I donned a modern uniform for the first time in almost 18 months a couple of weeks ago. Myself and a couple of other former Army types were beating Army ROTC cadets into shape with airsoft guns. I was a active and reserve Captain, and one of the other guys training these kids had been a commando in the Argentinean Army and has pretty good tactical skills. At first, we kicked the merry crap out of them without trying at all. They wouldn't take good cover and couldn't react at all to any variables other than OPFOR "dying in place" when the first round came at us. Soon, they were learning and eventually they finished the day not too badly.
Personally, I learned two important things:
1. My tactical ability is still reasonably sound.
2. I'm no longer a kid! The next day, I felt like I was worked over with a Louisville Slugger for a few hours!
Here's a couple of pics, the entire group was much larger than you see here, more than 30 total:
I'm the guy with the M-4/M203 and boonie cap in front row. The guy to my left is one of the cadets, but a vet of 2nd Ranger Batt, served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The two guys to the back left are with the group that deals with the airsoft weapons and are decent tacticians in their own right.
I wouldn't say I enjoyed taking advantage of the cadets inexperience, but I did really enjoy teaching them the things they will need to know at camp and in the real world leading troops. On one occasion I was OPFOR against the cadets. I'd tried to beat into the cadets to clear KIA's when consolidating on the objective to be sure they weren't still packing or alive. I was quickly searched once or twice, but each time they missed the sidearm strapped to my leg. I got tired of reminding them of this, so on one objective, I just tossed my M-4 aside and hunched in the fetal position with a cocked pistol held close to see if anyone would notice. Nobody even looked. So I waited for the leadership to get onto the objective and call in their report that they'd completed the mission, with me lying in the center. I then casually stood up and took aimed shot at each of them. I tapped them all, center of mass, one shot each. They just stood like deer in headlights as I shot them all. None of them were moving at all, they were so shocked that I was doing this. Finally, someone (I never found out who) walked a burst into me from what must have been a decent distance. At least someone was for keeping their head while others around her were having theirs blown off by yours truly...
Still, in the end, these kids are the Army's future. They're no worse than I was in their place back in the day. They'll make this country proud soon enough! After we were done for the day, I found out the oldest among them was almost 15 years younger than me, many of them were less than half my age! Still, I held my own against these kids and I was thankful none of them were around to hear my joint creaking when I rolled out of bed the next morning...
The neat thing was later in the week, I saw this going by four times. It's highly unusual as we're nowhere near the tanker tracks in the area. This photo was actually taken from my doorstep!
Even funnier was I was interrupted by this flyover while working on
this:
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We had been OPFORing along the Delaware & Chesapeake Canal, and had gotten very tired running them around Saturday. At one point in the afternoon, I "took a hit", and fell down in front of the M151 I had been driving. The ROTC cadets just went past me, with barely a look. So I popped a few blanks at them after they passed. When the instructor saw what I'd done, he laughed, and asked me what I think they should have learned. "Always check the DEAD GUY!" I said.
I looked out, and saw them all milling about among the "dead" OPFOR, and my friend and I ran through the tent door, and opened up (into the air, as we were at very close range) with a pair of semi-auto AK-47s(ahhh, the good old days). The cadets just looked surprised and shocked. "You are all dead!" we informed them-"You failed to check the tent- otherwise you would have noticed two uninjured and well armed OPFOR inside."