AAR ARMA 3 | 2022 24 Hour Operation Sandbox

[Beiter.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Name of Combat Mission: Operation Sandbox
Campaign of Combat Mission: N/A
Number Within Campaign: 1/1
Game: ARMA 3
Server Hosted on: ARMA 3 Tactical Realism
Date of Combat Mission: 10DEC22-11DEC22
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 2000z
Mission OIC: Colonel Tharen.R, Second Lieutenant Mackey.A
Mission Controller: Sergeant Sam.T, Corporal Santoyo.T, Sergeant Beiter.A, Corporal Dunn.W, Corporal Goel.B, First Sergeant Geki.T

Attendants:
Colonel Tharen.R
Colonel LaCombe.M
Captain Burton.P
Captain Stewart.B
Major Hobbs.T
First Lieutenant Spiers.M
Second Lieutenant Phillips.B
Second Lieutenant Mackey.A
Second Lieutenant Derry.B
Second Lieutenant John.K
Second Lieutenant Gerrish.T
Warrant Officer 1 Villmarsson.L
Warrant Officer 1 Bloggins.R
Warrant Officer 1 Ramirez.M
Warrant Officer 1 Sutodoreh.W
Warrant Officer 1 Wulf.C
Warrant Officer 1 Sinca.J
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Baruch.J
Warrant Officer 1 Lindsay.A
Command Sergeant Major Nexhex.A
Sergeant Major Schmidt.A
Sergeant Major Preacher.A
First Sergeant Geki.T
First Sergeant Summerfield.P
First Sergeant Jupiter.J
Master Sergeant Knights.Z
Sergeant First Class Abate.L
Sergeant First Class Couvillion.T
Staff Sergeant Maco.D
Staff Sergeant Mazinski.H
Staff Sergeant Saint.Z
Sergeant Stewart.AJ
Sergeant Beiter.A
Sergeant Norman.B
Sergeant OBrien.T
Sergeant Whitehead.B
Sergeant Sam.T
Sergeant Stone.J
Corporal Terp.J
Corporal Bane.K
Corporal Boyd.M
Corporal Holiday.T
Corporal Wisser.C
Corporal Marcus.J
Corporal Yule.A
Corporal Corbin.R
Corporal Crapachi.M
Corporal Westcott.R
Corporal Oldham.G
Corporal Zaren.T
Corporal Zeoli.D
Corporal Bates.J
Corporal Dunn.W
Corporal Lucander.P
Corporal Corveaux.A
Corporal Santoyo.T
Corporal Lamb.J
Corporal Zander.D
Corporal Hunter.A
Corporal Vincent.L
Corporal Goel.B
Corporal Teddy.J
Specialist Thumper.N
Specialist Highman.J
Specialist Morton.Q
Specialist Kramar.N
Specialist Teixeira.J
Specialist Williams.U
Specialist Winters.R
Specialist Harvey.C
Specialist Entreri.R
Specialist Turn.J
Specialist Rodahl.S
Specialist Hans.D
Specialist Kiser.C
Specialist Facklam.E
Specialist Mac.S
Specialist Coots.J
Specialist Masnec.G
Specialist Berg.J
Specialist Narramoor.A
Specialist Armitage.T
Specialist Dio.B
Specialist Fisher.S
Specialist Stuart.Z
Specialist White.M
Specialist Keith.W
Specialist Kel.S
Specialist Dougan.J
Specialist Lee.H
Specialist Delgado.C
Specialist Dohun.T
Specialist Xinos.T
Specialist Bishop.C
Specialist Crowley.T
Specialist Hilberg.A
Specialist Tobias.A
Specialist Adunno.D
Specialist Turner.L
Specialist Gilman.A
Specialist Chandler.A
Specialist Eagas.L
Private First Class Will.T
Private First Class Papa.A
Private First Class Telinov.V
Private First Class Bethea.A
Private First Class Reed.H
Private First Class Mayfield.W
Private First Class Thomas.M
Private First Class Albright.J
Private First Class Marshall.A
Private First Class Ciccarelli.C
Private First Class Smith.RG
Private Tano.C
Private York.KC

 

[Beiter.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: ZEUS/GODFATHER
Element Leader: Sergeant Beiter.A


Time in zeus:

1930z 10DEC2022 - 1210z 11DEC2022. Total time 17 Hours

1600z-1700z - 1 hour

Total time 18 hours

 

[Maco.D]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: ATLAS-1/2 2000z - 2000z
Element Leader:Staff Sergeant Maco.D

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Holiday.T
Corporal Goel.B
Sergeant Beiter.A
Private First Class Albright.J
Sergeant Stone.J
Specialist Turn.J
Corporal Saint.D
Specialist Masnec.G
Corporal Rozhkov.P

Pros:
solid work for medical wise
Good commutation overall
Minimal black tags
Good amount of stuff to do
Despite the length I always knew which part of the Op we are at rn and what is the next goal
Some action, definitely more compared to other OPs as atlas
Lot of work
good self aid
crawling race won.

Cons:

Some troopers hope to do more training on surgical actions
Large amount of injures were light but with the rare fatal case
FPS and crashes were a very bad thing for alot of people and this was with 3-4 hour restart blocks as well.
Large amount of time at base with nothing to do could spent upwards of 30-40 mins working out a plan. with it being a 24 hour op that 30 min gap I could of taken a nap
Over the course of the operation could of seen more advanced surgery being needed

 

[Berg.J]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: Raptor Flight 2000z - 1310z
Element Leader: Specialist Jeran "Binks" Berg - Raptor 1
Wingman: Corporal Matthew Boyd - Raptor 2


Pros:

• Amazing operation. Huge shoutout to the Zeuses, to everyone who stuck it out for so long and to an overall awe-inspiring effort on all fronts.
• Lots to do for air!
• Great communications, even with a very busy airspace.

Cons:

• Battlemetrics is silly when it comes to counting playtime across sessions including restarts

 

[Thumper.N]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Buffalo (2030z - 2300z) / Lightning (0130z- 0200z) / Infidel (0200z - 0500z) / Bison (1330z - 1630z) / Hog/Buffalo (1730z - 2000z)
Element Leader: Specialist Thumper.N

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
N/A

Pros:

• Plenty to do
• Great work by Zeus team
• Good mission while Bison: took a missile, got called back as the only CAS asset, did a rocket run with one engine out, no hydraulics, effective target destruction, and limped 10 KM back to base, running out of engine lift right when I got to the airfield...best fun I've had in a while.

Cons:

• Lag and frames were almost unplayable at times

Total Time: 11.5 hours

 

[OBrien.T]

Element Callsign: INFIDEL/ZEUS/GODFATHER
Element Leader: OBrien.T

Time in Infidel: 1930z 10DEC2022 - 2230z 10DEC2022


Time in zeus:

2230z 10DEC2022 - 1400z 11DEC2022. Total time 22 Hours

Ended up finishing with 24 hrs

 

[Santoyo.T]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Gunslinger 2-1/ZUES/Atlas 1(?)
Element Leader: Corporal Santoyo.T

Time in Gunslinger 2-1 SL:
1930z 10DEC2022 - 0500z 11DEC2022. 9 hours

Time in Zues:
0500z 11DEX2022 - 0900z 11DEC2022. 4 hours

Time in Atlas:
1100z 11DEC2022 - 1300z 11DEC2022. 2 hours

Gunslinger 2-1:
1400z 11DEC2022 - 1530z 11Dec2022. 1hours

Total time: 16 hours

Personnel in Element:
Gunslinger 2-1:
SPC.Armitage 16 hours
SPC.Narramoor 18 hours
SPC.Hans.D 17 hours
PFC.Mayfield
SGT.Sam.T 24 hours
SGT.Whitehead.B
PFC.Thomas.M

ZUES:
SGT.Sam.T

ATLAS 1:
SGT.Sam.T

Pros:
Lots of fun
Huge turnout for TacR
Good amounts of contact
Persistent campaign
1x time cycle so it felt more immersive
Good interactions with pubbies, at least 2 enlisted

Cons:
FPS issues at times, unsure of the cause
Zues spawning in OPFOR behind us after we’ve cleared an area to mess with us
Issues with arsenal load outs and preset kits

 

[Saint.Z]

Element Callsign: GUNSLINGER 1-1 TIME: 21 HOURS
Element Leader: Corporal Saint.Z (Heh- Heh-Heh)

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Captain Burton.P
Captain Bunnell.M
Second Lieutenant John.K
Second Lieutenant Mackey.A
Sergeant Major Preacher.A
First Sergeant Geki.T
Sergeant First Class Couvillion.T
Staff Sergeant Mariani.S
Staff Sergeant Fields.Q
Sergeant Stone.J
Sergeant Norman.B
Corporal Dunn.W
Corporal Wisser.C
Corporal Saint.Z
Corporal Teddy.J
Corporal Terp.J
Corporal Oldham.G
Corporal Zaren.T
Corporal Crapachi.M
Corporal Westcott.R
Corporal Lucander.P
Corporal Goel.B
Specialist Kiser.C
Specialist Turn.J
Specialist Turner.L
Specialist Tobias.A
Specialist Chandler.A
Specialist Crowley.T
Specialist Gilman.A
Specialist Dougan.J
Specialist Armitage.T
Specialist Fields.M
Specialist Xinos.T
Specialist Ryker.C
Private First Class Mayfield.W
Private First Class Will.T

Retired:
Major Vermeulen.A
Staff Sergeant Citarelli.D
Sergeant Blake.H
Reservist Blackburn.H

Non Cav Within Element:
Wildabeast464
Tony (ey Tony, Join the Cav! Ey?!)
Cordialxhare
Revells
Augustin Demanceaux
Grape
Cole
Arrows.J
Robihunn

Comments (I'm going to keep it short.):
Pros:

• With limited time, this was a well placed morale boost for the cav members to have
• One last banger before our furlough

Cons:

• Felt like TacR as a 24 hour
• Too many urban objectives without consideration for forests or the Mountain terrain surrounding
• Slightly too heavy on the Mechanized side, Although this may be more-so realistic, it does have a toll on players morale sitting in a vehicle doing nothing for hours on end. or driving
• Im calling a need for Cav Arty, enough is enough with the overwhelming enemy artillery. If they have it, we should have it. My squad and myself had been Zeroed by Arty an extreme amount of times in that op.
• Zueses, you need to chill with some of the meme like antics, were a mil sim not a call of duty casual group
• Zueses, chill with the always needing action like its the movies, downtime in a fight leads to great crescendos of chaos
• Zueses, If I come to you concerned about having too many enemy resources and objectives when we have only 14 infantry to attack a large town... do not pass off my concern when were fighting a light armored company, a motorized company, an 120mm arty battery, an airfield, and well prepared enemy positions, and dont forget the AA. your actions as zues made people quit the 24 hour including myself, check yourself next time and dont say "dont worry its me".
• We can use more roots back to Milsim gaming, were currently playing too much like a casual outfit, perhaps we should change the advertisement about being milsim to casual gaming if we continue to act as we are.

 

[Corveaux.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: N/A S5 Film Lead
Element Leader: Corporal Alberic Corveaux

Pros:

• Questionable behavior.

Cons:

• Questionable behavior.

 

[Tharen.R]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: Gunslinger-6 (Company CO)
Element Leader: Colonel Tharen.R

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Colonel Tharen.R
Captain Burton.P
Second Lieutenant Gerrish.T

Pros:

• Really good support from all units (aviation, FAC, medical, logistics, zeus).
• Both mission objectives, FOB Muska & OBJ Jebleh, accomplished
• The initial air assault to LZ Alpha to attack FOB Muska was amazing looking with 5 birds plus CAP in the air
• Really good communication with Gunslinger 1-6 and other elements
• Fun mission!
• Thought the ~3 hour reset rotation worked well and was a good idea.

Cons:

• Immediately received IDF while moving off the beach with 50%+ casualties with no warning
• Soft clear for RP 1 - grenades were used to assault a position with no enemy and just ended up hitting friendlies and slowing down the main attack to follow on FOB Muska. Soft clear = move on if not taking contact from that building.
• Low frames at times
• Were close, but didn't have enough attendance for 2 healthy platoons

 

[Tharen.R]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: Banshee-1
Element Leader: Colonel Tharen.R

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Colonel Tharen.R
Command Sergeant Major Nexhex.A
Captain Burton.P
Specialist Crowley.T


Pros:

• Good time to support Gunslinger with a Bradley.
• Crew performed really well.
• Banshee-2 did a great job leading our Bradley section being very proactive and communicative.

Cons:

• Lots of Arma issues being randomly teleported to different point on the map or launched into space for no reason.
• Low frames at times.

 

[Lindsay.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: Buffalo 1 & 2, Raider-1, Bison-1
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Lindsay.A

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Derry.B
Specialist Otakar.D

Pros:

• Lots to do
• Great work by Zeus
• Good turnout for the majority of time

Cons

• A Co missing elements which spilled over onto Infantry (Pegasus/Infidel) who did great job but unfair to them doing 2 or 3 very difficult jobs
• Would have liked to see more organization on A Co part to split up the workload/hours online to keep above elements online consistently
• Frames issues at times they cratered quit badly making flying helicopters extremely challenging, seemed to improve a bit over time
• Helo's doing ISR and HOG attacking? A little baffling but largely due to the above.
• Too much AA and Red Air at times, enemy had cap over our airbase for a considerable amount of time.
• Difficult sometimes to strike balance between Rotary and Fixed and keep everyone busy.

 

[Hobbs.T]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: Infidel - last 1hr 30
Element Leader:Major Hobbs.T

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Major Hobbs.T

 

[Dunn.W]

S1 Please wait until after Furlough for attendance tracking.
Everyone else, we will be tracking attendance via Battlemetrics.

Please just include Pros+Cons

 

[Sutodoreh.W]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: LIGHTNING, HOG, INFIDEL, GODFATHER
Element Leader:

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Warrant Officer 1 Sutodoreh.W

Pros: Fixed-Wing had a LOT of fun, as godfather got to test out ways of doing red air that work within operations. Need to tweak some things as it still affected rotary on occasion, but we have a good starting point for the future. Had SEVERAL public players hop in as pilots, which was a great sign.

Great work by OICs and by mission controllers

Cons: Honestly, very few. The big one is that secondary Zeuses need to be reined in a little, as they were causing frustration on several occasions despite the primary zeus trying to do something different. I think it needs to be clarified that for ops like this, there is ONE mission controller -- there may be additional Zeuses to assist, but there is one person calling the shots and other Zeuses should not be spawning things if the primary is trying to hold back.

 

[Goel.B]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT
​

Element Callsign: Gunslinger-7
Element Leader: Corporal Goel.B

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Captain Burton.P
Staff Sergeant Maco.D


Pros:

• Amazing medical from Atlas 1 and 2
• Lots of work to do.
• Having two very experienced medical TL makes the 7 life easier.

Cons:

• Some acre issues when trying to talk with Maco, had to use Ctab message.
• Game crashes.
• On the first moment of insertion of the whole operation, Gerrish and I ate a mortar.

 

[Boyd.M]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Raptor-2
Element Leader: Corporal Boyd.M

2000z - 0800z (10DEC22)
12 hours
1545z-2000z (11DEC22)
4.25 hours

Total time 16.25 hours


PROS:

• Great to do a 24 hour OP again.
• Had a lot of fun flying CAP for as long as I did
• Killed a lot of stuff
• Very accommodating godfather in regards to vehicle choice
• Good formation flying with Berg, was a lot of fun flying around together
• Flew escort for static line drop
• Dedicated alert system for enemy air assets was very cool
• Often had ATC at the main airbase, which is always super cool

CONS:

• I had trouble landing the Raptor throughout; however, that's just on me, and I need more practice.
• Godfather could have been more mindful of popups at certain times. If we only have 1-2 CAP airframes up, maybe don't spawn 8 enemy MiGs
• I had several battle eye issues throughout
• Too much chatter on 02. Fixed wing each had their own long-range (Raptor, Lightning, ect.) so we could de clutter base comms, but many people used it as a general chatter comms, and that makes base calls and red air calls difficult to squeeze in

 

[Narramoor.A]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Gunslinger 2, Gunslinger 6
Element Leader: Specialist Narramoor.A

Shoutouts (in no particular order):
Second Lieutenant Phillips.B
Captain Burton.P
Staff Sergeant Maco.D
Sergeant Sam.T
Corporal Holiday.T
Corporal Lucander.P
Specialist Hans.D
Corporal Santoyo.T
Specialist Armitage.T
Private First Class Mayfield.W
Sergeant Whitehead.B
Sergeant Beiter.A

For sticking out for well over the mark and making the 24 hours operation a really enjoyable experience. Bringing professionalism and good humour to a long and arduous MILSIM (for most of the time) session, showcasing the best of the Cav.

PROS:

• First 24 hour OP, and it was a blast. I loved how the curation by Mission Controllers and attendance by Cav members elevated all elements into an especially fun time! Excellent work by Mission Controllers: Beiter, Santoyo, Sam, O'Brien, Geki, Goel, Dunn and others.
• An incredibly strong start with a cinematic air-assault beach landing and a huge turnout.
• Lots of highlights across the span of the 24 hours, across the various AOs
• Very strong display by all supporting elements (Transport air, close air support, medical teams, logistics).

CONS:

• Some server issues and client side issues that started in the second half of the operation. Periodic restarts worked well to mitigate this and should be retained.
• We came to remember or realise that there is a limitation with the Arma 3 client that causes a huge amount of slowdowns at the 8-9 hour runtime mark. In future, there should likely be a call for all participants to restart their games and/or computers every 8 hours or so.
• Understandably with fatigue, some unprofessionalism became quite apparent on the tail end of this operation.
• I would like to see a simple google sheets schedule for slotting, not just for the mission controller but for platoon staff/elements as well to maintain momentum more coherently past the 6-hour mark.

 

[Phillips.B]

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
S3 BATTLE STAFF
Headquarters
7th Cavalry Regiment
COMBAT AFTER ACTION REPORT​

Element Callsign: Gunslinger-6, Gunslinger-5, Gunslinger-2, Gunslinger-3
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Phillips.B

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

• Pretty Cool People
• Specialist Narramoor.A

Pros:

• Great Zeus Turnout
  • Without them there would be no mission
• Leadership
  • Members stepping into uncomfortable/unfamiliar slots for most of the operation
  • Tough work especially in the wee hours of the night/morning
• Fantastic Member Turnout
  • Great numbers throughout the operation
  • Many public players stayed as well!
• Server Health
  • Server rotations good way to keep the server healthy
• Mission Accomplished!

Cons:

• Zeus Organization
  • Need a way to better organize Zeus time slots
• Mission Difficulty
  • Considerations need made on operational strength of units
    • How many people are there?
    • How late into the operation is it?
    • Is there enough leadership?
  • Choices made here that would not have been acceptable in normal operations
    • Multiple deaths due to unavoidable artillery strikes
    • Massive occupied cities with OPFOR outside of lanes causing havoc because of soft clearing
    • Zeus controlled units not holding back and used extensively
• Zeus Accountability
  • Supporting Zeus should not be drastically altering the course of battle
  • Better organization of Zeus responsibilities, roles, and allowed abilities

 

[Xinos.T]

LOCKED
Assigned Armitage.T Xinos.T Angelos.G for processing