Operation East Wind - NATO Training

East Wind offers challenges unlike what you will find at any other airsoft, or reenactment event. As such, a primary focus of our training is to prepare you for the parts of this event that are different from other events. We do not seek to train you to fight, to a certain degree, we are willing to assume that if you are serious enough to attend East Wind, you've probably got a lot of that stuff locked down.

Additionally, some time is generally spent in the beginning part of the event with individual units working on tactics and drills to make sure that everyone is on the same page anyhow. What we instead are seeking to do here is provide resources that will help you be adapted to the specific environment you will find yourself in at East Wind. Please choose from the following categories, read up, watch the videos, pay attention, get out and practice. I assure you, 0200, three miles from base, in the middle of a snow storm is not the time to figure out that you do not know night land navigation.

Training Event Schedule

Hands on experience is the best way to get much of this really stuck in your brain. There is no way to learn like actually hiking through the woods in the dark, leading a patrol to an objective or tuning a radio.

In fact, certifications are given for various skillsets. Without them, you cannot do certain tasks, like operate a radio at East Wind. To get the most out of your experience, please plan on attending at least the basic training events listed. And for those who are already experienced, we are making arrangements to add more challenges to your training. If you think you know the skillset, just tell us, and we'll give you a special surprise.

Before attending any training, please review the relevant materials in the training library below.

Training Library

Everyone is invited to study as many of these videos and other documents as they can stand. Please read the introductory information so you understand why we think these items are critical, and do not hesitate to ask questions on the training section of the forum.

The vast bulk of the items are U.S. Unless otherwise stated, assume that.

Fieldcraft & Navigation

Navigation is among the most pivotal skill sets at East Wind. It does not matter how good of a warrior you are if you cannot get to the fight. Likewise, a small unit that is able to move quickly and accurately at night is almost impossible to catch. While you may think that nav is as easy as following the path, I assure you that you will not think that by the third or fourth time you get you ambushed.

Learn it, know it, do it. All of the time.

Communications Equipment

A dizzying array of period-correct, military-issue communications equipment is deployed with East Wind. The good news here is that most of it is well designed and easy to use so you really do not have to know that much to actually use it in the field. None the less, the more you know, the better you generally are at putting this equipment to work for you. Here you will find a series of period correct videos covering both the basics of how radio works as well as the use of some of our primary communication systems. Additionally, our TM database provides the manuals on most of our primary systems in downloadable .pdf format so that you can read up on them if you'd like.

Personal equipment

Everyone tends to falsely assume that all their personal equipment is just silly old stuff with weird features. The fact of the matter is, all of this equipment was designed to work together as a system and you'll probably be surprised at some of the clever features that are built into it all. Knowing your equipment will help you set it up better, and use it better in the field.

Combat Skills, Weapons & Marksmanship

As stated earlier, East Wind assumes you have a certain minimum degree of competency in basic fieldcraft and combat skills. What we provide here should not be taken as a definitive or complete listing, but just a refresher, or helpful baseline for the types of small unit skills you are likely to employ.

Night Vision, Night Operations, & Sensing

Among the equipment provided at East Wind are various sensors, from individual night vision units, to thermal imagers and seismic detectors. Many of these are personally owned, and may not be present at any particular event. They may also be issued only to certain individuals, certified in their use (partly because they are very expensive). As a baseline regarding their operation, as an introduction to any hands-on training and for general interest, and number of general training resources and the manuals for the specific equipment we employ are listed below:

Infrastructure equipment

Here you will find information regarding some of the event supporting infrastructure like tents, heaters, generators etc. While most attendees probably do not need to know all of this stuff, we provide it as a resource to those attendees who are interested in purchasing their own period correct military tents or heaters. Any attendees who will be billeting in a heater equipped tent should make it a point to seek out the manual and any information on the heater in use so that they have an idea how the system works. Used correctly, heaters are a positively wonderful experience. Used incorrectly, they are at best annoying and at worst, deadly.

Vehicles & Material Handling

A number of vehicles are employed at East Wind. This is posted more as a service to those who are looking at purchasing their own NATO vehicle for East Wind or those who are just interested in the vehicles in general. Vehicles are privately owned, and should have all PM completed, so you are unlikely to be pressed into service to maintain a vehicle in the field, except as muscle power to remove one from a ditch, and so forth.
Drivers of vehicles must be specifically pre-authorized. Do not think just because you watched all the videos, you are now certified to operate any of these vehicles.

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