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OPERATION: COLOMBIA
Tsawwassen Paintball Games
Tsawwassen Paintball Games
---::--:: Prologue : Insertion ::--::---
The date is July 11th, 2010. In Vancouver, over 300 paintball players have gathered to re-enact the clash between the US/DEA police soldiers and the FARC guerrilla army - a battle which rocked the jungles of Colombia in 1986. This side of the story is told from the perspective of Operator Wingnut, (Travis E.), the radioman and photographer for Team Hellfire.
At 0430 in the morning, the arse-crack of dawn, I rendezvoused with Hellfire's captain Chief (Joshua V.) Whiskey (Steve H.) joined us before we reported in to the ferry terminal at Departure Bay, Nanaimo. There, we were joined by The Pharmacist (John G.) and his lady Brittny O. All together, we got on the boat and headed out for the event, getting underway at approximately 0515.
The time of this picture was about 0530. Team Hellfire is en route to Tsawwassen by ferry from Nanaimo, escorted by the 710 HMCS Brandon. (Not pictured)
Fortunately, there were not many people to give our five camo-clad warriors the usual strange looks, so we shot the breeze and even performed some last-minute surgery on our paintball markers near the cafeteria. Aboard the ferry, I was surprised in the arcade by Tom, the owner of Central Island Paintball and one of Team Hellfire's four sponsors </shameless plug #1>. I would later find out from a fellow photographer that this was not the only time today that Tom would ambush a hapless cameraman.
Once Hellfire had arrived in the international waters off the coast of (British) Colombia, the assault team disembarked from their landing craft and met with a local sympathizer, only to be identified as "Matt" to preserve his anonymity from the FARC. Matt took our fire team directly to the forward operating area, where private military contractors (PMC's) from TPG would process our intake paperwork and briefing. They quickly provided us with access to a forward staging area on the far side of the field.
Left: Hellfire, naturally, was one of the first squads on-site. We selected the Red Team staging area, and set up shop. Haterade for everybody!
Right: Whiskey plays with the "Akimbo" attachment for his Tippmann X7, mixing it up with an A5. Note the red armband.
It bears quick mention that while Island United typically cooperates with the event planner by allowing Matt to choose which team he needs us on more, we had been weakly insisting on Red Team (FARC). A few of us, including Wingnut, Kogachipp, and others, had even shown up wearing Colombian-appropriate costumes, and had even been issued with armbands made from red duct tape. Even with this, the possibility of being shuffled to the Blue Team (US-DEA) always existed. So when Chief reported back to the staging area to find out where the rest of Island United went, and came back wearing blue tape, he was met with collective groans from the rest of the team.
We all knew what that meant. It was time to pack up, move, get new tape, and unpack again...
As the morning wore on - easily the longest part of the day thanks to the time-dilating effects of anticipation and eagerness - other warriors began to show for the DEA. Infrared recon and sat intel showed that the FARC guerrillas were also massing for a fight - in fact, there were far more heat signatures than there should have been. This had the DEA's intelligence officers concerned, that a third party had to have been involved in this ground war. The two sides met briefly for the UN Envoy's briefings on rules and safety for the day's battle - and for the opportunity for players to posture aggressively at one another. Cheers and battle-cries rocked the city of Vancouver.
Top: This is an H&K XM8 (Smart Parts SP8 with Q-Loader), very sophisticated technology for a rag-tag guerilla army...
Bottom: Hellfire's table in the US-DEA forward staging area, preparing for the first sortie of the day.We are now wearing blue.
The briefing was over, and both sides reported in to an impartial arms inspector to make sure all of the weapons involved complied with the Geneva Convention. Although they grumbled, even the FARC revolutionaries (not a regular army in any sense of the word - kidnapping, extortion, narcotics and contraband, and of course public executions) reluctantly complied and had their guns chrono'ed. Hellfire, meanwhile, was joined in at the team's table by its newest member Domino (Steffan M.), and guests from Island United including Kamikaze Kanadian (Richard D.) and ShadoWalker (Lee M.).
---::--:: Chapter 1 : Recover the Product ::--::---
Top: The CSPO Radio Officer, known to me only as "Jeanobi," was responsible for overseeing the command and coordination of the US-DEA squad.
Bottom: Ready for action, the fireteam known as the 666 Saints rallies near the tank in anticipation of the starting horn.
At 1000 hours, the music began and so did the countdown. Feet shuffled anxiously, weapons were cocked, and air tanks were cranked open with a collective hiss. T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5...
4...
3...
2...
1...
GET SOME! GET SOME! GET SOME!!!
Over 300 players, 150 strong on each side, broke from their starting gates and charged into the fray. Within, the air was filled with paintballs, cries from the wounded, orders shouted left and right, back and forth, and the clatter of markers - many of which were firing on full automatic. The opening music echoed like a grim movie soundtrack, opening (naturally) with Drowning Pool's Let the Bodies Hit the Floor.
Right off the bat, Hellfire Team sprinted for the crashed Blackhawk at Point Hotel to recover the cocaine before FARC did. At first, they had trouble finding it in the wreckage, only to discover a curious bystander was making off with the bags. After relieving the referee of the precious cargo, and bringing it back to the embassy, Chief had Jenobi (our CSPO dispatcher "Blue Command"), arrange for several defenders to hold the fort. Blue Command insisted that Hellfire Team (callsign Niner-Eleven) remain on site to help guard, but Chief had no intention of missing the fight.
As they marched back into the field, Chief was then rejoined by Wingnut, who was taking a break from filming and 'going in hot' for the first time of the day. Wingnut, being the radioman, updated Blue Command on the situation in no uncertain terms. "Blue, this is Niner-Eleven. We are moving back to Point Echo, but be advised that we are not remaining there!"
This building is the US Embassy (Point Echo) within Colombia. Being closer to the Blue Team's spawning point, many of the defenders holed up here. Very quickly in the game, the cartel's captured "product" was brought here for safekeeping, jealously guarded by the least aggressive players on the team. In the past the FARC had also been 'relieved' of guns, contraband, and bootleg Hannah Montana merchandise destined for Canada - but today's "product" was two bags of (simulated) powder cocaine, with a street value estimated at $200,000.
Thanks to an aggressive front-line and plenty of volunteers for rear defense (too many, in some opinions), the Embassy saw very little of the FARC and their allies until the final mission. But we'll get there soon enough.
Throughout the day, there were three tanks in play. Blue Team was supported by the Marauders, who brought me along for a ride in their war machine first. The Marauder tank was heavily armored and was the only vehicle on the field that could destroy the other two with its onboard cannon. The Marauder is also equipped with a co-axial machine gun for an anti-infantry role, but due to logistical problems, the DEA was unable to procure ammunition for it.
Hellfire and the Marauders launched a coordinated assault on the wreckage of a UH-60 Blackhawk which had crashed in this part of the jungle back in 2006 (Point Hotel). For this effort, Wingnut met with its driver 'Big Dave', early on in the game and helped coordinate everyone through Blue Command via radio.
The tank support was immensely appreciated at Point Hotel because the Blackhawk happened to be on the tape halfway between the Blue Team and Red Team insertion points, it saw a lot of fighting. The same was true for Tunnel Town (Point Tango) - a shanty-town in the center of the map with plenty of crawlspaces - and the monolithic Radio Tower (Point Romeo) to the north on a high ridgeline. Being in the center of the field, these two points commanded much of the game and changed hands many times between the more aggressive players on each side.
The town, the helicopter, and the tower formed a very volatile frontline that rarely shifted throughout the rest of the day as the most aggressive players on either team fought it out. Beyond this line, Red Team controlled the APC (Point Alpha). Alpha was a plywood APC that -while not mobile - served as a secondary spawn point. Also on the FARC side was the Castle (Point Charlie), a truly intimidating, two-story stronghold which had been the focus of Blackhawk Down's defense scenario in 2006.
As the Marauder tank was the only vehicle that could take out the War Dogs' tanks without having to depend on specially colored scenario ammunition (as the foot-mobiles did), its crew did an excellent job of controlling the game during the first mission. The turret gunner was keeping the red-heads down, and the tank was holding Point Hotel ... when disaster struck. While backing out of the area, a track slipped and the wheel shore completely off the axle, immobilizing the great machine and eliminating it from the game.
To make matters more interesting, Red Team's War Dogs had two APC's still active within the field carrying automatic weapons. Neither could be eliminated without the creative use of special paint, which had to come directly from Blue Command. The battle was up to these people - the ones whose weapons were paintball markers and a good pair of boots - people I could already see falling through the armored slit of the tank's back door.
When I separated from the Marauder's tank crew to rejoin my squad, the radio squawked and Blue Command came in. Red Team had just spent 100 points to call in a helicopter airstrike. Even as I hurried back to the rally point to regroup, the dead and wounded were already coming back in by the dozens. With the tank out of commission and Blue Team effectively having been erased from the field, it looked for a moment like the the FARC would be able turn this thing around on us.
Top: As the radio comes alive with urgently barked orders to fall back, Operator Wingnut is suddenly illuminated by the blast of powerful ComBloc rockets impacting along the ridgeline.
Bottom: Disappointed and frustrated DEA officers, barely ambulatory thanks to the miracle of painkillers, trudge back to the staging area with the dead and wounded.
At least twice, Team Hellfire reinserted as a squad. They were able to regroup quickly with frontline and tape players, and fought hard to hold the helicopter wreckage until a break was called for lunch. Extensive footage of at least one of these sorties is available thanks to Wingnut's improvised goggle-cam. Alongside Kamikaze Kanadian and Tom, Wingnut was able to fight his way up past the creek bed and hold the timber fort just south of the Helicopter wreck, dodging withering suppressive fire until finally taking three hits to the camera and head.
Through something amazing, there was paint everywhere except on the lens housing! My luck was so unbelievable, I had to have Chief take a picture of it with his own. Good God, is it really only noon? At these giant games, it feels like we've been playing for a whole day already...
---::--:: Chapter 2 : The Irregular War ::--::---
1330. Lunch is over, and another briefing is called. As the morning had gone on, a thick cloud cover had formed, trapping ground radiation into a natural convection oven; the day was muggy and hot. By now, however, all the clouds had literally boiled off under the 31-degree sun, releasing much of the humidity and giving us drier weather, if not any cooler.
We're beginning a new mission now, with the key being the assassination of key Cartel figures being protected by the FARC. In addition, foreign interests had been discovered to be working with the South American drug cartels, hinting at international conspiracy. The DEA's goal while still in-country is to eliminate as many of these targets as possible, with a general on either side being worth double the points.
With the demise of the Marauder's tank in the last round, the FARC may have a decisive advantage. Without being opposed by a tank, the two War Dog APC's and their automatic weapons are now more than a threat to the DEA foot-mobiles - who in turn need to depend on rare, special ammunition to immobilize or kill the armor. Worse, the APC's are capable of small groups of Red Team players across the map without exposing them to enemy fire, which makes them very dangerous as mobile spawn points.
In an amazing display of quick turnaround, the Marauders were quick to produce a solution to this problem. In the one hour that was allotted for lunch, the engineers were able to collect timber and use it to construct a collection of 'Dragon's Teeth' tank traps - primitive wedged spikes that could stop even the most powerful bulldozers in their tracks. On the fly, new rules were improvised for these traps, demonstrating the event planner's flexibility in dealing with unexpected circumstances.
A FARC weapon that had been captured by one of the US-DEA Operatives. This is suspected to be a Bulgarian copy AK-74U (likely a Type 68).
Dozens of players on Blue Team, shouldered several of these large caltrop-like devices and braced themselves for the horn. Once again, the music began, and 150 players stampeded out into the field and the fighting commences. The fastest DEA players moved ahead of the group, found strategic choke points, and dropped the traps, limiting the routes the APC's could take. The second wave of DEA immediately moved up, filling the gaps and once again meeting FARC with an aggressive, if slightly undermanned front-line.
According to Phil of Team Voodoo, the tank traps did not hold the FARC APC's for very long. In some places along the front-line, the Red Team was able to aggressively overrun the trapped positions and then move the 'Teeth out of the APC's way. I personally am of the opinion that this was only possible due to the huge gap that grew between the front-line (aggro) players and the more cautious (tactical) players in the rear. If the ones in the back had pressed forward in a coordinated attempt to keep up with the front-line, the Red Team would probably not have had such an easy time punching holes in it. Many on Team Hellfire would later express a lot of unhappiness with finding themselves all but alone at the front - more than once.
The ground war, long and exhausting as it was, went on until 1600 hours - for many players, referees, and cameramen, fatigue and the oppressing heat was becoming a problem. Camelbaks were beginning to run dry, and Haterade was a hot commodity. In his efforts to collect footage for the records, Operator Wingnut would become involved in some very unusual back-room politics even as the fighting continued in the background.
As part of a very complicated internal affairs investigation, he was called away from the squad by superiors within the DEA. His assignment; meet with an enemy unit deep within their territory, unarmed, unmarked, and completely neutral. Trading away the body armor, radio, and DEA uniform for the distinctive red beret and scarf of the guerrilla army, Wingnut met with the APC crew with whom he would be traveling. His task - to collect evidence of COLAR expatriates or foreign nationals operating within the ranks of the FARC army. It was his job to confirm whether or not the Cartel was recruiting aid and where it was coming from.
The DEA officer was not made privy to the concessions that his general had had to make to get this kind of access - the job, though, was very clear.
The crew of the APC had been advised well in advance of our intentions, and had been paid a good sum of money by one of our JTF-2 (Canadian Special Forces) "advisors" to look the other way. However, other guerillas in FARC still regarded the narcotics soldier with great suspicion; one was even very adamant about not allowing Wingnut into the Red Team staging area - convinced that he was a spy sent by Blue Team or the United Nations to assassinate the general! A tense stand-off followed, before the word finally came down.
He joined the APC crew and went for a very bumpy ride. Two passengers hooted in glee even as the floor danced beneath them; the turret gunner blessing his helmet after an especially hard knock to the head. Every now and again, someone would bail or climb aboard, and the helmeted kid would pop up to lay down some suppressive fire. A few times, Wingnut peeked out of the hatch up to take pictures, only to be forced back down by withering suppressive fire.
Once again, the camera had taken fire, twice more he was struck in the forehead. Once again, he'd had his bell rung, and once again the camera had miraculously escaped permanent damage.
That's when the operator realized the mistake he was making - the red beret and the scarf that disarmed the suspicious sort made him look like a FARC commando! He was being fired upon by his own side, who didn't even know he was in the APC! All of a sudden, it was clear why this was such a dangerous mission. As the gunfire intensified, the crew ejected their guest from the APC, and Wingnut ran for cover from the intense crossfire. Unmarked and unarmed, all he had to defend himself with was a camera.
It took fifteen minutes to escape the battle zone through Red Team's spawn point and return to the DEA staging area. Having captured footage of a sophisticated H&K XM8 assault rifle and a soldier wearing German markings on his uniform, the DEA had the evidence they needed. As Wingnut made it home just in time for a short break before the final mission, the Blue Team was still winning the game.
Top: The distinctive CADPAT uniform worn by this Blue Team operator indicates that he is with the Canadian Forces, likely as a JTF-2 advisor brought on by the US or United Nations.
Bottom: The discovery of Germans in the Red Team staging area confirmed what was speculated by DEA intelligence earlier - either the EU or NATO had their own interest in the drug wars.
Apparently, the tension during the mission had to do with the Colombia-US extradition treaty. Five VIP's - Colombian lawmakers and their US counterparts, had made it possible for Cartel members to be arrested and extradited to the US to face trial, which had put a lot of pressure onto the FARC to protect their command staff. The FARC is now mobilizing to find and kill these five lawmakers, to send a message to other pro-US interests that might threaten their sponsors in the Cartel.
---::--:: Chapter 3 : Hold The Perimeter! ::--::---
1645. This is a classic defense scenario. Working with the Colombian army (COLAR), the US-DEA establishes a perimeter around the US Embassy at Point Echo, with most of Team Hellfire taking the southernmost flank to watch the tape on the south side of the field. Blue Team can not leave this area, while Red Team can roam freely.
On elimination, there is no respawn. Red Team must kill all five hostages (roleplayed by CSPO officers) within 45 minutes - if even one lawmaker survives to sign the extradition treaty later, the FARC will never be safe from the fist of the American justice system. In an effort to dissuade the inevitable counterattack, it was planned that COLAR mortars would fire smoke and tear gas into the jungle around the Embassy.
When the FARC finally arrived, however, the smoke was nowhere to be seen - word came down from the top that mortar support had been canceled. Because of the extreme heat and dry weather, it was cause for concern that igniting the white-phosphor shells could easily burn down the embassy and the nearby South American shanty-town. My responsibility was to cover the second fire sector from the extreme left, and prevent the Red Team from attempting a tape play from the helicopter at Point Hotel.
Movement in the bush. Hellfire and the other players south of the Embassy opened up with withering fire, and managed to keep both the south and east tapes locked down for almost twenty minutes, losing only one hostage in that time. I was the first to fall as Red Team managed to break through our laning fire and take the southernmost flank. Even as I watched from the chrono range, Red managed to push north along the eastern tape AND east along the northern tape, forcing Chief and the others into a pincer and eventually eliminating them.
Over the next ten minutes, and dozens of Blue casualties later, the FARC was able to reach the embassy for the first time all day and execute the four remaining hostages. As this mission was worth 1000 points, Red Team had won the day.
---::--:: Epilogue : Closing Ceremonies and Exfiltration ::--::---
The closing ceremonies, as always, included thousands of dollars in raffle prizes and contests. There were way too many prizes to list here, but some of them included a Spyder Pilot, custom A5's and X7's, compressed air tank, MIL-SIG soft goods, and the great grand-daddy of prizes, a DYE DM-10. Following the raffle was the costume contest - five of the best-dressed players from the game stood off with one another, and the cheers of the crowd picked the victor.
Lucky Ticket #38 won Operator Wingnut this absolutely hardcore MIL-SIG RRV vest and included MOLLE accessories, over a $250 retail value. This would mark the first time in recorded history that the Operator, known for his volatile luck, had ever won a contest of chance.
In the costume contest, Kogachipp and his friend (both having come all the way from France for this game) brought the FARC colors and a character from the Disney cartoon Marsupialami! (You'll remember that like the rest of us, Koga had also come dressed as FARC, only to wind up with Island United on the DEA side).
Also present were the Joker, the Ghillie Kid, and a DEA "Special Agent" in a very brightly colored ghillie suit that marked him as "A Narc and He Knows It!" Operator Wingnut's uniform, an unique blend of jungle guerilla and armored government stormtrooper (which he had earlier referred to as the "Colombian SS"), left him in the second round in direct competition with the Joker - Hellfire, Island United, the Mafia, and many other new friends hollered themselves hoarse, and with their support Wingnut walked away with the prize - a well-used TPX and a brand new MIL-SIG magazine pouch.
But remember that anonymous local we know only as Matt? He had one more surprise for our exhausted scenario players. With the death of the Colombian law-makers, the government had begun to destabilize, and FARC already had control of several checkpoints. In a very ironic twist, the DEA agents needed to be smuggled past them in anonymous, blacked-out vans. Like illegal Mexican immigrants, Team Hellfire huddled in the pitch darkness while their driver hurried them out of the country.
The time is somewhere between 1930 and 2100. I'm too tired to even sneak a peek at Whiskey's phone. It seems like several days ago, I took a picture of the sun while it was still rising on the other side of the planet. Even now, I can feel the last reserves of energy draining from my muscles as I watch it sink heavily behind the horizon, and I let my eyelids follow it down.
It's been a long day. Team Hellfire may be as wicked as they come, but even we've earned our rest.
*** UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE ***
Part One.
Part Two.
The video for Operation Colombia is now LIVE. Due to too much awesome to be contained in one clip, please find Part One and Two above.
This post has been edited by Wingnut: 29 July 2010 - 12:57 AM
