Vengeance visited upon a Timmie...

cmoth

Shared on Thu, 01/31/2008 - 09:28

... ever had some little douchebag rant and rave and challenge you "1v1"? I'm sure everbody on this board has gotten pissed at the Timmie in the group that wouldn't shut up or thought so highly of their online combat "skilz" that they must fancy themsleves a green-beret or something.

Well, last night I had the opportunity to visit some reality upon a representative of the most acursed age range.

I'm the assistant team leader for my agencies tactical team. Last night we had a mock assault on the local High School. One of our guys invited a couple of friends. One female in her low twenties and her younger brother, older teenager 17 or 18. They were volunteering to take part in scenarios that some of the team would respond to. Out of the 8 on our team 4 (including me) were available for the training. Actually fairly realistic, 1 to 2 bad-guys and usually 3 to 4 officers.

We were using AEG and green-gas airsoft, some of the more high end units. Obviously safety gear was given to the non-cop participants and we were using our standard raid armor and turn out gear.

During the pre-op briefing when we were going over the weapons the teen boy made the following comment about one of the AR type carbines, "Can you BXR these things?". He said it jokingly of course, the kids a decent kid and I found out that I've played online with him before during one of our local group meet and greets. Once he established his "Halo" cred and made a few boasts about "owning" us, we set up the initial scenarios.

They followed all the rules and listened to the safety instructions and followed closely the first three scenarios. I was happy about their level of interest in realistic participation. Other than laying out their roles I left it wide open as to how they would respond. They could choose to shoot or comply with instructions, they could set-up anywhere they wanted inside of the playable area. I made very few restrictions. After the first three scenarios I left it wide open for them. They could do whatever / whenever. Move as freely as they wanted within the third floor and stairwells of the high school we were using. I wanted a run and gun and I got it.

By the end of the night it was painfully obvious to the youngster that there is a huge dif between online fantasy and reality. Even though he was an athletic and quick thinking youth he learned a healthy respect for what it feels like when facing well-trained highly-motivated and heavily armed combatants.

The end tally was harsh. He had scored a few minor hits. A couple of the guys got hit in the arm. No center mass or head shot landed, no fatal injuries to my team.

His sister gave up fairly quickly as soon as she was hit anywhere or rounds flew by. I was actually thankful for this because I was able to see that the team could shift gears quickly from lethal force to apprehension. Very professional.

He got his ass kicked. In every engagement he was outflanked and took down within the first few seconds. He was primarily struck in the head and chest. When he was hiding behind something I would sit back and pick him apart, hitting him in the chin, knee, arm, elbow, hand, whatever was exposed until he surrendered. When he set up an ambush we would hit him so fast and so hard that he would hesitate to engage and then get hammered. The shots he did fire were panic fire that did nothing. When he ran around trying to shoot and scoot, we'd flank him and hit him from diferent directions. In the last scenario he got shot by three of us at once from two directions and was struck with 15 rounds to the head, arms, side, and torso.

After it was all said and done both of them said that even though they knew that they wouldn't get hurt they were still scared sitting in anticipation. The male actually admitted that despite everything he would think about doing, when he actually saw the team coming at him he would kind of lose his focus and get a little freaked out. When we told him that normally we all usually respond with rifles, ballistic shields and enter a room with flash-bangs he got a little wide eyed. We hadn't hit him with half of our resources and still slaughtered them.

I will admit that aside from the training success, I felt a little personal success for my online persona. I don't know how many times I would listen to some chowder-head cherp about how he could "rape" anybody and think to myself how I'd love to take this guy down in the real world.

There's at least one kid who is a little more humble.

Comments

microscent's picture
Submitted by microscent on Thu, 01/31/2008 - 18:16
Good point, I didn't make NCO until late 20's. The rest of my squad were young. Still, the police taught me a thing or two with my M16 in close quarters combat, that i'd never even heard of.
microscent's picture
Submitted by microscent on Thu, 01/31/2008 - 10:02
Good stuff! My unit has trained with police in riot control and building clearing procedures. We used paintballs first, then ran through with a live-fire. Reality is MUCH different than gaming. A thing most kids won't experience. LOL The police seemed more professional than my own unit. I was impressed.
cmoth's picture
Submitted by cmoth on Thu, 01/31/2008 - 10:15
The difference between LEO and Military units is that LEo are trained to be more cautious and liability aware. Military untis are by their nature more agressive and risk taking. Plus, LEO units tend to be made up of more mature personnel (average age I think is near 30). Military infantry is anywhere getween 18-25. NCO are around the average LEO age but don't usually make up the majority of a Mil-Spec crowd.

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