I saw some video from the tango on the border of East and West Timor. Actually
heard the gunshots and saw people jumping for cover. Those
Aussies had on their full field kit - their rucks didn't look terribly
light.
I don't know about other nations, but Canada had an "emergency breakaway"
manoevre that I was taught in basic. It involved undoing your waist ruck strap
and then pulling a tab on each shoulder and the ruck just "went bye bye". Then
you could beat feet fast and fight more
effectively once you'd dropped that extra 50+ lbs. What's the doctrine
for this in the Aussie infantry?
Anyway, I didn't know any Aussies were injured - the report I saw
mentioned seing the Timorese take out a couple of what looked like bodies.
I guess this was all over a map dispute. Coverage here has been good if in
little snippets. I've seen some pretty awful pictures of the violence of the
militias on the net. Enough to turn even my stomach.
Hope all the Aussies and other peacekeepers/makers keep their heads
down. Don't want anyone getting killed if we can avoid it:(
Anyway, to pull back towards OT, I think the idea of a scenario with two
forces with differing marked borders is great. In fact, making the player
survey and try to corelate a bad map with the board to GUESS where the border
is (for both commanders) would be even better.
FWIW, I don't plan to turn anything from this mission into "gaming material"
until the boys are home safe and sound. Historical recreation of battles long
done, I'm okay with. Future speculation, fine too. But gaming what real folk
are out dying and killing over at the same time is just a little out of
flavour to my mind. I'll let the good ideas keep, but I have a (probably
unusual) sense of respect for the situations as they are still unfolding.
Just my 0.02.
> At 12:17 AM -0400 10/14/99, Thomas Barclay of the Clan Barclay wrote:
I've got two thoughts, so that's a penny each.
First of all, I do agree with the esteemed Mr.Barclay wholeheartedly. There is
a certain macabre element about it. And I'm not going to touch upon the occult
in this regard. The cynical amongst us (is this the 'overkill'.sig? good) may
want to pass over sentimentality in favor of some wry comment about wanting to
see the entire OOB or to finish the political rules. But let us not forget the
professional who must evaluate contingencies and explore possibilities.
Secondly, and I currently have a friend in India, I am curious as to the
effect of the recent coup in Pakistan on the stability of the region. India
and Pakistan have been at it hammer and tongs lately, and both are nuclear
powers. Right now the Pakistani forces have pulled out of the Kashmir area, so
there'd be a little warning and there's no real reason to expect serious
trouble. The leader of the coup however, was the prime mover of the push into
Kashmir. I expect to see a shift of American forces into the area and a very
serious interest taken by the UN.
by the way, there's a crashed router on alter.net between me and cnn.com, but
the BBC is running fine.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/default.htm
Hi Tom,
The kit you see on the news feed is the Infantry Basic Webbing; just about
everyone also wears a "Camelbak"; holds 70 fl oz of water in addition to the
two water bottles on your webbing. This is the basic kit and all training is
done wearing it; including the 3.2 km run in 16 1/2 minutes.
When big packs are worn they are generally only dropped on command; usually
after the sect/pl comd has done a quick appreciation, worked out his
plan and is starting to give orders. The packs are always dropped in a 'safe'
place so you can get them back. There is no particular drill for doing a
'panic drop' of packs when you need to bug out fast. The packs have quick
release buckles; you undo one snap clasp and the pack rolls away easily. By
the way the pack will genrally weigh upwards of 30kg (68lbs) on operations
when you factor in extra water, radio batteries, claymores,
NVDs.........
Owen G
> -----Original Message-----
> Thomas Barclay of the Clan Barclay wrote:
> I saw some video from the tango on the border of East and West Timor.
I'm sure the Aussies will be learning plenty of lessons very quickly that we
(veteran peacekeeper types) have figured out through the same operations. BTW
we have a quick release on our rucks also.