I haven’t gone to two-day milsim events in a while mostly because of my knee injury. I find it very difficult to move especially at night where I can step on a rock and just break my damn knee all over again. See, I’ve busted my knee over eight times in the past few years, which is the reason behind my trauma.

However, I felt the need to prove something to myself again. I needed this and OP: Wyvern was a good event to start all over.

The OP was a last minute notice to team Redwing. Trix, Ink, Aquila and myself were the only ones able to go. Aquila decided to go unarmed, choosing to focus on correspondence.

One of the red flags we took note of was the OPEN FPS rule. It meant that anybody could field an upgraded gun regardless of our local FED rules, which is at 550 fps. After much talking and debating, we figured we wanted to go to this OP as a purely recon team and practice some skill sets such as map reading, navigation, concealment, etc.

The event had two roles: You were either a regular participant or were part of a direct action mission. The regular participants in a nutshell were a drug cartel duking it out with the military/ law enforcement. The direct action packs were more for specialized units inserting with very strict ROEs and roles. We chose the direct action packs because that’s the way we RW boys (and gals) like ‘em!

Around three days before the OP, Witch Doctor and Bad Karma scheduled a video conference to discuss the mission we were supposed to do. I really enjoyed this conference because it’s a tool that makes everything a bit more realistic. Plus, I got to know the organizers more. I actually encourage this to event organizers.

Our mission was to set up an Observation Post/ Listening Post (OPLP) to recon a predetermined area where Taskforce Foxtrot and The Cartel would be moving towards. We were to relay their movements to HQ.

We were also to identify an HVT codenamed “RAZOR” who was said to be working with the cartel. Any further orders were to be handed out via comms.

Trix, our designated team leader (TL) for the OP decided to travel on Friday night and get there early so we can get some much needed rest for the OP. We left Manila around 10:30 PM and arrived roughly around 1:00 AM where some of the S8 people met us.

We were scheduled to be deployed at 9:00 AM. We got up at around 7:00 to get some coffee, breakfast, do some gear checking as well as have a final briefing from S8’s Witch Doctor.

Long Range Surveillance Detachment (LRSD) team callsign “ROMEO WHISKEY” was ready to deploy by 9:00 AM. Some of the S8 members even attached to us during ingress to warm themselves up.

As you can see from the attached maps, we made a few check stops to timestamp our progress. We also took note of key routes for egress later on. This was mainly training for Ink’s map reading skills.

The terrain was fantastic. It was a mix of urban buildings (TRP Complex–Tarlac Recreational Park), lakes, creeks, rolling hills, low rice terraces, and valleys. You could actually film an entire movie in this area.

After a few check stops, we finally reached a viable OPLP location on top of a hill. It had a great view of the complex, as well as neighboring hills. It had a blind spot on one side, but we would see any movement heading towards the area before they could get to our blind side. This location however had only one way in, and one way out.

We found a small cave-like spot with trees overhead. The negative side of this “cave” was that it blocks your recon view of the area. The upside was that you’d be shielded from the harsh sun. I decided to stay up top and build a small shade-like resting area for myself. VERY BAD IDEA. While I was lying down trying to rest since the other teams had not yet deployed, the heat really got to me. After an hour or so of being in that spot, my body couldn’t even rest properly and I had difficulty breathing. My mind was able to think out what was going on and what I should do, but I couldn’t get my body to do it. I knew that I was slightly hallucinating, too. I figured it was about time I called for help.

I called out to Aquila who was in the cave nearby. I said I couldn’t breathe anymore and that I couldn’t move. She quickly came over and gave me some water (with oral rehydration salts) from her Camelback. I told her I had a big bottle of water in my backpack and to just pour it all over my head and face. I think the water literally sizzled on me when it hit my skin. I mustered enough strength to make it to the small cave. I removed my vest and opened up my upper BDU for more air. Aquila even fanned me for a while. I fortunately felt better in around ten minutes.

My recovery period was weird. At first, I was in the state of mind of telling myself, “God, how on earth will I ever get back down to rest and call it a day?” and “What the heck am I doing here when I could be at home and in my bed!!” In the second stage, I was cursing why I ever considered going to MilSim events again. Finally for the third stage, I was back and cracking jokes again and the fighting/ survival mindset came back.

Gentlemen, that was heat exhaustion. Something you never want to go through. I was lucky enough to stay sane and analyze what was happening to me.

We finally got some lunch (Hurray for Vienna Sausages!) and some shut eye a little after 12:00 NN. Around 3:30 or so, we were going back in fourth with our status from HQ. Apparently, some of the teams had not arrived yet. S8, via comms, went back and forth with us, apologizing for the delay. This wasn’t their fault. Besides, a real recon unit would sometimes wait for days before anything interesting happened. We knew what we got ourselves into and we were sticking to our mission regardless of other factors.

We tried calling in for a re-supply for a few Big Macs to no avail. (Boo!)

Witch Doctor gave us an intelligence report that an air asset was in the AO and asked us if we had any targets. We saw a horse (a real one!) and decided to use it as a target. None of us in our team had ever tried calling in an airstrike. Witch Doctor however, was a capable comms man back in the day, so he knew the procedures.

(Note: A few details were changed for this AAR because I can’t remember them exactly.)

Our conversation went something like this:

HQ: Romeo Whiskey… Romeo Whiskey… Be advised. You have friendly air asset on the AO.

RW: Roger that. Air asset on the AO.

D01: Checking in… Dude Zero One to Romeo Whiskey… How copy?

RW: Lima Charlie Dude Zero One.

D01: Romeo Whiskey. Request authentication… Alpha Charlie Seven Niner

RW: Stand by for authentication Dude Zero One… Romeo Whiskey authenticates… Tango Tango.

D01: Authentication confirmed. You have 2 A-10’s in the AO at your disposal with 30mm cannons as well as AA missiles and A to G missiles. (Damnit! I can’t remember the missile names)

RW: Confirming dual A-10’s in the AO. We have one target of opportunity codename: Horse. Located in grid coordinate Hotel 4 dot 5.5.

D01: Dude Zero One confirms target “Horse” in location Hotel 4 dot 5.5. We are moving down to 20, 000 ft. Coming from east to west. Are there any hostile anti-air activity? SAM? Light arms? Any resistance?

RW: Negative on any anti-air hostility, Dude zero one. Negative on SAM and light arms. No resistance.

D01: Dude Zero One above the Romeo Whiskey, confirm visual on Dude Zero One.

RW: Romeo Whiskey confirms visual on Dude Zero One.

D01: Dude Zero One tilting aircraft for visual from the left wing.

RW: Romeo Whiskey confirms left wing tilt visual.

D01: Confirming target “horse” on visual. Proceeding for strafing run.

RW: Roger that, Dude Zero One.

D01: Dude Zero One lined up. Proceeding for strafing run with 30mm cannon… Going in hot.

RW: …

D01: Going hot.

RW: …

D01: Uhh guys… You’re supposed to acknowledge and say going hot or affirmative on that.

RW: Whoops! Sorry, we didn’t want to bother you lining up! Hehe! (Just some real world mistakes since this is our first talk-on for a strafing run)

D01: Dude Zero One confirms end of strafing run. What’s the effect on target, Romeo Whiskey?

RW: Romeo Whiskey confirms direct hit on target! Blood and brain matter everywhere! Poor horse didn’t know what was coming!

D01: Dude Zero One confirms. It’s a  mess down there! We are now RTB. Repeat… RTB.

RW: Romeo Whiskey confirms Dude Zero One is now RTB. Thanks for the assistance, fly boys!

And that’s how I guided an A-10 into a strafing run on a horse. It was absolutely fantastic! I learned a new skill: talking-on to guide an aircraft to a target. There are many ways to do this and different armaments of doing so. Equipment could include SOFLAM, laser designators or just plain old school Enhanced Talk Ons like the one we did. You may not see an aircraft, bullets, blood and brain matter, but hey, use your imagination. I would certainly like to do more of this.

Around late afternoon, we were advised that some of the teams finally arrived and were being briefed. We had eyes on their briefing from the hilltop we were on. Also, HVT Razor deployed. It was a funny story how we spotted him.

We heard some British guy yelling at some civilians below the hill to our 9:00. “Hey! You! You might get hurt! Get out of the area!” he yelled. Aquila then asked, “Hey, isn’t that Razor? The HVT?”

RW: Romeo Whiskey to HQ. We have HVT visible on these coordinates.

Mission accomplished. This led Taskforce Foxtrot to the capture of Razor.

It was getting dark and we were told sunset was at 18:00. TL advised we should get moving since it would be very difficult to get down the hill at night.

While on the way down, Trix saw a contingent moving and we quickly ducked into a nearby bushy area with trees above and around us. We had to stay perfectly still and keep our noise discipline as low as possible. Trix signalled to Aquila that she should move behind me to avoid any hits should a firefight ensue. Ink was trying to determine where we were on the map. I had my M16 SPR pointed down a pathway where I felt they would be coming.

This felt like the real Operation Redwing. We were at risk of compromise. My finger was just outside the trigger while my thumb was ready to pop it into semi mode should shit hit the fan.

Meanwhile, it started to rain. The raindrops did help in covering our slight movements and noise while Ink tried to ziplock the radio and the map (Noisily might I add).

HQ was trying to radio us. Ink gave me the radio and I whispered our location and status. We told HQ we were going to hunker down until nightfall before we move because we would be crossing open fields. We also told HQ that we would go on radio silence and we would once again establish comms once in a safe place.

Nightfall arrived and we went dark on communications.

We decided to head behind the main swimming pool and establish a small FOB where we could rest and eat up while we waited for further orders for our night mission.

On the way, we decided to go on one side of the lake since there was cover for us to move discreetly through the night. As I was crossing as the point man, I heard very loud splashes of water to my 4 o’clock. I quickly got down on one knee and turned towards the direction of the noise while at the same time switching my rifle to semi.

I was able to identify the target as a water buffalo taking a much deserved swim after a very hot day. Thank you, Mr. Water Buffalo for making my balls rise to my throat.

We were moving out on all different kinds of terrain. We had to deal with flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder, as well as gentle rain. The flashes of lightning illuminated the entire area so we would had to pause every now and then to avoid detection. The scene kind of reminded me of Operation: Market Garden from Band of Brothers where the Allied paratroopers landed in Normandy and were trying to get to their objectives. It was a pretty cool environment to experience.

When we finally got to one side of the lake, we realized that we had run out of land to step on. It was either we go into the water or into a hill that was thick with vegetation.

I had a discussion with TL on how we could have walked along the foreshore of the lake as the water would probably be only about ankle-deep. I also gave him the choice of cutting to our right and just head up another hill to go around the lake. He declined both options, saying it was too dangerous because the water could instantly drop since it’s mud and a man-made lake, and that it was too dark to navigate in the hill. He decided to double back and head towards the other side of the lake.

This is where I said hello to my good friend, the water buffalo again.

We took a break near the bottom of the command post, which was on top of that hill. We tried re-establishing connection to HQ to let them know we were right underneath them. I told Ink to bring out the radio and see if the frequency was right. We pulled out a capote (raincoat/poncho) so that the light would not be seen by other people. Low and behold, Ink didn’t do it properly and a huge light lit our area. We quickly told her to shut it off and do it properly. After some shuffling, she was able to get it right the second time around.

TL and I agreed that it would be fun if we surprised the organizers in the command post. We issued out the objective to Ink and Aquila and agreed that no shots were to be fired. We were able to sneak up just around 10 meters near the target. We could hear them talking. I placed my hand on a rock to stabilize myself from slipping off. That’s when I felt a billion tiny pricks on my left hand. I think it was a red ant colony. I forgot to wear my gloves that night (because I’m a lazy bum) and got the best of it. My hand has swollen, pus-filled red bumps as I type this.

We finally made it up the hill and said hello to the organizers. It was a no-fire zone so we were technically safe in that area. Good thing TL made the call because a few moments later, another squad was up there around the perimeter, guarding the area. We were just in time.

We headed back to the pavilion to unwind and rest up. I decided to sleep out the night because I was exhausted. But about an hour into my sleep, TL woke me up saying they had a new mission for us. We were to retrieve a black box (made out of an old CPU) located in the tent area, which was to be guarded by the Tarlac Airsoft League and Razor.

I whined for a bit that I wanted to sleep and tried to push that we should just send Aquila disguised as a press photographer of the organizers or something and pick it up. We finally agreed that Aquila and I would go. We were to pretend that we were just interviewing and taking pictures of the teams for coverage for the event. After I chatted with some members of the Tarlac Airsoft League, Aquila took some pictures of them while I went off to the command post where the black box was.

As I slowly closed in, I could hear them talking about what was to happen. I heard keyphrases such as Redwing, black box, TAL to defend with RAZOR and S8 to assault with Hagibis. I had information.

I slowly walked up, pretending to stumble upon them and Witch Doctor quickly cut the conversation as I approached, saying, “HEY! HEY! RW approaching.”

I was like, “What’s up, guys? I’m pretty tired, but I can’t sleep yet. (Ha! What a lie! I can sleep just like that at night!) Trix is sleeping, so I figured I’d hang out with you guys for a while.”

S8 welcomed me and we conversed about anything and everything. While this was happening, I was scouting around for the black box they were speaking of. Aquila finally arrived and Trix texted me that she had a picture of it. She showed it to me discreetly.

Aquila brought up a poncho. This was a great item for the mission at hand. I said loudly, “Hey! A poncho! I’ve never tried one before!” I wore it and made conversation about it with S8.

I walked around the tent area trying to make conversation with everyone until I found the box by one of the tent supports. I studied the dynamics of the area and the people in it while scouting for possible escape routes. I realized there was no way I could pull this out now. I had to wait for TAL to come up for some sort of distraction. When TAL finally arrived and S8 were about to go downstairs and prepare for their assault, I discreetly told Aquila to take a picture of the team facing the other way so that I could grab the box and put it underneath the poncho and get going.

As soon as we were ready, I gave Aquila the nod and she asked everyone for a picture. While they were busy, I knelt down near the box (cue James Bond theme) and picked it up underneath the poncho and walked away.

Damn, was that thing noisy! Good thing Razor and the team were distracted by Aquila. I quickly made my way down the stairs where I saw Bad Karma. Bad Karma went near me and pulled out a pistol, saying, “Nice try, Fox!” I quickly reverted and said, “But you guys aren’t the ones defending this hill, aren’t you?”

He put his pistol down. “Damn it, you’re right,” he said, and he let me walk away. (Intelligence gathering, baby!)

I made my way down the football field stands and walked by the track and field area to quickly get to my car. I hid the box behind my pickup truck. As I slammed the door shut, Witch Doctor saw me.

“Shit!” I told myself, but he just proceeded to walk down the pathway. He was distracted. He didn’t know what I was doing.

I finally got back to TL and told him the objective was complete and that the Black box was in my truck. All the spy things I’ve been reading and watching finally paid off.

All in all, “Romeo Whiskey” accomplished its missions following all the set ROE’s.

No shots were fired, no casualties incurred. Deployed on time, located HVT, had eyes on taskforce even from briefing, successfully guided a strafing run on a horse, and recovered a black box.

It was a good day for our two-man, two-woman team. I would like to congratulate Trix for leading the team through it all, and Aquila for surviving her first OP as well as doing spy work. I would also like to commend Ink for her work in map reading and navigating. She marked our movements and time stamped them. She also did a great job in handling communications with authentications to HQ.

We achieved what we went to this event for. We are very happy and proud with what we achieved. For us, MilSim is an experience.  You don’t know what the conditions will be like, or what the changes will happen in scenarios, but you have to be ready. We were hit with many audibles that day, but we stood our ground to achieve what HQ asked us to do.

Some would react towards what we did with things like, “What? You didn’t shoot your guns?! That must have been hella boring.” It wasn’t to us. We went to this event with different expectations and objectives. They were more experiential expectations. Plans went to crap during the first hour, and we had to learn how to improvise, adapt, and overcome the obstacles and challenges in order to make it to the end.

We don’t do things to become killing machines and we won’t say that we’re cooler than what other guys do. We go out there and just do what we love doing, regardless of the environment. We try our best to make damn sure we have one heck of a time, too.

Oh, and the best part about TRP was that we got to go swimming the next day!

Thank you, S8, for inviting us over. We will definitely be back. Your event may not have gone the way you wanted it in your eyes, but through our eyes, we had a blast.

PS:  Sorry we weren’t able to take a picture of team Hagibis or Rich is still fixing them up.