Hi guys, I saw this post and thought I would pop in and answer a dew questions for you.
First off, I am Aswayze and I run the NATO end of Operation East Wind. Nobody knows East Wind like I do since I was doing East Wind for years before we even had the first East Wind.
I'll be happy to field any specific questions or comments about East Wind (even the unfriendly ones) and let you guys know not only what we do but why we do it.
To answer a few specific questions/concerns in
Blue:
"Unfortunately being in Ireland means I probably wont get there anytime soon
"
I feel your pain on that one Bushmaster, you are on the right side of the pond for a lot of good airsoft but not so much for East Wind. We are starting to see more and more attendees coming from out of the USA. In point of fact, last year on the NATO end of things 12% of our force came from outside the US. If you were to travel outside of the EU to attend an event, East Wind makes an economical choice since it is relatively inexpensive to end a flight in either Kansas City (MCI) or St Louis (STL) and your general "life" expenses are quite low while you are there. We coordinate to get folks picked up and dropped off and since we are all basically one family out there we make sure everyone gets to see and do as much as possible while you are out there. If you play much in the UK, you may bump into Azubi, he's been out to East Wind as well and might be able to give you some insight.
"absurdly pedantic and inconsistent demand for period accuracy."
We are always working to get better on this front (by that we mean MORE accurate) It's just sometimes tough to do based upon availability of gear and cost to the average attendee. We DO NOT seek to make an event for everyone. We are quite specifically looking for those who are looking for what we are doing. As such, MORE accurate is always better for us.
"but I can just about bet that they would get more people if they would allow any weapons to be used."
Quite so. Thing of it is we do not want more people. At all… We have to sustain everyone we put in the field, we have to insure a good experience for everyone we put in the field. We need to have enough specialized equipment for everyone we put in the field. At our current size and rate of growth, ANYONE who's going on a night mission can get night vision from supply pretty much any night. All of the squads/sections deployed in the field had a vehicle assigned to them so if they needed a vehicle for a mission they did not have to go beg for one, they just planned to use the one they had assigned to them. All of our people stay in big common area tents etc etc etc… If I double in size, I could still manage this level of service but not if I triple it. I do not want MORE people.
"You have to have an SA58, not an FAL with Auto disabled."
The Bundeswehr can not use a P38 for a P1, when the difference is the P1 is the P38 made in the 50's after they could stop feeling like Nazi's when making arms. But, if they happen to have an MG42, they can use that for an MG3.
But, the Soviets can use any AK, even if it is a 74 and not a 47, but should try to get appropriate stocks to the region. Yet, if they want a heater in their tent or a camp stove, it has to be a period heater, either genuine Soviet or reproduction. I am a bit nervous about keeping near my face a gas burning stove the Soviets built 50 years ago."
I don't know where you are getting your info but it is not from the East Wind site:
SA-58? No… L1A1 yes. L1A1 is different from a FAL.
Bundeswehr can use the P1 or the P38 but in all honestly nobody ever does. I think the MG3 gunner might get one this year but only for show.
http://www.operationeastwind.com/NATO/bwrequiblue/natoweapons.htm
Soviets use the AK-74 with a few role specific exceptions.
http://www.operationeastwind.com/ak.html
Do you stick your face in your furnace at home? The point of the heater rule is to keep people from asphyxiating themselves with stupid and dangerous propane heaters. For the most part, wood burning stoves are the norm for tent heating, NOBODY is allowed to use gasoline for tent heat.
I just don't like how in order to be a sniper, you have to have either gone through military sniper school, or have two prior events. To me having an all sniper squad would be great
Which is exactly why we say you have to either be a sniper school grad or attended 2 prior East Wind events. That is just not how snipers were used in Cold War Europe. In the case of the US Army, the sniper (if available) was a squad asset and went out with the rest of the unit for the particular mission. If it requiblue an M24, the sniper brought an M24, if it was an M16 mission, the M16 came along. On the Soviet side, the guy in the section who was the best shot got a Dragunov. It's role was not so much the classic enemy at the gates sniper role as it was simply to extend the effective range of the section. Line units did not have "all sniper squads". The rules seem draconian, but once you get out there in the field you see how it all fits together and it makes more sense. In 5 years of East Wind's past we have had many attendees bring along an M24 and have, as of yet, never seen one taken out on a mission. Not because we said they couldn't but because they themselves chose to bring their normal rifle instead. With over ½ of the event happening at night, an M24 is cold comfort compablue to an M16A2. Drags we see tons of, doing exactly the job they were intended for, extending the reach of the section they are with.
"I figublue that since a sniper weapon platform was not listed, that their recon missions were assault based only."
Could not be farther from the truth. Fact is, you MIGHT get an assault mission once in an East Wind event. Perhaps… Probably not though. In reality, most all of the missions at East Wind are about gaining situational awareness for higher command so as a result the great majority of missions are either light infantry patrols, snoop and poop recon missions or area denial missions. Without having a script, it is hard to script in an assault since most people have sense enough not to sit still long enough to get assaulted.
"but restricting snipers to being real world snipers or people who have attended the event twice is just silly."
First off keep in mind that is a NATO side rule. I do get a lot of flak over this one but in all reality I feel this was one of the wisest decisions I have made for this event. Again, in the field it makes a LOT of sense. We have HUNDBLUES of people who have attended 2 or more events and none of them have ever approached me about being a sniper at East Wind. I have 3 attendees this year on the NATO side who are sniper school grads who plan to attend as snipers (1 Canadian, 2 Americans). All of them know what's up at East Wind and they look forward to putting their skills to the test out there. It's not an impossible rule, just a tough one.
"One of my team mates went down last year, part of the german group, and he didn't even load a mag into his rifle for the first 3 days. Over the entire time he went through 3 - 50 round mags. He had a blast, as this intense of a milsim experience was exactly what he likes!"
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Oh, you know Cam then! He was a death machine with that GBBR G36. I have got to end up going the GBBR route for my M16A2 at some point, I just hate to make that jump when I already literally have an M12 arms rack full of AEG M16s and a 20mm ammo can full of mags for them.
His experience was not uncommon pace of operations wise. We are out constantly patrolling, sneaking, looking, poking prodding etc but do not generally get into tons of 'trigger time" shootouts. The payoff to that is when you do get into a shootout it is unbelievable intensity wise.
In a normal airsoft skirmish, it is not any kind of challenge to stay "on" the entire time. At East Wind, particularly on your first serious night patrol it's no trick initially either. You're not used to the gear, your not used to the area, and every bush looks like it probably contains 1000 polar bears with anti-aircraft guns just waiting to shblue your entire unit. That pit in your stomach feeling keeps the edge on for a while then at some point you start to tire and you start repeating to yourself "Stay switched on, Stay switched on, Stay switched on" after a while you let your guard down.
And that is when the RPK gunner peppers you…
Most fights at East Wind and super violent and super fast. Few last more than 2-3 minutes and in many cases the poor unsuspecting guys that were not switched on never get a shot off in reply. That makes for a pretty intense feeling when you are sitting in a hide and hear a stick crack nearby on a moonless night.
