09/06/2017 - #2: Bridge over troubled water¶
Date of Operation: Friday June 9th, 2017 Time of Operation: 0730 PM EST to 1120 PM EST
Unit Details¶
- TypicalPhineas - Zeus
- Whiplash - SL A
- Reishi - Medic A
- Frethen - FTL A1
- Tantasqua - LMG A1
- Teo - ALMG A1
- Ironclaws - R A1
- Kilthor - DM A1
- Skifton - FTL A2
- MRF - LMG A2
- TonyMo - ALMG A2
- Schaduw -R A2
- Saboathi - AT A2
No shows..¶
Schaduw
Mission Details¶
Last week’s “Operation Blacksheep” saw us exfiltrate a NATO pilot from Tavu, a village on Belavu island under the control of a local warlord called “Johny”.
In the days following, Johny has been increasing his raids on the Tuvanakan people, his claim beeing that the Tuvanakan people have provoked the Belavu tribe by “using NATO dogs” to further their own goals. Nothing is further from the truth however as Blacksheep had originally crash-landed on the Tuvanakan island and it was in fact Johny who had captured the pilot “Blacksheep” and brought him to one of his own islands, which triggered the NATO response.
As a concequence of this chain-of-events, the NATO friendly Tuvanakan people are outraged at the increased raids and blame NATO directly for causing them. Under threat of them ending the agreement for NATO to have an airbase on their sovereign island of Tuvanaka, NATO has agreed to help stabilize the threat to their people.
Deaf to all diplomatic attempts to work out an arrangement, Johny has made his intentions clear to ignore NATO’s desire for peace and continues to raid the Tuvanakans.
The ArmaFriday platoon is to be deployed to invade Belavu island and curb Johny’s offensive capabilities. We are to return to Tavu where blacksheep was beeing held and neutralize all of Johny’s forces, as well as capture the bridge connecting Belavu island to Katkoula island. Command believes that denying Johny of this bridge will greatly affect his supply chain.
Execution..¶
Phase 1: Northern Belavu
We took a Mark V Special Operations Craft (boat) and returned to Tavu under the cover of darkness. About 300 meters off the coast we could already spot patrols off of the coast line east of Muaceba in the old ferry docks. We opened fire and secured a landing site to the south east. We then continued our advance through the woods and encounted one or two fireteams on the coast and in the woods.
Our assault on Muaceba began right before daybreak. We encountered multiple fireteams and support from the forest to the south west of it. We called in helicopter air support to surpress the enemy in the forest. Muaceba was secured at 9.30 AM.
We encountred very little resistance towards Tavu. Just one or two fireteams who were advancing on Muaceba to support it in vain.
The assault on Tavu went well for the most part. Alpha-Two took heavy casualties on the North of Tavu.
Phase 2: Combat patrol
We continued inland using a squad staggered column and advanced south. We encountered a single fireteam patrol. We encountered another two fireteams further to the south who were guarding a hemp field and captured two vehicles which we used to transport the squad to Rautake
Phase 3: Advance on Bridge
Alpha squad used a bounding movement to advance along the main road south east towards the bridge. We encountered multiple fireteams holding up in various buildings and we countered two separate flanking maneuvers. One from the East and another from the West. The heaviest resistance took place in the perimeter of the forest covering the base of the bridge. Alpha-One took heavy casualties. The bridge was secured and Russians troops were observed guarding the base of the bridge on Katkoula island to the south of Balavu. Including a Russian Armered Personal Carrier BTR-90.
Team Retrospective¶
What went well¶
- The entire mission went well. Good communication within the squads, added a couple helpful piecies of advice.
- Had a lot of work (Medic) todo but still got off plenty of shots, so that was fun.
- Overall team communication an cohesiveness was great. We spotted enemies very well and dealt with them as a team.
- As a fire team, we moved and coordinated effectively. Coverage was good and I always felt I had my fire team’s back or they had mine. On the squad level, I feel movement and action was efficient and decisive.
What went wrong¶
- Just the server crash but its not controlable.
- May have thrown a grenade that white Alpha 1. (I think it was me at least). After the crash I didn’t reset my grenade choice. Maybe they could always default to smoke?
- Alpha 2 FT got “lost” a couple times and had to double back (that was on me as lead). We (either FireTeam) sometimes moved up too quickly, which lead to being nearly overrun from flanks.
- I felt as a DM, I wasn’t put in the best position to perform my role many times. I was treated as a rifleman and asked to clear buildings, assault, etc. Second point: Many times throughout the night the fire teams felt like separate squads and not two fire teams of one squad. I think unless we are bounding or taking separate actions during an assault, we should be moving as one unit under the direction of the squad leader able to cover each other.
What we could do differently to improve¶
- Switch up roles within the people that have been awhile
- A1 & A2 needed more cross communication. Seemed to be doing their own thing until the SL gave specific instruction.
- Personally: More confidence in my commands, more observing my team and less physically leading it. As a team: Stick in our roles (DM, MG, Ast. MG, etc). Make sure that we’re doing what WE as a member need to do, even if it’s boring at the moment.
- Forgot to add a few points in my previous submission. I still feel separate fire team radio channels is not necessary and serves to separate the fire teams. That being said, communication on the squad channel should be reserves to information the entire squad needs. (enemy call outs, squad and fire team updates, etc.). It shouldn’t be used for fire team members to indicate when they’re moving, providing updates to other fire team members, etc. which I heard quite a bit of last night. Movement at the fire team level I feel could use some work. There might be a touch of micromanaging by the FTL’s. Although this could be alleviated by the fire team members as well by not relying on the FTL’s to tell them exactly where to go and what position to take. As an example, the SAW and DM if there is one should take it upon himself to get into a position where he can cover the fire team/squad when the unit is stopped.
Feedback on the Designated Marksman role¶
If we are going to move forward using a DM with a sniper load out, the role should be treated as a sniper and not be attached to a fire team and instead be part of squad support. Personally, I feel the DM (or sniper) role is not needed for most if not all our work in arma. We tend to be always moving and moving at an aggressive pace at that which renders the DM ineffective. A sniper, or DM’s main role should be over-watch and killing high value targets. We are never in one position long enough for over-watch on that level to be really needed and very rarely, do we come across “high value” targets: mg’s, enemy support teams, etc.
