AAR for Assault on Feruz Abad (can't remember the mission name), 6 SEP 10.

Not trying to be a pot-stirrer, but thought I'd go ahead and write up a quick debrief of the events of one of the Military Monday missions. Maybe it will help shed some light on the bigger picture. Figured I'd start a separate thread to remove any perception of an emotional response...

-Fireteams begin to organize and assemble around vehicles while AH-6 (me) spools up. Helo is tasked to pop up and see what can be seen. As the helo pops up, several foot-mobiles at a roadblock are spotted just down the road. Targets are called out by the helo.

-Helo immediately begins taking fire from roadblock. Squad leader complains there's contact but no one is calling it. Helo again states it's the roadblock/guard shack down the road. Not a big deal since a bunch of admin was also being covered over TS at the beginning of the mission and probably hard to hear the call outs.

-Since no one was in a position to attack the roadblock except the helo, helo opens up w/ guns, which also causes a transition to forward flight. While the roadblock was eliminated, now the helo has moved into the kill zone from the base and starts taking fire. Rather than stopping, helo accelerates to a better speed for egress and notches the incoming fire while escaping out the far valley.

-Squad begins to move in towards the base and is taking continuous fire. Helo is ordered back to a safe area but to report back contacts. As the squad tries to penetrate the base, the rate of fire from the enemy is growing. The helo can't see squat, but it's obvious that the squad needs help.

-After a beat or two, the helo (again, me) decides to make another strafing run to help clean out the bad guys while the squad moves in. Once the squad moves into the compound, I know I won't be able to safely lay down ordnance, so it was one last run.

-The strafing run actually pays off. Several bad guys were either killed or suppressed, which of course draws the attention of the BRDM. Again, notching and an egress up the valley gets the helo out of the WEZ with minimal damage. I did take a couple of hits, but nothing in the red and everything is working well.

-By this time, the squad has penetrated or is working on penetrating the compound while the BRDM tries to chew them up. Numerous calls for the helo to hit the BRDM go out, but the helo can't see the target (lots of lights and buildings right where the BRDM was). After "checking the map" (and this is a debrief item to follow), the helo locates the BRDM. Ironically, this is where the most damage occurs to the helo. While in the hover and down in the map mode, I begin descending. By the time I come out of the map mode, I catch it just in time, but take significant damage after bumping the mountain (Autohover doesn't hold altitude, just position). Oops. So now I'm leaking fuel, but at least I have an idea where the BRDM is.

-Attack run is made on the BRDM by the helo. Unsure if the 2 rockets hit the target, but the guns finish the job. Helo egresses out the valley and RTB's w/ Bingo fuel.

-Helo crew nicks a Land Rover and shows up w/ satchels. The squad grabs them and then blows up the targets. We all egress to our (inevitable) ambush at the extraction point. We kill all the bad guys and look like heroes.

**Debrief item: We now have lasers on our weapons. The mission makers are building missions with units that carry smoke. We even have laser designator units. So why do we tell the pilot to "look at his map?" Why not laze the target, even if it's w/ a PEQ on the gun? Or pop a smoke and give a talk-on for CAS ("It's the just north west of the smoke, located at the gate of the compound." "Tally. Inbound hot."). the GPS map ingame doesn't have the range to see targets unless you're going really fast or are really close. Talk-ons or PEQ designations w/ rifles go a long way to getting the ordnance on target quickly and effectively. Just a suggestion.

Regardless, besides the perceived drama, it was a fun mission that we pulled off successfully.

Good post, interesting to hear about the mission from your perspective. Sierra team was the unit that had eyes on the BRDM. Unfortunately neither myself nor my sniper had lasers and we were too far away to deploy smoke. We probably should have provided a more descriptive indication of where it was, e.g. "in the compound off the T-intersection, by the northmost guard shack."

One trick that works very well for attacking targets at map markers - flip to your map and shift+left click on the marker. You then get a visual queue on your HUD showing you where that point is. I do this when moving to assigned waypoints as well so I don't have to keep flipping back to my map to see where I am.

Two points...

1. Never heard you calling out targets, not sure what happened there... All I saw was you joy riding over the kill zone back and forth, no report.

2. I was squad leader, and as stated from the beginning... whether you think it right or not, you will follow the SL'ers orders, When I had to repeat over and over to get out of the kill zone and you did not, you were wrong based on our SimHQ rules.

Remember, we said from the beginning, let SL'ers run the show and learn from mistakes... if you don't like how someone SL's... then take the slot yourself once in a while. (and teach us.)

Fatty,

I knew there was a trick to making on the fly way points, but could never remember what it was. Thanks for the gouge.

Magnum,

Copy all. I replied to this very issue in the other thread. I think we're on the same page. As for the call outs, like I said, I'm sure my call-out was lost in the admin of the mission starting up and therefore no biggie.