Looking for eight to twelve one-time volunteers for an Opposing Force (OPFOR) for next Thursday's and next saturday's Scheduled Tour of Duty mission (looking primarily for those NOT registered for TOD mission credit). Dates and times are Jan 27 at 21:30 EST and Jan 29 at 16:00 EST. Details are classified, so e-mail me directly if you're interested.
BTW, we ran our first TOD mission last night. It was a defensive fighter sweep along the southern border of Knightland. Still getting debriefs back, but it looks like 13 out of 15 TOD pilots made it through this one (it WAS a milk-run, afterall
).
While there was no lack of aggression on the part of our TOD flight leaders, there were only a couple of engagements, which resulted in most of the enemy aircraft running for the deck. One kill was registered by SCGreybeard, confirmed by GronK. Our pilots, to preserve their one and only life allowed for the entire tour, were under ROEs that discouraged pursuit of enemy a/c into indian country. Fuel was fairly tight, as everyone flew the La-5; hence, great restraint was a necessity. Nonetheless, certain elements wandered to close to f9 (then in enemy hands), and got anchored in a fight. Two TOD personnel are MIA; SAR efforts are still underway. Their names are being withheld pending results of SAR and notification of next of kin.
This first mission highlights the basic dicotomy of waging real war. To wit, balancing the desire for victory with the natural instinct to survive. I hope no one was too disappointed by the faily routine nature of this first mission. Trust me; they will get progressively more challanging and dangerous as we go along. Future fighter sweeps will break people up into smaller independent groups, or be much longer in duration. As our goal is to utilize as many different types of a/c as possible, this defensive sweep was about the only planned mission type the La-5 was suited for. Cheers.
Sabre (a.k.a. Rojo)
[This message has been edited by Rojo (edited 01-21-2000).]
