Operation Oklahoma Invasion VI, Memorial Day Weekend 2011
Oklahoma Special Police Force
Roadtrip Part 1:
We left Swansea SC at approximately 8PM on Thursday. Gunship, Ping, 82dcustomer, tatsk1, Diesel, Sand!@#$%&, and Gambler all met up at the house to load everything up in the RV. Shortly after we passed in to Arkansas we were pulled over by a state trooper. We had been pulling Diesel's Jeep behind the RV for most of the trip, but dropped it as soon as we hit the mountains. As a result, we were pulling an empty dolly when we passed that cop. This might be why he pulled us over, but when he got to the vehicle he just asked us where we were going and where we had come from. It took a few minutes to explain why we were heading to Oklahoma via Arkanses from South Carolina, but we ended up going on our way unticketed. Yay! It took us 19 hours, 7 (or was it 8?) gas stops, and many close calls with crosswinds and transfer trucks to reach the field. Considering that we were planning on 15 hours tops *and* that we left later than planned, we didn't get to the field until 3PM or so the next day.
Setup:
Once we arrived on the field, we went straight to checkin to avoid the rush on Saturday. I saw a few familiar faces from NC, and a few more from previous out of state games like AirsoftCon in West Virginia. As soon as we were done with checkin and setting up the awning on the RV we headed over to chrono, again beating the rush. Over the next few hours we sorted BBs in to bags of 1500 for the resupply points, loaded mags, checked gear, programmed radios, and generally made sure everything was ship-shape for the morning. SWC naturally dropped by towards midnight to party a bit, but most of us were in bed by 1AM.
Gameday #1:
6AM: Rise and shine - Diesel cooked up some of his famous bacon and eggs, which disappeared in short order. At this point we all started gearing up for the briefing.
9AM: Safety briefing - This was basically an hour long pep talk... a tribute to the "premiere milsim community in the world", quick coverage of safety rules, a few blurbs about the helicopters and how being chopped up by rotors wasn't fun, etc. When the whole MilSimEvent staff was on stage, it became evident that all the most tacticool of airsoft operatorz have huge beards.
10:20ish AM: Game start - It took about half an hour for most of the players to reach their starting points in the AO and for the choppers to get warmed up. Around 11PM things started hopping in Coleville. The Special Police Force (SPF) made our way in to the town and set up a security perimited around the church in the center of town. We were approached by the local police force, who agreed to accept our help and also offer medic assistance when needed. Around 20 minutes later TCC (contractor group wearing ATACs) was spotted skirting the town in the woodline. They didn't engage us, but several of the local cops took pot shots at them. TCC dug in behind some sewer pipes on the edge of town and sat there, just as unsure of what to do as SPF was. Within minutes mortars started falling around the church (LOUD... smoke and shrapnel, with a boom that you could feel thumping in to your chest). As soon as the mortars hit, IFOK (tan) forces came out of nowhere and rushed the town. SPF was almost immediately pushed back in to the jailhouse (two story concrete building next door to the church) and the local cops started dropping like flies. Security collapsed as truckload after truckload of tan forces stormed through the streets. Dom, Gunship, and Ping held the IFOK guys at bay from the second story of the jailhouse, mainly thanks to the Dom's M60. The TCC forces pushed in to the church, picked off everybody on that second story of the jail, and then stormed the first floor. Tatsk1, Diesel, 82d, and I were pushed to the back wall of the building, where we lasted about 10 minutes before the last of the local cops were killed and we were taken out from some windows. All this time there were IFOK and OKPA (green) helicopters making strafing runs over the city, making it even more difficult to survive.
1PM - After Coleville initially fell, we all fell back to our nearest casualty collection point, or CCP, to respawn and hydrate. Using the Jeep, we drove back to the outskirts of the city and parked. Advancing on foot, we found the city to be nearly empty. We set up shop in the church, regrouped with the local cops, and waited for the next attack. Several IFOK convoys drove past and a helicopter would fly over periodically to check on us, but things were pretty quiet for a lot of that afternoon. Dom and I headed back up the road to collect the Jeep after a couple of hours, at which point we discovered that the tan forces (contractors and IFOK alike) had been pushed out of the city by the OKPA but were steadily regaining ground towards the outskirts. We shouldered our guns and walked straight through the enemy lines. At one point a tan soldier asked us if we were hostile or not. I replied that we weren't shooting at him, and kept right on walking. We expected to be lit up at any moment, but finally made it to the Jeep and climbed in. At this point the only AT weapon in the area was being point at us by a suspicious looking TCC contractor who happened to be sitting 50' from our vehicle. Hoping to bluff our way out of a long sitdown at the respawn, Dom and I just sat there eating M&Ms and drinking Gatorade. After a minute or two green forces started pushing up the road behind us. The contractors started ignoring our Jeep, at which point we started the motor and took off down the road. We got stuck at a corner almost immediately; a player had dislocated his knee and an ambulance was headed towards us down the road. At this point we were being chased by the tan player with the anti-tank weapon (only hood/windshield hits counted as kills), so I pulled in to the ditch, slid around the ambulance, and headed in to town.
2PM - About half of SPF left Coleville to run some helo missions, so the remaining members (myself included) took to the woods and spent the rest of the day in some fairly generic woodland combat. The game was called at 10:30PM, though I left the field around 7. The humidity had increased so much by that point that nothing would stop my goggles from fogging. We weren't allowed to use mesh, so at the point that I couldn't overcome fogging I was useless.
Gameday #2:
Half of SPF re-entered the field around 5AM when the game started again; the other half stayed at the RV till approximately 8. As we were entering the field, we met up with CG18 (The Black Devils from NC), who asked if we would be willing to help provide security for a private meeting with some CIA operatives on the edge of the field. We agreed, met up with the other half of SPF, and made our way out in to the boonies to set up an ambush for the CIA. We were paid up front with 25000 DBacks (money), with another 25000 to be paid after the mission. Some of us rode in the back of CG18's big pickup, while one CG18 member and the rest of SPF rode in the Jeep. When we were approaching the ambush area, CG18 sent a few SPF members forward to scout the area. As soon as they were out of view, all 4 doors of the pickup burst open and the occupants immediately shot the SPF members in the bed area. Then they ran back to the Jeep, killed the occupants, and stole 82dcustomer's "kill card" (worth a GBB pistol if captured during the game). Being considerate double crossers, they offered to give us a ride back up to the respawn. At this point everyone had forgotten about the advance team sent on ahead to scout for the CIA operatives that didn't exist. As soon as the truck drove around that corner, the shot the CG18 members and took back the kill card and cash. Now that everybody was dead (except those three), we all rode back up to respawn.
You can look at this two ways:
1. We got doublecrossed and hauled out in the middle of nowhere.
2. Geno's son got a free KWA 1911.
This whole fiasco ended around 11:30, and the entire game ended at noon. We spent the next hour getting everything packed in to the Jeep and RV.
1PM - Raffle! The staff raffled off dozens of guns, ranging from a $1600 sniper rifle to KWA M4s to CO2 revolvers to ~50 random pistols. BBs, patches, hats, shirts, and other bits of swag were randomly thrown to into the crowd. I've never seen so much stuff raffled off at a game before. The raffle ended promptly at 2PM, and we were off the field by 2:15. The second roadtrip took a little less time than the first, and we arrived in back in South Carolina today without too much trouble.