8/20/05 Op Devils Number Austin Texas
Operation Devils Number
8/20/05
On Saturday 8/20/05 we loaded up the truck with guns and gear and headed to Austin Texas to meet-up with TEARS (Texas Elite Airsoft Rangers) and participate in the statewide airsoft operation "Devils Number". This was the best day of skirmishing I had ever experienced.

It's my understanding that a player named Jay owns the property and organized the event. Never had the chance to meet, but thank you! And everyone else involved for making this day happen. It was truly an outstanding event. The memories will be with me forever.

We had an absolute blast! Here is how the day's events unfolded.

Timeline Of Events

We arrived at the OP on Sunday 11:00AMCST and rolled through the gate onto the property. No doubt we were at the right location. There were already groups of soldiers dressed in jungle and desert fatigues preparing for battle.

The land was ideal central Texas terrain: rolling hills, valleys, little rocky, about 1/2 thickly wooded and 1/2 cleared, with patches of cover throughout the 70 acres. Even in the thickest woods maneuvering was not an issue as the undergrowth was not extremely dense. 

We drove down the dirt road looking for fellow T.E.A.R.S members. Glancing at the other teams from either side, we were thrilled to see lots of heavy weaponry CA249's, RPK's...etc...we knew this was going to be an intense day.

A TEARS member spotted us and flagged us down. We parked, greeted, and started preparing for battle.

We made our way to the registration site to have our weaponry chrono'ed. The new, but still stock, Classic Army M15 C.Q.B came in at 337fps, and my backup CA33E right at 300fps. A small ziptie was placed around the front site to signify that the gun was in regulation.

The battlefield was divided up between Tan and Green teams. Each team had approximately 50 soldiers.

There were 11 "supply depots" across the battlefield. Each depot contained a flag pole. On one side of the pole a yellow flag and the other side a black/white stripped flag. The objective was to have your flag flying. Whichever team had the most flags at the end of the day had won the day.... however, that is much easier said than done. From 12:00PM to 6:00PM it was 6 solid hours of running, crawling, low crawling, and shooting in 100 degree weather.... wouldn't have it any other way! It was a blast!

Few other aspects of the game:

Medics - Each team had several medics. The medic had a small PDA that would return either a green light, "back in the game", or red light, "walk back to a re-spawn".

Re-spawn- If a medic wasn't available, you could walk back to a re-spawn point and then jump back into the game. I had to make the walk once... it was a long hot walk.

 

The TEARS mission was to be on the offensive and to take/overtake several specific depots and assist were needed to overtake others. The depots were named after U.S. cities. Here is a map of the battlefield and depots.

The battle began and we were off... Throughout the day we had a blast moving from battle to battle. It was clear that moving together as a single unit was an advantage. We were fortunate to have a medic in our group and later another (Guy with Tommy gun, lots of energy, saved me many times...), so the group was able to stay together without having to split up and walk back to re-spawn.

We were resting in a large group of cedar trees on the side of a hill in hopes of ambushing a few Tans currently resting in the valley to the right of us. It was now approximately 4:30PM in the afternoon and everyone was worn-out. Everyone was moving a bit slower. We decided to give-up waiting and go locate one last battle before the game was over. We walked out of the valley and met-up with fellow Green team members. It was decided to take one last flag. Some of the TEARS group stayed to hold current depots. If one flag was lost, the game could be lost.

 

   

St Louis was the last battle for me that day, and it was intense fighting. Moving up the center even utilizing low crawling proved unsuccessful. The flag was eventually taken utilizing 3 smaller teams. One group flanking to the right, another to the left, and a third up the center. There was only 30 mins left in the game so everyone dug-in and waited out the clock as several smaller waves of Tans attempted to retake the St Louis.

 

Here is few photos of us at the end of the day. Yes, we look a little rough at this point, but we just spent 6 hours having a blast skirmishing throughout 70 acres of Central Texas battlefield.

 




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