AAR ARMA 3 | February 2024 Warfare Wednesday | WFW 224

[Hilberg.A]

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

Name of Combat Mission: WFW 224
Number Within Campaign: 1/4
Game: ARMA 3
Server Hosted on: TACR
Date of Combat Mission: 07FEB2024
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 2300z
Mission OIC: First Lieutenant Sam.T
Mission Controller: Staff Sergeant Hilberg.A

Attendees: 45
Lieutenant Colonel Dread.M
Major Stetchkov.A
First Lieutenant Searle.I
First Lieutenant Thumper.N
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Sparrow.P
Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C
Sergeant Major Preacher.A
Sergeant First Class Abate.L
Staff Sergeant Goel.B
Staff Sergeant Phillips.B
Staff Sergeant Vincent.L
Staff Sergeant Westcott.R
Sergeant Fox.Z
Sergeant Turn.J
Sergeant Willson.JA
Corporal Bethea.A
Corporal Blake.H
Corporal Davis.D
Corporal Gann.T
Corporal Grief.A
Corporal Holiday.T
Corporal Kastor.K
Corporal Law.S
Corporal Mobius.T
Corporal Morozov.M
Corporal Whitehead.B
Corporal Vaughn.V
Corporal Zander.D
Corporal Zaren.T
Specialist Bishop.C
Specialist Brian.F
Corporal Rodahl.S
Specialist Rok.M
Specialist Winters.R
Specialist Xinos.T
Private First Class Hart.L
Private First Class Shepard.S
Reservist Dixon.E

Retired:
Staff Sergeant Sullivan.A
Captain Swagger.J
SFC.Houston.T

Non Cav Members:
Expendable_Joe

 

[Holiday.T]

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

Element Callsign: Atlas-2
Element Leader: CPL.Holiday.T

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
N/A

Non Cav Members
Expendable_Joe

Pros:
N/A

Cons:
Low medic turnout
Odd issues with loadout perms, Atlas didnt have the ability to pick up chemlights and had to have infantry grab them for us
Pretty boring for Atlas-2, spent the vast majority of the the op waiting for helo pickups
People calling last man when helo hasnt picked all paks up
Communication of medical calls was subpar, the ball is being dropped somewhere, times where reds were called but either only stitches were needed or casualties were yellow at most

 

[Abate.L]

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

Element Callsign: Misfit-4
Element Leader: Sergeant First Class Abate.L

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant First Class Abate.L
Staff Sergeant Vincent.L
Corporal Morozov.M
Corporal Whitehead.B
Corporal Zander.D
Corporal Zaren.T
Specialist Rodahl.S
Specialist Xinos.T

Non-7th Cavalry Within Element:
RET.Sullivan.A

Pros:

• Interesting and unique objectives.
• Good set pieces and initial planning.
• Lots of objectives.
• Effective use of the mortar by the charlie fireteam. Reigned supreme.
• Brilliant use of the MAAWs and further force multipliers.
• Squad overcame adversity.
• Heli boarding plan allowed for autonmous loading.
• Last objective was a well executed simultaneous attack.

Cons:

• 2x Squad members being ejected from helicopter mid flight.
• Initial SBF locations unsuitable for heavy weapons.
• Slow insert but us behind schedule.
• Map issues.
• We sadly did not have MAAWS capability when needed engaging enemy vehicles.
• BTR with plot armour.

 

[Dixon.E]

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

Element Callsign: Misfit-7
Element Leader: Reservist Dixon.E

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
N/A

Non Cav Members
N/A

Pros:

• Good communcation
• Decent amount of medical work
• Server ran smooth
• Buddy aid/CLS's did amazing tonight
• Had a fun time doing 7 as my first time but could do some work

Cons:

• Lacking of aid partly due to helis crashing at obj 2 which made them have a long wait for new helis
• Bickering over radio
• Incorrect medical calls, such as yellows being calleds as reds etc
• Objective 2 didn't make much sense considering no way down there

 

[Westcott.R]

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

Element Callsign: MISFIT-1
Element Leader: Staff Sergeant Westcott.R

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Major Stetchkov.A
First Lieutenant Searle.I
Sergeant Major Preacher.A
Corporal Vaughn.V
Specialist Brian.F
Specialist Bishop.C
Specialist Bonnet.J
Private First Class Hart.L

Special guest:
RET.Houston.T



Pros:

• Exceptional Individual soldier discipline from every member of M1 tonight. Good callouts, good echoing orders, great movements and spacing.
• Aggressivity during contact was on point! We deleted pretty much everything we saw!
• FTL's worked extremely well together on OBJ's.
• Morale was pretty good despite being in 3 Helo crashes.
• Squad adapted well to every scenario, even being split up we were still a force to be reckoned with.
• Loading plan for Buffalo was exceptional and should be implemented as standard, just like we have a CEOI!

Cons:

• 2nd OBJ, although cool....was maybe a bit over ambitious in execution.
• I as SL was sloppy with ACE reports to 5 and 7, I will improve this.
• I instructed a trooper to re-bind his grenade key mid-OP, which ended poorly. This again is my fault.

NOTES:

• I achieved my personal objective of blowing up the volcano.
• Squad defense of the PLT on the last OBJ was a festival of cyclic fire, I am pretty sure we shot down a mountain and was very much enjoyed by the squad.

 

[Sparrow.P]

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

Element Callsign: Buffalo-1
Element Leader: Chief Warrant Officer 3 Sparrow.P

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Law.S
Corporal Grief.A

Pros:

• Challenging LZ's
• Hot LZ's

Cons:

• LZ Chode (Delta) 6with limited Visibility was a pain in the ass at night. During the Day it was okay.
• Arma ism's with Terrain and helicopters lead to two crashes (CH-47 and LZ Echo)
  • I admit to some bad judgement calls on my part.

Note: This OP was a good example on how to do hot LZ's in my opinion and is something not seen often enough

 

[Sam.T]

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

Element Callsign: Misfit-6
Element Leader: First Lieutenant Sam.T


Pros:

• OBJ-1 was run very smoothly, resulting in minor casualties and only slightly over the prescribed time on target.
• OB-2 was completed, despite the massive amounts of scuff present.
• Board plan was effective and definitely smoothed out the initial boarding process.
• Excellent SLs tonight, individual squad actions and initiatives were on point.
• The weapons squad rocked, with highly effective mortar fires and bringing down the main radar on OBJ 4.
• Mid-OP RTB to rearm and re-kit went smoothly and was fairly efficient.

Cons:

• Arma-isms lead to slow start.
• Helo crashes (for various reasons) lead to delays in between OBJs.
• As cool as OBJ-2 was, we probably wouldn't do that one again with the airframes and plan that we used tonight. (Though we did blow up the volcano and evac the scientists).
• Odd number of birds meant that it was impossible to lift all personnel at once, complicating a mission that was realistically designed as a series of raids on OBJs.

 

[Thumper.N]

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

Element Callsign: Bison-1
Element Leader: First Lieutenant Thumper.N

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Davis.D

Pros:

• Plenty of work to do, lots of fire, some spicy moments.
• Didn't lose an aircraft to enemy fire.

Cons:

• Got "Arma'ed" at the beginning, led to slow start.
• LZ Delta, aka LZ Chode, was a horrible LZ, in the dark of a volcano, down drafts, no maneuver room, etc.
• Need collaboration on LZs with aviation, before they are solidified.
• Too much fog.

 

[Hilberg.A]

Attendees added. Please let me know if I missed anyone.

 

[Fox.Z]

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

Element Callsign: Misfit-2
Element Leader: Sergeant Fox.Z

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Willson.JA
Staff Sergeant Phillips.B
Corporal Bethea.A
Corporal Blake.H
Private First Class Shepard.S
Corporal Mobius.T
Corporal Almaguer.R
Specialist Smith.DM
Private Willson.R
Specialist Rok.M

Pros:

• Always good to have a nice turnout
• Couldn't have asked for better Team Leads
• Props to everyone for sticking with it even after numerous setbacks
• AO's were interesting, especially the Caldera

Cons:

• Timing, although nice to have a limit on an objective, was a mess on OBJ 1. We were barely halfway to the objective before the call was made that we needed to leave. We were moving through difficult terrain with almost no illumination, and it made the first Raid feel very uncomfortable and not fun.
• The helicopters crashing multiple times were unfortunate. I don't know if it was user error or getting Arma'd, but it definitely exacerbated the situation.
• Our Squad was ready to leave seconds after arriving for resupply between OBJs 2 and 4, but were made to play musical chairs with the Helicopters instead of get back in the Heli that was more than ready to leave.
• Had medics overlook our squad (that was entirely yellow) to move to another team in their path of travel. I understand urgent triage, but I had casualties with major blood loss who would not be easily recoverable after contact, and had multiple medical members walk right by them.

 

[Fox.Z]

Attendees added. Please let me know if I missed anyone.

Corporal Almaguer.R
Specialist Smith.DM
Private Willson.R

 

[Hilberg.A]

Corporal Almaguer.R
Specialist Smith.DM
Private Willson.R

Got ya. I’ll add them. Thank you.

 

[Hamm.C]

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

Element Callsign: Buffalo-2
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C 'Hooker'

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
N/A

Pros:

• Good turnout and enjoyable OP.
• Extremely nice and detailed OPORD. Very well done.
• Enormously challenging for Alpha helo pilots as this was extremely ambitious mission.
• Emphasize our medical guys' excellence. Total pros 100%.

Cons:

• Very ambitious mission... not bad but just very ambitious. For Alpha helo pilots, just the level of darkness, fog and then in concert with trying to land in the volcano was wildly tough. Hardly no visibility at all... and us helo guys are visual creatures needing visual reference points.
• Helicopters doing super steep/vertical approaches/landings in volcanos like that must avoid Vortex Ring State (VRS) at all costs, so while it can be done (kinda like what you see in Jurassic Park) it is best to be avoided unless really slow and controlled and definitely not for a potentially dangerous LZ. Also the LZ was super tight. And visibility awful for us- Very hard to "keep the blue side up."
• A few unfortunate crashes. Terrain thing on the slope landing was quite weird because on those damages couldn't figure out what we hit or how it really happened (and we do em all the time, just seemed quite different this time.)

 

[Kinser.E]

S1 Locked!
Assigned Rutkowski.P for Processing.

 

[Rutkowski.P]

S1 Operations Processed.