AAR Arma 3 | September Warfare Wednesday | Operation Boiling Rock | WFW 253

[Mazinski.H]

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

Name of Combat Mission: Operation Boiling Rock
Number Within Campaign: N/A
Game: ARMA 3
Server Hosted on: TacR
Date of Combat Mission: 25SEP2024
Time of Combat Mission (Zulu): 2200z
Mission OIC: Second Lieutenant Hilberg.A
Mission Controller: Staff Sergeant Mazinski.H

Attendance (43):
Lieutenant Colonel Dread.M
Major Bunnell.M
Major Beiter.A
Major Highman.J
Major Ronen.R
Second Lieutenant Hilberg.A
Second Lieutenant Rodahl.S
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dujakovic.R
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Sparrow.P
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Villmarsson.L
Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C
First Sergeant Vincent.L
Sergeant First Class Westcott.R
Staff Sergeant Mazinski.H
Staff Sergeant Stone.J
Sergeant Hazen.D
Sergeant Crowley.T
Sergeant Holiday.T
Sergeant Fox.Z
Sergeant Davis.D
Corporal Masnec.G
Corporal Singhal.P
Corporal Bethea.A
Corporal McAllen.J
Corporal Kastor.K
Corporal Abate.L
Corporal Zander.D
Corporal Shepard.S
Corporal Houston.T
Corporal Burton.P
Corporal Borenstein.B
Specialist Xinos.T
Specialist Winters.R
Specialist Van.J
Specialist Gibbs.K
Specialist York.A
Specialist Delgado.C
Specialist Rok.M
Private First Class Torres.K
Private First Class Pierce.JA
Private Shakeshaft.S
Private Tahai.L
Private Grey.C

 

[Dread.M]

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

Element Callsign: SPARROW-1
Element Leader: Lieutenant Colonel Dread.M

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Lieutenant Colonel Dread.M

Ret/Public Personnel:
Chief Warrant Officer 3 Spit.K

Pros:

• Good calls and coordination
• Good use of SPARROW with the level of contact/enemy type

Cons:

• (not really a con) Splitting GRIZZLY and SPARROW for the same slotting created an issue with the OPORD. We were all slotted in GRIZZLY crew and had to split at launch because a predesignated target request. We planned to split the crews after insert, but had to split at the beginning.

 

[McAllen.J]

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

Element Callsign: Bandit-7
Element Leader: Corporal McAllen.J



Pros:

• Plenty of medical and surgeries tonight.
• The turnout for the operation was great.
• The communications when I did get calls were responsive from Bandit elements.

Cons:

• The comms were a bit atrocious at times.
• The Op was overall chaotic and Atlas felt a lack of direction throughout.
• The platoon wasn't within mutual support at times, and overextended often which resulted in black tags
• Communication with Atlas and within their teams needs to be improved.
• There was a lack of proactivity in the Atlas teams and it felt like I had to micromanage tonight rather then they move fluidly.

Notes: Honestly I didn't fully understand the purpose of this Op because of the lack of information in the Opord and because of the unnecessary chatter on some nets it was difficult for me to coordinate with Atlas at some times.

 

[Winters.R]

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

Element Callsign: ATLAS-1
Element Leader: Specialist Winters.R

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Major Bunnell.M

Non-7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Expendable_Joe

Pros:

• Intense operation. Real scarred warzone with autocannon​
• Good amount of medical​
• Hot insert​
• Good in team work​

Cons:

• Movement chaotic making it difficult to follow
• Squads out of mutual support which caused BANDIT mass casualty incident being cut off due to autocannon fire. Delay made 2 black tags
• People going AFK without warning
• Casualties not reported (found some face down)
• False mass causality calls

 

[Rok.M]

Element Callsign: Bandit-4
Element Leader: Specialist Rok.M

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Sergeant Crowley.T
Specialist Xinos.T
Corporal Shepard.S
Specialist Borenstein.B

Major Beiter.A
Specialist Van.J
Staff Sergeant Stone.J

Sergeant Fox.Z
Specialist Delgado.C
Corporal Burton.P

Pros

• Fun and Engaging, good amount of contact
• Well planned mission (IDF, ZSU MGOP were amazing)
• Good Comms
• Biggest Operation for one specialist Van, he enjoyed and felt the scale of the true 7cav
• Landing with engagement was good (hot LZ)
• Fantastic Team/Squad

Cons

• More mix of opfor elements (ATT helo)
• Lots of confusion due to movement according to frago
  • Alternate plan suggest to 6 based on situation
  • Could have approached with a more set plan
• Additional considerations as SL
  • delegation of commands
  • precise, thought out commands
  • fallback positions
  • flexibility of team attach/detachments

 

[Westcott.R]

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

​

Element Callsign: Bandit-5
Element Leader: Sergeant First Class Westcott.R



Pros:

• Zesty and hot inserts made the first 10 minutes chaotic and a tough fight
• Excellent work with Grizzly/Raven flight the entire OP. Fantastic Comms all night.
• Platoon was aggressive during all phases this evening, perfectly in line with M6's intent.
• Good work by 7 and Atlas sticking as well as they could to the Platoon movement and planning through the chaos.

Cons:

• Comms were cluttered by functional.
• Someone shot Raven-1 with an AT4 while it was on deck, in a marked LZ, and had BLUFOR markers surrounding it.
• Personal Con: I need to get a touch more aggressive with LZ's for inserts and Resupply...I am tired of carrying boxes several km every OP.

 

[Hamm.C]

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

​

Element Callsign: Grizzly-1 / Raven-1 PIC and Transport Rotary Flight Lead.
Element Leader: Warrant Officer 1 Hamm.C "Hooker"

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Major Highman.J "Dumbo" (Raven-1 crew)
Sergeant Holiday.T (Grizzly-1 / Raven-2 crew)
Reservist Boyd.M (Grizzly-1 / Raven-1 crew)

Element Callsign: Grizzly-2 / Raven-2
Element Leader: Chief Warrant Officer 2 Villmarsson "Plan-B".

Pros:

• Great Op, mission design and tons of fun. Lots of stick-time. Really enjoyed this one.
• Great job with our fantastic infantry quickly dismounting the landing birds.
• Great job with resupply and teamwork getting cargo off the bird. I know Bandit-5 had to walk a long way with those boxes, so going forward, unless there is AA or Red Air risk, he can definitely give us closer LZs and if it's a problem we will certainly just wave off and re-approach when able.
• Excellent comms with Bandit-5, as always with total pro Westcott.R
• Excellent Alpha Co. flying and teamwork.

Cons:

• OPORD/Briefing were both highly abbreviated which led to some confusion and slotting issues and flight crew/planning configuration changes, especially with the pre-emptive rocket runs prior to Grizzly launch. We managed it pretty quickly and this all worked out fine.
• Initial instraction LZ appeared too sloped upon arrival/approach. Max IRL slope generally not to exceed ~15 degrees, but we can get away with a little more in ARMA, but eyeballing it, this was closer to 30 IMO, best estimation. So we did have to do a quick go-around/ and reassess due to said slope plus visibility/obstructions. Main issue with higher slope landing is that, even with brakes on, is: a) that if you land nose-in to the slope, you can absolutely roll backward and that's bad, b) you can't really much ever land nose-down on a slope due to pitch down speed and rolling and visibility/tail rotor clearance/etc, and that's bad... SO... we had to land slope-to-side, which presents high risk of Dynamic Rollover. Either way, high slope landings are unwise and ill-advised.
• Grizzly-2 crash during initial instraction- Not entirely sure what happened here, but from my view in my cockpit, Grizzly-2 was yeeted from the ground cartwheeled through the sky like a tumbleweed before it's nonsurvivable crash and demise. No CSAR due to no contact with dead/respawned pilot/crew.
• Raven-1 hit and destroyed by AT-4 at marked LZ Springer, apparently blue-on-blue, virtually at the moment of touchdown. This did suck.

 

[Masnec.G]

Element Callsign: ATLAS-2
Element Leader: Corporal Masnec.G

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Private First Class Pierce.JA

Non-7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
CCWO J. Swan

Pros:

• Intense operation.
• Good amount of medical and surgeries
• Hot insert
• Good in team work

Cons:

• Movement chaotic making it difficult to follow.
• lack of idea what we are doing. Initial plan changed from defense to offense without clear communication through all elements.

 

[Davis.D]

Element Callsign: Chaos - 1
Element Leader: Sergeant Davis.D

7th Cavalry Personnel Within Element:
Corporal Kastor.K
Private Grey.C

Pros:

• Love the Hot LZ Landing, It doesn't happen often but when it does it sets the tone for the operation
• A lot of aggression and quick reactions to changing situations
• Sparrow was quick with attacks given what calls could be given
• It was great having help with CAS calls from Kastor.K and showing Grey.C what FAC entails
• Briefing and take off was very quick and very efficient

Cons:

• Initial insert with Grizzly-2 was not ideal causing boarded PAX to be immediately injured
• There were times when CAS calls were sloppy due to being in a gunfight and coordinating air
• 3/4 of the time could not spot Technical's and was spotted by Sparrow so the majority was given type 3
• Unfortunately, Raven was attacked by Blue causing massive delays
• Technical issues near the end led to Chaos 1/2 having to take over

 

[Rutkowski.P]

S1 Locked.


Assigned Houser.J for processing.

 

[Houser.J]

S1 Operations Processed