AAR ARMA 3 | Operation Iron Hammer |

[Schmidt.A]

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

Name of Combat Mission: Operation Iron Hammer
Number Within Campaign:
Game: ARMA 3
Server Hosted on: ARMA 3 Tactical Realism
Date of Combat Mission: 30APR23
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 1900z
Mission OIC: Major Burton.P
Mission Controller: Sergeant Major Schmidt.A

Attendants: 90

Brigadier General Tharen.R
Colonel LaCombe.M
Major Burton.P
Major Phoenix.G
Major Stewart.B
First Lieutenant Mackey.A
Second Lieutenant Beiter.A
Second Lieutenant Knights.Z
Second Lieutenant Zaren.T
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sparrow.P
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Sutodoreh.W
Warrant Officer 1 Bloggins.R
Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C
Warrant Officer 1 Lindsay.A
Warrant Officer 1 Spitnale.K
Warrant Officer 1 Thumper.N
Warrant Officer 1 Villmarsson.L
Warrant Officer 1 Wulf.C
Command Sergeant Major Nexhex.A
Sergeant Major Schmidt.A
First Sergeant Jupiter.J
Master Sergeant Couvillion.T
Master Sergeant Maco.D
Sergeant First Class Abate.L
Staff Sergeant Raeder.U
Staff Sergeant Sullivan.A
Staff Sergeant Trunkman.K
Staff Sergeant Whitehead.B
Sergeant Goel.B
Sergeant Guerra.J
Sergeant Narramoor.A
Sergeant Phillips.B
Sergeant Saint.Z
Sergeant Santoyo.T
Sergeant Terp.J
Sergeant Westcott.R
Corporal Savage.C
Corporal Gann.T
Corporal Marcus.J
Corporal Kamenar.M
Corporal Robbi.J
Corporal Armitage.T
Corporal Corbin.R
Corporal DAmico.D
Corporal Dio.B
Corporal Fox.Z
Corporal Hilberg.A
Corporal Dujakovic.R
Specialist Tallamy.D
Specialist Black.A
Specialist Bethea.A
Specialist Bishop.C
Specialist Bowman.B
Specialist Brian.F
Specialist Chandler.A
Specialist Davis.D
Specialist Denny.C
Specialist Dixon.E
Specialist Dohun.T
Specialist Facklam.E
Specialist Fisher.S
Specialist Grizzle.M
Specialist Harris.M
Specialist Jager.J
Specialist Kiser.C
Specialist Lee.H
Specialist Lee.RA
Specialist Mac.S
Specialist Moon.P
Specialist Priest.V
Specialist Rodahl.S
Specialist Spin.M
Specialist Stuart.Z
Specialist Turn.J
Specialist Turner.L
Specialist West.Z
Specialist Xinos.T
Specialist York.KC
Private First Class Arnesen.B
Private First Class Hartshock.P
Private First Class Krupa.W
Private First Class Law.S
Private First Class Perea.A
Private Bonnet.J
Private DeBeen.N
Private Gutierrez.E
Private Juarez.RA
Private Mitchell.B
Private Mocca.J
Private Ransom.J

 

[Saint.Z]

Element Callsign: Misfit 4
Element Leader: Corporal Saint.Z

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Second Lieutenant Zaren.T
Staff Sergeant Trunkman.K
Sergeant Guerra.J
Corporal Miller.DC
Corporal Saint.Z
Specialist Dohun.T
Specialist Black.A
Specialist Xinos.T
Specialist Bethea.A
Private Gutierrez.E

Pro:

• Went okay but the SBF pos were awkward
• good kills with the weapon systems
• good use of the weapons
• mission concept was decent although large
• good to see a batt sized event
• good positioning on the squad level
• we were able to block decent enough unless it was tanks which were harsh and cut through our plt lines. we blocked multiple trucks, infantry, and snipers (they were deleted)
• we did attachment teams which worked out, one to misfit 5 and one to misfit 1

Cons:

• mission concept was a little too ambitious in size (i really hope arma 4 doesn't have these issues)
• blue on blue at airfield
• SBF pos were not the best
• DZ was too short for stick
• hard to use our primary SBFs

 

[Beiter.A]

Element Callsign: MISFIT-6
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Beiter.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:


Pro:

• Jump is always POG
• Overall concept of operations was good had some solid planning from battalion and below
• This is a good stepping stone for future FTXs and we should take everything we learned from the mission itself down to the briefing on how to go forward for future FTXs
• 95 people at the max and that was awesome to see

Con:

• Servers went from POG to un POG half way through unfortunately but again its a learning experience
• ATLAS was definitely needed at the jump due to MISFIT-7 being the only man for medical until ATLAS arrived.

 

[Thumper.N]

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

Element Callsign: Infidel-2
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Nate "Justicar" Thumper

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
N/A

Pro:

• None

Con:

• 120 Minutes of sitting on the tarmac, doing nothing, then server crashed.
• Slotting was changed last minute without notice, although sign ups were completed; those signups were not followed.
• SMEs were seemingly not consulted in planning the of the mission, based on the mission decisions made for aviation.

 

[Westcott.R]

Element Callsign: MISFIT-1
Element Leader: Sergeant Westcott.R
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:

Staff Sergeant Raeder.U
Sergeant Phillips.B
Corporal Fox.Z
Corporal Savage.C
Specialist Bowman.B
Specialist Bishop.C
Specialist Lee.H
Specialist Brian.F
Specialist Renard.S

Pro:

• Jump went well, count off once on the deck was for the most part in order!
• Squad was loaded in, parallel planned and in files in under 5 minutes! Well done
• Excellent fireteam comms and movements despite level of deconfliction with other squads needed.
• The idea of large scale missions is exciting evidenced by 90+ people in server!
• Attaching a Gun Team to assaulting squads is most excellent! Thanks Misfit-4!

Con:

• Lots of rubber-banding, caused 4 red tags and 1 black tag.
• Movements and formations were sloppy, mostly due to rubber-banding.
• Deconfliction with other squads while assaulting objectives, Misfit-1 was tasked to clear a COI and got there to find another squad already there.

 

[Maco.D]

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

Element Callsign: Atlas-1
Element Leader: Master Sergeant Maco.D

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Specialist Davis.D
Specialist Moon.P
Private Oz.A

Pro
Really good attendance.
Had the server not crashed we would of got some really good work done.
A large amount of surgery was done by Davis.
Really good comms between the 2 Platoon Medics and Atlas team.

Con
Operation should of been pinned as of 6-9 hour Operation.
The cordanation at the start was very lagging.
Both teams were at the airfield for almost 2 hours.
Took over a hour for kick off and almost 2 hours before anything was done.
After almost 2 and a half hours of waiting Atlas 1 had about 15-20 mins of medical.
Misfit 7 was crossed over for assigning of medical.
A operation of this size and player amount should not be ran we can not handle the amount of people.
Why are we doing PJ ops when been told many many times that its not something we do

 

[Denny.C]

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

Element Callsign: MISFIT 2
Element Leader: Specialist Denny.C
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal D'Amico.D
Corporal Gann.T
Specialist Tallamy.D
Private First Class Perea.A
Private Bonnet.J


Pros:

• Combat jump went well
• Worked well as a small element
• This shows promise for bigger ops in the future

Cons:

• Felt a little confusing at times
• Slow reaction to contact
• Need to work on battle-buddy accountability during close combat

 

[Spin.M]

Element Callsign: BUFFALO-3
Element Leader: SPC Spin.M
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:


Pro:

• Server seemed to handle the amount of folks well
• Great turn out in number of members

Con:

• Rotary mission was slow, did not have a real mission or need until about 1-1.5hrs into it
• Inter-flight comms issues (need flight specific LRs/comms), overall comms issues, and comms confusion
• Could have been a lot better of an OP if there was a longer time frame
• Some rubberbanding here and there

 

[Priest.V]

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

Element Callsign: PEGASUS
Element Leader: Specialist Priest.V

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
N/A

Pro:

• Great turn out!
• Good Op detail and eye for reality

Con:

• In large scale ops buy-in is needed from Company before hand during planning/development of the Op Scenario
• BTN FTX should be run as either Staged Ops OR have concurrent activity for all
• More interaction and Deconfliction HAS to happen from COMMAND 5 to INFIDEL - we had 3 Abort calls due to unexpected BUFFALO
• CEOI is NOT fit for purpose for larger scale ops and needs updating/overhauling

 

[Santoyo.T]

Element Callsign: Misfit 3
Element Leader: Sergeant Santoyo.T

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Marcus.J
Corporal Masnec.G
Corporal Corbin.R
Specialist Turner.L
Specialist West.Z
Private First Class Arnesen.B

Pro:

• Good teamwork amongst the fireteams
• Quick and aggressive on clearing sectors and reacting to contacts
  • So quick and Aggressive in movement that we actually over took the rest of the platoon and spear headed movement through the sectors and to the AP.

Cons:

• Echoing commands at the fireteam level
• Bad frag on the assault
• Slow ATLAS response
• Technical issues/server crash (not that anyone can help that)

 

[Lindsay.A]

Element Callsign: BUFFALO-2
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Lindsay.A
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private First Class Law.S


Pro:

• Ambitious plan
• Good briefing
• Great turn out
• Resupply crates right by Buffalo's on load in was excellent!

Con:

• Rotary and Medical waited 90 min + with no tasking
• Airdrop took too long to get elements into AO
• Server issues, frames deteriorated over time and eventually server crashed

 

[Sam.T]

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

Element Callsign: MISFIT 7
Element Leader: Second Lieutenant Sam.T

Pros:

• The jump was cool; first time seeing the C-17.
• The turnout was awesome.
• Solid turnout for the Atlas teams since this OP overlapped with our SP times.
• Decent server performance considering we were approaching 100 players in the server at times.
• CCP Work by Atlas-1 was excellent. Clear delineation of areas within the CCP, designation of duties, and commendable patience from the casualties waiting for treatment.

Cons:

• Unsure why the Dustoff operation style was chosen for Atlas. We have been explicitly told we don't do helicopter MEDEVAC/CASEVAC OPs in common Operations for the exact reasons we saw today.
• No Atlas was included in the initial para drop, leading to multiple black casualties and extremely long response times.
• Both Atlas teams spend 1-2 hours of SP time at the base, doing nothing except "chewing the fat" and playing guitar. Extremely disappointed that this Operation was the first SP for our new recruits in Atlas.
• After ~10-20 minutes of time in the field for the Atlas teams, the server crashed.
• Dispatch to the Misfit platoon was handled from Viking-7 back at the base instead of through Misfit-7 in the field, leading to confusion and conflicting dispatch orders.
• Platoon Medics slots again did not have Doctor perms, meaning the Platoon medics were essentially CLSs with extra radios.

 

[Goel.B]

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

Element Callsign: Atlas-2
Element Leader: Sergeant Goel.B

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Rozhkov.P
Specialist Albright.J
Private Mocca.J

Pros:

• Great opportunity to get to know each other better
• Got time to play some music

Cons:

• Almost two hours of doing nothing, now we have profound understanding on how grass grows.
• Got time to play some music

 

[Tharen.R]

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

Element Callsign: Godfather 5 & 7
Element Leader: Brigadier General Tharen.R

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Brigadier General Tharen.R
Command Sergeant Major Nexhex.A

Pros:

• Was really great to have a Battalion FTX and try it again.
• Turnout of 95+ was great!
• Planning and preparation from each Company was very good.
• Alpha Company and Pegasus, Infidel performed really well.
• Charlie Company seized the airfield successfully. Despite disconnects, the jump was organized and handled very well.

Cons:

• Splitting the Battalion into 2 different missions on the ground side created a lot of down time for B/1-7. A simultaneous attack on the airfield where C/1-7 seized the airfield/airport by airborne and B/1-7 cleared the surrounding/nearby towns and set up blocking positions by mechanized infantry assault to control the area around the airfield would have given everyone something to do together at the same time. At every level of unit size, do not put units out of reasonable mutual supporting range whether it’s a fire team or a Battalion. As a result, this seemed like 2 separate ops, but in the same op.
• Battalion Staff had little to do since there was limited coordination between Bravo and Charlie due to their separate missions.
• Radio channels need to be figured out before the op and the CEOI used or updated.
• Atlas needed to be split up as detachments for Bravo and Charlie. No Atlas medics on the jump was not ideal.
• The C17 seemed to lag and stress the server a lot.
• Slow start to leave base once in game.
• Server crash (but after 2 hours and 10 min).

 

[Hamm.C]

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

Element Callsign: BUFFALO-1
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Warrant Officer 1 Bloggins.R

Pro:

• Turnout was really amazing.
• OPORD, planning, and briefing was extremely comprehensive and detailed. Always appreciate that.

Con:

• Extremely underwhelming and I'm saying that as nicely and respectfully as I possibly can. If we are going to be doing missions with such ambitious heights, we need to either a) increase playtime or b) divide into multi-phase campaign.
• Buffalo Flight essentially had nothing to do, no tasking, not even logistics busywork or anything for that matter for nearly the whole OP. Based on the OPORD, I envisioned way more fun than this, and it literally cost me money because I took off work for this. Major disappointment. Not trying to be too critical as I'm sure somebody's time/energy went into this and while that effort is really super-appreciated, this one fell flat from A. Co. Rotary perspective.
• Server Crash.

 

[Vincent.L]

Element Callsign: Viking-1
Element Leader: Corporal Vincent.L

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant First Class Abate.L
Specialist Rodahl.S
Corporal Zander.D
Specialist Kiser.C
Specialist Facklam.E
Specialist Mac.S
Private Juarez.RA

Pro:

• The briefing and planning in the squad was excellent.
• Squad managed to entertain each other and maintain moral despite the circumstances.

Cons:

• Poor timing lead to Bravo Troop sitting around for hours with no task or purpose.
• Server crash once Bravo started to move toward contact.

 

[Robbi.J]

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

Element Callsign: VIKING-4
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Sullivan.A

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Robbi.J
Corporal Kamenar.M
Corporal Dio.B
Specialist Fisher.S
Specialist Stuart.Z
Private First Class Hartshock.P

Pro:

• Good initial turnout
• Server actually loaded and ran for 2 hours

Con:

• Literally nothing to do for near two hours.
• Stryker jump resulted in entire section wide death and respawn.
• Utilizing techniques in an FTX that have never been trained for. (e.g. dropping strykers from a C17)
• Server Crash after 2 hours right when we are finally beginning movement.

 

[Narramoor.A]

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

Element Callsign: VIKING-5
Element Leader: Sergeant Narramoor.A

Pro:

• Amazing Turnout
• Substantial planning from all companies, incredibly comprehensive brief.
• A lot of anticipation and excitement for the sheer scale.
• A battalion FTX is definitely something that's wanted, it would be great to revisit this with a working compromise between the vision and the limitations of Arma 3.

Con:

• The elephant in the room for Bravo troop was waiting at base for deployment for 2 hours followed by a crash. I have a feeling concurrent activity between the companies would be very difficult to implement due to server stability. Perhaps in future, we can split up the FTX into a 4 hour OP with a handover phase between Bravo and Charlie. I.e. a relief in place operation

 

[Whitehead.B]

Element Callsign: VIKING-2
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Whitehead.B
7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Armitage.T
Corporal Lamb.J
Specialist Harris.M
Private First Class Krupa.W
Specialist Dixon.E
Specialist Jager.J
Specialist York.KC
Private DeBeen.N

Pro:

• Lots of laughs had at base with the squad.
• Had some knights funny moments
• Great plan shame it didnt get put into action fully

Con:

• 2 Hours sitting around at base waiting to be deployed. Bravo should have been joining the mission 1 hour after C co to allow for their objectives to be complete first dule use to reduce the number of active players on the server as well.
• Viking doesnt train dropping from the C-17 (would like to see it working in action tho).
• 5 Mins into deployment from base crashed.

 

[Phoenix.G]

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

Element Callsign: HITMAN-6
Element Leader: Major Phoenix.G

Pros:
Great turnout
Unique experience
Ambitious and a lot of fun

Cons:
Performance issues and some pacing concerns