsim West really stepped up their pyro game. I really questioned if Milsim West was going to be able to match the atmosphere provided by blank fire. I will never again question this again. So. Many. Explosions. The fight took half an hour to complete and people were thoroughly happy.

The Milsim West staff were able to adjust fire and address first platoon's lack of action. They ended up giving first platoon a very crucial night mission. NATO and Commonweath forces were able to capture and detain Russian prisoners. First platoon was tasked with sending out a section sized force to ambush the Russian/Cossack recovery team sent to recover the HVT. A squad sized element was to be left behind as QRF. Since first platoon was extremely short on shooters due to illness, I was asked to step up and carry a glock for “self-defense”. This escalated to a 240 since Abe went out and bought the platoon pizza in an attempt to make people feel better about the day. Seriously though, thanks to Abe for really going above and beyond and trying to really make light of Saturday. Sadly, we didn’t see any combat as the ambush team was able to defeat an enemy patrol as well as eliminate a friendly patrol who engaged the Ambush team. Near bedtime, news went around that “if NATO/Commonwealth forces were eliminated, then we would not be permitted to sleep in the MOUT town”. With this on my shoulders, I decided to go to bed as my injuries and exhaustion screamed “stop and rest”.

At around 0200, I woke to people running into the building screaming “help! Russian forces have taken out half of NATO forces.” I was angry. To me, this was where airsoft stops and safety begins Everyone had to drive to the AO. If people don’t get enough sleep then people are going to be driving home drowsy. I decided to channel this anger to “I’m not freaking sleeping in the forest.” My buddy Zakk Dunn drowsily woke up and geared up in a daze. As he walked towards me, I slapped him a couple times yelling “I need you to wake up”. I grabbed Garrett Yzaguirre’s 416 and a few spare mags and prepared my angus for a real fight. I expected the place to be crawling with Russians and Cossacks with NATO MCE’d. Instead there was no enemy combatant in sight and no one was dead on NATO. I was extremely ticked. Abe went up to me and we decided to stay up and keep fire watch for first platoon. For a good thirty minutes, we saw no contact and witnessed the people, who woke us up, sneak away and go off to bed.

Waking up was totally worth it. In boredom, Abe mentioned jokingly that he wanted to use his NOD’s so bad that he didn’t care if we sat in the forest. Next thing you know, we were setting up an LPOP on the hill overlooking the north side of the town. After setting up, I looked back at one of my mates who was on line and I, luckily, spotted four or so Cossacks. I turned back to Zakk whispering “Zakk contact! Zakk!” At first he didn’t believe me because the LPOP was meant to be a joke and something to relieve the boredom but as he turned to me he gasped “Khang, what… oh my god!” We snuck back to Abe and Ryan Mudd’s position and moved against the Cossack harassment patrol. We watched as they entered a connex, pull out maps, plan out their attack, and exfil from the connex. Abe and Zakk were able to get within 20 feet of the Cossacks while I flanked around to create a really two sided ambush. We were able to quickly and menacingly eliminate the harassment patrol. While searching the Cossacks, I went up to the leader and asked to search him. He gave me an audible “yes”. I asked if he had maps, a notebook and BB’s on him. He responded “no.” I, then, asked if I was allowed to search his jacket breast pocket (which we saw had the map, and notebook). He gave me an audible “no”, stood up and left even though I told him I wasn't done searching. Again… the spirit of the game was definitely missing.

Abe, Zakk and I stayed awake until 0700. After some time, I sent Mudd off to bed and was eventually joined by Drew Kazanis, who assisted in eliminating the same Cossack from earlier but this time, he barred himself in a Connex. We engaged him when he randomly and suddenly ran down the hill into the Connex. Upon entering, Drew and I were immediately taken out. After taking time side to check the large bleeding welt I got from his “hot” rifle, Abe was able to revive me and along with Zakk, we were able to trick the Cossack to retreating by throwing an empty magazine and yelling “frag out” then immediately breaching and spamming every corner of the connex until they surrendered. After that, the enemy force slowly decreased their harassments. We owned that night. At 0700, we went to bed and I ended up sharing an unzipped sleeping bag with Abe since someone was occupying my sleeping bag.

We woke up at 0900 or so in a groggy daze. We were beat. After thirty minutes of getting ready, I realized that my Nikon batteries and my charger were missing. There was no way they got up and walked away and I have yet to find them in my ruck. There goes about 80 dollars worth of batteries. As a result, I was not able to get any footage on Sunday and ended up acting as the UN observer attached to first platoon. As everyone began making breakfast, two technicals and a deuce and a half raced up the MSR carrying a large force of Russian combatants. Chaos ensued It was shoot or die. I ended up grabbing the 9^th Group LAW tube from the floor and after yelling a very theatrical “back-blast clear”, I sent a TAG round right in between two technicals a large amount of Russians. The resulting firefight was the most intense firefight I have ever seen at a Milsim West game. Since it was a Sunday, it was the last day for the staff to set off pyro… so they dropped as many as possible. There were so many explosions it wasn’t even funny. The fighting eventually stalemated at the courtyard but the back and forth between the two sides was incredible. Eventually NATO forces were able to regain ground and push the Russians back out of the town.

Right after pushing the Russians out of town, first platoon was sent on a mission to go around the lake and eliminate any enemy forces that we encountered. It turns out that first platoon only had 15 people out of the original 30+ but we made it work. Led by Warren, a Milsim West Director, we were able to push all the way to the rendezvous point mentioned at the beginning of the game. Here I decided that I needed to end in glorious manner and akimbo’d a 1911 and and glock 19 while screaming “UN Media” and defending Task Force Nessie patches.

Even though I really touched on the gloomy portions of the event, I felt that the event was really good. Minus the water issue and the lack of honesty and integrity in some individuals, the event deserves a strong 8/10 with me. Sustains would include the amount of pyro used, the quality of cadre, and the quality of firefights due to excellent planning. Some improves would be the supply (with water and BB’s – Garrett Yzaguirre checked in expensive white 0.43’s and they were never seen again… even after the event), stronger emphasis on integrity and enjoying yourself rather than seeing the game as a “win-lose” scenario which leads to dishonesty and lack of integrity because even though it isn't the staff's fault that players were gaming the system and not being honorable, the responsibly lies on the staff to promote a more honorable culture and the "spirit of the game", as well as making the game a bit more dynamic and wholesome. What I mean by this is that the entire experience felt somewhat hollow, as if it was missing something. I feel like if a town is utilized then maybe consider having role players to make the game more interactive and to encourage the “spirit of the game” more.  Again, overall this was a really fun event. I might sound really salty or crusty in some sections but that was in relation to the fact that I am exhausted while typing this. This was meant to help the Milsim West staff pinpoint sustains and improvements while also really flexing my opinion on the game.

Thank you for reading!