My footage from UCSG’s Operation: Iceback 2.0 from August 22-24, 2014.
Some occasional foul language. If you happen to have children around, I recommend the technique of “earmuffs” (as per the movie Old School):
But without further ado, onto the part that you’re actually here for:
Part 1: “Chasing Ghosts”
Part 2: (I haven’t thought of a cool name for this yet, since this was mostly those of us BC players screwing around)
Part 3: “Come Get Us”
Three dudes’ kit looks like this:
8 hours later and we have arrived in Golden, BC.
Last minute gear check while up at a hotel room in Golden, BC.
Above is the current state of my load out for Iceback 2014, which is taking place this weekend up in Golden, BC. My loadout is largely unchanged in basic structure from last year (PTW, chest rig, Yote), with some small tweaks here and there to suit both the nature of our mission and my experiences from what I ran last year.
More deets and pics after the break.
Sorry that we’ve been a little quiet around here lately (not sure where my co-writers have gone). Myself, I’ve been rather busy myself with work… but mainly just getting this going:
Here are my prelimary thoughts of what to bring for 2014’s Operation Iceback (referred as Op. Iceback 2.0 by some) game up at Golden, BC.
There are a few missing items for sure… namely hydration, foodstuffs, jacket and PTW. Oh, that PTW… man, was that an expensive headache to get off the ground with a relatively simple solution after all (but more on that will be up at a later date).
This is just a preliminary packing list, as is laid out on my living room floor for the time being; I’m sure I’ll have more changes over the next week and a half as I remember other things I should bring for the 24+ hours I’ll probably be on the field for.
top row, L to R: Kampfer, Juicy, Mondue, Dirt, Jester, Alden, Loops.
bottom row, L to R: Eddie, Sunny D, Southpaw, Jetlag, me (Dizzy), Whiskey.
‘Twas an honor, gentlemen.
After the break is another totally unnecessary but significantly more hilarious pic.
The final hour on Saturday at Golden, BC was filled with firefights. Lots of action, as the Op-For team had now realized that most of ISAF had more or less bugged out with the exception of one last enemy squad in Multicam operating from a mobile respawn location near the rear of our line. Op-For team responded with a heavy push to take their spawn point.
I expended most of my ammo during this time; I actually ended up reloading some of my mags at HQ during a lull in the action. As a result of the game admin Stu utilizing vehicles to support the remaining players in Multicam, Op-For team began to utilize vehicles to rapidly move shooters from various FOBs, which were used as both respawn and reloading locations.
Saturday’s game ended minutes after I got shot at the end of the footage. A cease fire was called due to building aggression between players on either team.
epic picture is epic – make sure you click on the pic to download in high-res goodness.
Above is by far my favorite picture from Operation: Iceback – perhaps my favorite airsoft picture that I’ve ever taken. I took it during Fireteam Bro’s afternoon patrol from the Mill (our HQ) to FOB 3 , as detailed in Juicy’s video below. Way out in front is our pointman Loops, followed by Juicy, Jester, Jetlag, and finally myself. I was rearguard, but I took a quick second to snap this pic before returning to watching my sector.
It really hammers home the size and especially the beauty of the AO. It was a gorgeous place to walk around and shoot plastic pellets at each other, even if we all did more of the former than the latter. For my first “big” milsim, I had a blast, “boring” patrols included.
This pic alone made the total 18 hours of driving worth it.
Fireteam Bro (all 5 of us together: “Dizzy,” “Jester,” “Jetlag,” “Loops,” and me) on an afternoon patrol from team Op-For’s HQ to FOB 3 during Operation Iceback in Golden, BC.
Though relatively uneventful, this is the substance of what my idea of Mil-Sim is; I’m already looking forward to the next event that I get to play that offers me the same simulation aspect that I so enjoy.
Morning patrol from my point of view on Op-For team, filmed on August 24, 2013. “Loops” on point, “Jetlag” in command, I was rear guard. “Jetlag” made the decision for us to go silent and off our radios (both Jetlag and I were not wearing headsets) as soon as we disembarked from the insertion by Jeep. We were to patrol the area around the road we inserted along: ISAF sniper teams and SF teams were reportedly roaming the area as per our driver “Sedin,” whom was also our team’s IC. Our patrol was tasked with sweeping the area, finding enemy forces, and marking their positions with orange smoke.
Mission success with no casualties to our patrol! Though… we did manage to completely wipe out a friendly Spetznaz team (wearing black shirts) whom was operating behind enemy lines and was not on comms with our team.
During Operation Iceback, FTB was positioned at FOB 3. “Dizzy” was co-IC and hence requested to remain at a position forward enough to have a clear view of the battlefield, but far back enough that we would hopefully not be engaged.
In the end, FOB 3 saw no firefights and was mostly used as an over watch position to spot enemy troops and coordinate friendly squad maneuvers. Fireteam Bro “Loops” stands on watch here, as I narrate what we did at FOB 3 (cold meds were a godsend).
More footage to come, I’m just cutting together various clips I took into something that makes sense. I probably won’t be posting everything to Overhoppers, some of the more unrelated clips will remain on my YouTube channel.
Overhoppers 