War Stories

[Stagg]

So where are they?  Zack's post reminded me that I don't have a single clue what happened at EWIII, except for the little bits that happened near me.

NATO?  Did you guys really patrol, or were you at waffle house the whole time... in which case I'm switching for next year! I like waffles.

I know Abica got 'swhacked' once. And somewhere a Soviet patrol must have gotten hit on Friday, because the encryption codes were compromised.  During our sweep through the snow our RTO (Grant) reported receiving the code for a lost CEOI.  I think it was "Mexico, Mexico, Mexico." 

A little AAR tidbit: if the SOI is lost during a mission then realize (as we did out in the snow) that our card is still the same.  So we had to make due with what we were carrying, and we did.  Maybe the SOI  should have a shift function, where everything on the list shifts up/down so the same card can continue to be used by patrols out in the field, temporarily. 
That is more complex, but could be a better option than leaving it "as is" during a mission.

[cannon fodder]

i was with the btr neerly the entire event so i didn't see much action. would have been cool to roll thru an ambush though in the btr if it actually happened 

[tascabe]

Well the BTR was under fire at least twice - both in the dark.

[cannon fodder]

Well the BTR was under fire at least twice - both in the dark.

and i wasn't there? when was this?

[Stagg]

Maybe that one time when you guys let me sleep through a freaking battle.... and then dropped our guard entirely!

[tascabe]

First Ferret attack and I think second ferret attack?

[misha]

Snowballs and Broken Ribs...

Its the last Saturday Morning of EWIII.
I wake up to the heavy "slump" of snow sliding down the troop tent ceiling...
"Ugh..." I think as I hack up a lung from constant Belamorkanal smoking and cold/damp weather.

I get up, shove my feet into the cheesegraters that have become my jackboots, and get moving.  A group of guys have gathered outside the tent, jokin and smokin.

I see Buck (my constant "pick on" buddy...)
I see snow
I see Buck with a rosey red cheek.
I take snow and make snowball.
I throw snowball into Buck's rosey red cheek.

I hobble around past him giggling and hooping.
Buck decides to teach me a lesson and tackle me...

This is where things go woefully wrong.

As we're laughing, giggling and "tackling"...I go to  ground.
Buck rides me into the dirt.

The force of my weight, his weight and the mass of Terra Firma combine.
I feel a "SNAP" in my chest as I go down...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" I start screaming like a bitch.
Everyone who was "smokin and jokin" is laughing at the display.

Buck is kneeling over me...
"GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME...." I wheeze.
"Are you ok?" Buck says....
"Don't touch me...." I say in extreme extreme pain....

"Heh heh...I done bagged me a bear!" Buck says to Sherony and the others who were watching the "fun".

I managed after a few minutes to get up on my hands and knees and with snow all over me get up on my feet...

"You ok?" Buck asks again...
"No...I broke something...well you broke something!!!!" Fuck..."I guess I had it coming..."
"Yeah, you're the one that threw the snowball and started it..." Buck adds.

I go to the HQ tent and proceed to take lots of Ibuprofen and Illegal Vodka (good thing for contraband.).

The rest of the day and afternoon and next day are a blur of pain, cold, pain, and despair.
Up until that point, EWIII was treating me fairly well...

I get home, go to the ER because I can't report for work because I can barely breathe and can't pick anything up, I can't even take my hand out of my pocket to get my car keys...

Outcome....
2-3 Broken ribs...separated cartilage in my sternum.

Result:
Out of work for a month while I recooperate.

However, to my credit, I still managed to participate in the breaking of camp as much as I could, but every single stake I pulled, felt like I pulled a little piece of my soul each time.

Ask me sometime in person about my memories of those two days after I broke my ribs...it put Eastwind in a very unique and different light!

[Stagg]

As usual Misha is nuts  Way to set the bar unbelievably high.
I figured your back was hurting again, and didn't know it was ribs until right before we left.
Somehow you manage to have these massive traumas while in comparison the rest of us are just loafing around.  The first year you almost died from insanity after staying up for a 9 days (seems like lots of Russkies  did)  And this time you break 3 ribs.
What happened to EW2?  Was the weather too nice for crazy, or was the ground just mushy
Too bad about the ribs.  Both for the hurtin' and the missed opportunity to terrorize to local medical community.  It would have been a hoot to drive over to the hospital in the Deuce, wearing commie uniforms.  
I knew there was a reason to buy those Red Cross banners they use to make temporary ambulance trucks.

We could have taken Coyote alone with us.  He fell on the trail of death we carved in the hillside on dark and slippery night.  I probably shouldn't have sent him there in the first place, since it was a quiet night, but I did for some reason known only to tired squad leaders in those moments of insanity.
Then I had to deal with an injured (and rightfully grumpy) Coyote, and also a sick trooper.  Probably from eating too many good commie stews.  Either way we were down two men, mi-week when we were trying to run patrols, and stand a guard.
It is one of the driving forces behind combining the East Bloc Camps, manpower gets drained fast when we have to guard to locations, and it makes co-ordination that much harder.  Maybe later when we are better at this we can split them up again, or if the scenario calls for it.  But we shouldn't do it just for the heck of it.

I'm said it before, surviving Eastwind is "easy", running around constantly is "easy," setting up camp is "easy" (ok maybe straight forward).  All those things can be muscled through with a little willpower. 
What I can't will, is high moral, good health, or inspired people.  I have to watch for hypothermia, sickness, water/food intake, and count the exposure time of my people.  All of which is beyond my direct control.  And it is easy until some body is hurting, or sick, or over extended because I kept them up all day and half the night... and the missions keep coming... and I can only hope that my people step up and keep swinging. 

Seriously, next year if somebody will step up to the challenge and lead... then I can fulfill my dream, and just by a regular GI.  I promise not to be trouble, and only sleep late on the odd days!
Then Eastwind might almost be a vacation.

Kudos to Allan and Brett for running these damned things.  I do understand why we only do it once a year.  (its really because Misha would become a PTSD maniac)

[tascabe]

East Wind

"Not because it is easy, but because broken bones do not stop the missions"   

First Misha and his broken ribs still tearing down camp.

Then Swayze and his broken leg still making sure the governor got to the bird. (different event - same mentality)

[Stagg]

Oop looks like I took to long "editing" that post.

Too wordy.

[misha]

Towards the end of things, I did allow myself to climb up into the deuce and just hang out while everyone finished up odds and ends....and I felt terrible for it.  I'm one who hates to let people work without helping in some way.

Hah, PTSD...if you don't come home with some of it from EW you're not doing it right.
I'm with Stagg on the whole "My job's not hard enough that I have to worry about people getting sick, hurt, hypothermic etc ad nauseum (pun intended)" Its really interesting all the levels that there are to Eastwind, i.e. grunt/footsoldier, section leader, higher leadership, admin etc..everyone experiences things on different levels, its interesting to see how it all fits together.

Another "war story" of mine...

"End of the Line".
It had to have been Thursday or so after we had been actively engaged in operations, I was plenty tired and had gone down to the NVA AO to check things out and go check on our guys who were located at the "Overlook" OP/LP.  Stagg and I linked up and took a walk down to one of their LP/OP on the far left of their "line".  Since nobody was situated at this location, we decided to take a turn there while chow was being served so that the "grunts" could get their food (unofficial standing orders in the East Bloc is that "Leadership eats last...after everyone else has.") So we're at this LP/OP both faced opposite directions but facing each other, so we could watch two sectors and still chat a bit.
We're chatting and then I'm waking up with Stagg watching his sector which is located behind me.
"Sorry man, I must've dozed a bit..."
"No problem."
It was just such a nice day, I got my back against a nice tree trunk, sun shining, breeze blowing and...
KONK....I was out again for about 10 minutes. 
It was just what I needed though, after I woke back up, we phoned up to HQ and had them send out a repo for us.
We headed back to the barn, collected up messkits and hit the messhall.

Just a nice quiet "lull" in the war.

[aswayze]

"Not because it is easy, but because broken bones do not stop the missions"

That was a sweet heist, I was not about to blow that over a mere broken leg.   Those poor guys didn't have a chance against us old schools tricksters.   I just loved frazzling their commander during my "talk" with him, nice to know I can still dial on the intimidation when I need to.

We gotta track that Ghoststorm guy down and get him to East Wind though.  He'd fit right in around here. 

[Rebel G]

Ambushed at the Barn

AS I recall it was the 17th, a Wednsday. Myself and my NVA comrads were on full alert following the suprise attack launched by the NATO forces in the area. I was sitting in a chair infront of a window watching a small sector of the border. I had been doing this for a few hours now and began to get restless. Sometime that afternoon we bagan recieving calls from the LP/OP BeeHive about a large NATO patrol in the area. After more calls came in we had no clear idea where the patrol was and was going. I volunteered to go and have a looksee. I got out of my chair, grabbed my rifle and made my way down the ladder. As I stepped out from the barn a took a look around. Suddenlly my eyes caught two individualls in woodland camo not 10m away. I hesitated, then turned to run back into the barn. When I did so I was hit multiple times in the back and left shoulder by enemy rounds. I fell to ground, my comrads went into a defensive mode and sealed up the barn. As I lay there slowly drifting in and out, I see the two men who shot me run over the hill with thier capitalistic tails between thier legs.

I was the only KIA the NVA sustained, in our AO, durring the conflict.

[Stagg]

Hmmm, we should have named the trail in your honor. Oh well, guess we'll have to let the bureaucracy name a gym building or something, after you. 

Misha, I wonder if those moments in the sun (Pun again) are why we keep coming back.
Let me check.... Nope, there are moments without the sun. 

Here's a "War Story" for those cold and lonely nights:
It was early in the war.  I decided that we had better keep a real 24hr guard at the OP/LPs, which is always long and boring.  However NATO had not shown themselves all day, which broke their previous two day pattern.  Suspecting an attack, yet having no orders to advance, and hearing that our Socialist Friends the Soviets were staying home, I decided to stay close and hold our ridge line.
I organized a watch schedule that would get everyone six-ish hours of sleep that night, with the intent of leaving for a patrol bright and early the morning.
As usual I made the schedule and somehow still got a long shift in the wee hours of the morning?

Anyway, to make a long night/story short nothing happened! 
I do recall sitting on that god forsaken ridge overlooking the main border crossing for two hours.  There was no problem staying awake either. I had brought only a zeltbahn to keep the threatening rain away, and as the night temperature dropped there was no chance that I was going to dose off.  I did wonder what a rain pattern Popsicle tastes like.
Then somewhere about 0230hr a light fog rolled in, blocking my view of the crossing and limiting my line of sight (LOS) to the bottom of the ridge, 50 meters away. The view had been lousy to start with.
One benefit of being the Commander is discretion, and the final say I decided to not subject more of my men to the cold and the fog, and instead closed down both OPs.  The only way they could detect anything is if they were overrun.  Instead I informed the Soviets of my intentions and we retired to the barn.

Oddly a quite night makes for a long and boring night, and yet I am still tired in the morning.  Loafing around is supposed to be restful.
I either need to get an office, or get out and patrol more.  At least in a Patrol Base, we have stealth working for us, not imagined NATO creeping up on our static OP/LPs.

In a nut shell, that is a quiet evening at Eastwind. 
The other option is to go out looking for trouble, either way the nights are 95% quiet sitting or patrolling.
 
The other 5% is a brief burst of gun fire here and there, as two patrols bump into each other.  More often that not they miss each other the first time, complete their mission(s), and then miss each other the second time. 

.....And every now and then the Ferret shows up for supper.