Operation East Wind 7 March 8-16 2014

Announcement:

Operation East Wind 7 dates and location have been set.  

When: March 8th - 16th 2014

What: Operation East Wind is a 9 day long 24 hour per day immersive milsim event set in the closing days of the Cold War.  From the moment you arrive till the moment you leave, you are surrounded by and living in the life of a soldier deployed on an alert in the Cold War.  

You may choose to be part of either the NATO forces or the Warsaw Pact with each side having it's own specific options,  requirements, advantages, and disadvantages.

At East Wind, you are involved 24 hours a day for the entirety of the event.

You will know the feeling of walking out on a multi day patrol, the sound of a truck delivering your hot food  (if you are lucky) and the sights and sounds of dark forest seemingly teeming with the enemy around your little patrol base in the black of night.  You will use night vision, you will use mines, you will ride in military trucks and armored personnel carriers, you will be supported by armor and you will use period correct comms equipment. You will know the boredom of a 03:00 TOC shift and the sinking feeling in your stomach when that shift suddenly STOPS being boring.   You will know the true value of a hot drink on a cold rainy day, you will learn to lament T-rations, you will know the joy of walking into the mess tent and smelling hot A-rations.   You will know how lonely the world can be when your little outpost is under attack and you know that the nearest help is way too far away.   You will know how piercingly bright a parachute flare is on a moonless night.  You will know the smell of a canvas tent on a sunny day.   You will know how nice and cozy a stove is on a cold wet day. You will know what it is like to transition from peacetime, to alert, to war.  


Who may participate?
Attendees must be 18 years of age or older unless pre-approved by event administration.    

How much does it cost?
The fee structure for Operation East Wind is broken into two categories:

The cost for participants attending for up to 4 total
days is $215.  For those attending from 5-9 total days the cost is $250.  All attendees are provided with all meals, including snacks and drinks for the duration of the time they are in attendance.   Additionally, attendees are allowed to check mission equipment out from the supply tents including correct night vision systems, flares, IR systems, Claymore and POMZ mines, radios, telephone systems etc.  

Sign up is now open and will close on Feb 1st, 2014.  At signup, a non-refundable deposit of $50 is required with the balance due on Feb 1st  2014.  

Where is East Wind 7 being held?
We are proud to announce that East Wind 7 will again be held at D-Day Adventure Park in Wyandotte, Oklahoma. No doubt, there are a great many of you who have played at D-Day before.  It is an amazing facility with a lot of really impressive infrastructure.    You might be tempted to think that you even know the D-Day Adventure Park pretty well...   You will be quite surprised to see how much more there is to that property than you ever imagined.   We will be operating on a 1000+ acre playing field with 45 miles of roads and trails.  There are towns, an airfield, steep hills, green valleys, streams, ponds, and lots upon lots of space.  If you have played at OK D-Day before you have probably seen a little bit of it but I assure you, it's just the tip of the iceberg.  

Why 9 days?

We run East Wind events for 9 days because in order to put together a quality event there is a certain minimum amount of time it takes to get everything all set up and settled in.   If this was a weekend event, we would spend all day and night Saturday setting up and getting everyone settled in and then all day Sunday endexing.   By running for 9 days we maximize our field time and get the most value out of our week's vacation time (or spring break for you guys in school).  If you cannot attend for the entire time, that's fine; you can attend for as much or as little as you can fit into your schedule.

Why this degree of insanity/attention to detail?  

Sure, we could camp in civvy tents instead of GP Mediums or real Soviet tents.  We could use a Ford Tempo with a plywood turret instead of a real Diamler Ferret.  We could move guys around in a short bed Chevy pickup instead of a M35A2, and we could certainly cook flapjacks on a 2 burner Coleman stove instead of using period correct field kitchens.   Where would the fun be in all of that?   At East Wind we seek to get everything right down to the smallest detail because this is how we immerse you into the event.  You do not attend East Wind, you are part of it, you are inside the world that we create for you, you can 'feel' this event.

Why the expense?
When you look at the cost remember that you are getting food included as well as the use of a lot of really top notch gear.  When we say food, we are not talking about just MREs or hotdogs cooked on a Weber grill. We have cook staff who are professionals in their field that are cooking nutritionally balanced meals that are also era and nationality correct. Doing this right is not cheap and we refuse to skimp on quality.  You could not eat at restaurants for a week on a $250 budget and get the quality of meals you will get at East Wind and that's before we even talk about the other stuff.  It is not an average game that a real BTR-152 comes down the path at you or that you get to face off against a real FV-432 APC with your RPG.  It is not an average game that you show up to the supply tent before your night mission and get Gen 2 and 3 night vision equipment issued to you. It's not an average airsoft game that sends you scrambling out of your camp when an AH-64 Apache shows up skulking around.  Yes, East Wind is expensive, but value wise, it is impossible to beat. Come and see, we'll make a believer out of you by day 1.  

Why should you choose to go to East Wind 7?

This one is easy.  Since the inception of this event our motto has been 'Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.'   You should be going to East Wind because you are looking for a challenge, an experience.   If you are looking at the full experience, you should be going to East Wind because you are ready to live an event 24/7. You should be going to East Wind because you have asked yourself, "Is East Wind right for me?" and said yes.  

Why should you NOT go to East Wind?  

If you think that it is a hassle to get the correct gear, if you are scared of the rain, if you are too proud to know when you need to learn something or if you are just looking for 9 days of solid "3,2,1, go"  speedball action you had better just stay home and play X-box.  East Wind will not be your thing.    We frequently say that "East Wind is not for everyone, we made it that way for a reason."   The world is full of events that are for everyone.  We choose to break the mold...

This event is not easy, we don't want it to be easy and if you are coming then you should not want it to be easy either.   We say this not to pass judgment on those who should not attend but to allow everyone out there to pass judgment on East Wind and decide if what we are doing fits with what you, yourself, want to do.  

What do I need to know to be successful at East Wind events?  

East Wind offers challenges unrelated to most airsoft events.  It naturally goes without saying that knowing a little bit about airsoft helps but far beyond that remember that you are living in the field and actually doing a lot more field craft type work at East Wind than you are likely to encounter at an average game.   You will likely find yourself adapting a lot better if you spend some time out in the woods in inclement weather since East Wind stays tactical regardless of weather conditions. knowledge of your equipment goes a very long way as well since you will be living and working in it 24 hour a day for 9 days.  Obviously, there are a variety of technical skills that are helpful to know as well which is why we run training events monthly covering a variety of skills that will make your East Wind experience more enjoyable as well as provide an online library of training materials in order to assist you or your group in training up for the event. Apart from that, the most important thing you need to know to be successful and have a good time at East Wind is how mentally tough you are.  If you are willing to give something 105% and not quit, this is the event for you.  It will blow your socks off and you will love every minute of it.  


East Wind isn't just for those in the US either. For several years now, we have had people join the East Wind community from outside of the US with an ever growing team heading down from Canada and players even coming across from Europe to take part in the experience.

It's probably not as difficult as you'd think and the community will try to assist where at all possible to ensure that those coming from afar can do so as smoothly as possible. If you have any worries or concerns, we should be able to answer all of your questions about coming to the US for East Wind, after all we've got attendees who have done it and can offer you the advice and assistance you need to make it happen.  English fluency is not a requirement.  We are an event set in Europe, working with different languages is part of what we do already.



If you would like more information about East Wind please feel free to visit our East Wind forums here: http://www.operationeastwind.com/forum/index.php

I hope to see some of you out there!  

Pictures speak a thousand words so here are a few photos from past East Wind events to give you guys an idea what we do out at East Wind.  



UK Infantry moves out with a FV-701 Ferret armored car on patrol.  One US squad holds a key intersection they will be passing through, another US squad has their right of line once they begin moving towards contact, a US M114 armored scout will accompany the Ferret as they screen ahead, while a West German unit stands ready to react if they hit contact they cannot handle.   Missions are in depth, planned well, and long duration.  


A West German Jager light infantryman prepares to step off at an East Wind training event.   He's carrying not only his ruck with the gear to sustain him for the next 24 hours at this winter event but also a SEM-52a radio (slung across his chest) and a Zeiss Orion 80-1 night vision unit (slung below the radio).  


Soviet motor recon troops make use of their BTR-40 to scan NATO rear areas on an offensive recon patrol.  The area they are overlooking is a 210 acre valley that is the primary infiltration route for NATO troops heading towards the border.   Figuring out the routes being used is the first step in being able to take action to disrupt NATO activities in the border region.    



An NVA (National Volks Army) patrol moves out on a snowy muddy morning during East Wind 3.  This was just the start for the days weather, by the end of the day there was an additional 4 inches of the white stuff on the ground.   They are cold, they are muddy, they are tired, but they are prepared.  We stay tactical 24/7 regardless of weather.  When you look at our PCI lists and wonder why we require so many things, this picture shows why...  



A US squad leader on duty in the TOC managing incoming radio traffic using period correct US comms gear.  He has his notepad out and is copying traffic as it comes in.  Once the message is copied, he'll decrypt it using the SOI cards hanging in front of him then either reply or take action as needed.  

This link takes you to a vid of Soviet troops using their R-159 radio to call their allies the East Germans after a successful assault to take a town.  Notice how the guy has a hard time with the map?  That's because the maps are not garden variety generic maps, they are exact replicas of the proper Soviet pattern maps and are different than the US maps he worked with in his US Army service.  


Soviet and East German troops load up in a pair of UAZ-469 utility vehicles for trip forward.  These little trucks are the workhorses of the Warsaw Pact motor pool delivering troops and supplies 24/7 regardless of weather.


A Canadian Forces soldier carefully removes a PNM-2 mine (Made from a Madbull Powdershot mine) from a section of the border.  The night before, his unit discovered this Warsaw Pact minefield the hard way, now they are back to get these things cleared out so that nobody else has to learn the same lesson.    You can see that he has carefully cleared out around the mine and probed under it to try to mitigate the risk of anti-handling devices.  This is nerve racking work.  


A US Squad Leader, exhausted from an all night patrol contemplates the fact he has to push on to assault a key town towards the end of East Wind 5.  6 hours later, he was one of the last troops to die of radiation poisoning, having clung hard to his little toe hold.  Here are vids of both Warpac and NATO troops expiring from radiation:


An NVA patrol, just returned from a cross border mission, is debriefed by the Soviet HQ staff.  Notice the wierd blue interior of the tent?  That's actually a period correct Soviet tent they are in.  The map they are pointing at is a near perfect replica Soviet style map of the AO they are working in.


A Soviet patrol prepares to move out on a night recon mission.   East Wind runs 24 hours a day.


A Soviet soldier looks out into the failing light of the day from the ruined building his section holds.  He fought hard for the town he's in right now and he's got a long night ahead of him making sure he keeps it.   He know's NATO will come tonight, he know's there will be blood sweat and tears before the night is through, it's just a matter of when.   When the next dawn broke over an even more battle scarred town this soldier was one of a pitiful few live Soviet troops that pulled out of town.  They had held the line.


A Soviet Soldier during the last battle of East Wind 5 races along the edge of a burning forest to get himself into an assault position for the final push.   The final battle was set in the closing stages of a large scale nuclear exchange so we worked with the local volunteer fire department to do a controlled burn of the site the same day.   The effect was staggering.  


A US Army soldier at a OP prior to the beginning of hostilities takes notes on the activities of the East German border guards posted on the opposite side of the border from him.  Do they have any routines?  How often are they fed?  Do they have a supply cache nearby?  Are they avoiding any particular areas on their side of the border?   What are they using to communicate with higher?   Do they appear to be well organised?  How does their morale look?   Less than 24 hours later anyone who did not know why this sort of thing matters probably wasn't alive to know it.  



East German Grenstruppen, growing progressively more bold and provocative walk literally right up to the border and examine NATO positions with binoculars.  A Canadian Forces trooper moves up opposite of them just outside the concertina wire on the NATO side of the border zone matching them move for move.  The rest of his section is positioned, watching and waiting.  As the afternoon wore on, tensions continued to rise until a NATO officer who had grown a little too accustomed to walking up to the border and yelling at the East Germans took a 7.62 round to the chest.  Moments later, the two border guards seen here were riddled with 5.56 and the Soviet troops who were driving up to the border in their APC to show the flag suddenly had an entirely different mission.  


A US soldier takes a moment to brush his teeth after a mission.   You're out there for 9 days...  That means eating, sleeping, pooping, washing and shaving in a combat environment.  


Canadian Forces patrol moves out on a dark moonless night.   50% of East Wind happens at night so you soon grow used to trying to pick out what the blurry images in your night vision are.

This may be a stupid question, but I'm curious what happens when you "die".
And also, the Guys observing on the border, does this mean the first couple of days is spent patrolling and waiting for an actual incident to escalate to a full blown conflict?

Not a stupid question at all.

First off here's the full rule set. That will tell you everything but to directly answer the hit/kill question:

You get hit, you go down, dead rag comes out. You check your watch. If someone can get to you in 5 minutes, you can be mediced back in.

Scenario 1

You battle buddy Phil manages to work his way over to you, medics you, and you are back in.

Scenario 2

Phil is busy, or perhaps you got hit in a hard to get to spot. After 5 minutes bleed out time you are officially dead and head off to respawn at camp. Once you get to camp, you check in with the TOC who notes the time and puts your return time on the status board. You are now out for 2 hours. You can do non-combat related tasks with your time but honestly, we almost always use dead time to get some much needed sleep.

Scenario 3

Phil gets whacked 1.6 seconds after you, the rest of your squad gets smoked less than 3 seconds after him. The enemy comes around, checks to see who is important, decides that you are since you happen to have a radio and medics you back to take as a POW. Now they cart you back to their sinister liar where once you check in with them you are detained for 2 hours. We use the term detained lightly since in all reality, you are just staying as a guest in their camp and get to look at and experience everything that they have going on on their side. Most guys want to get snapped up as a POW at least once just to see all the cool stuff so it's a good time.

Scenario 4

Phil medics you, then you get whacked again. The fight comes to an end but fear not the squad leader sent up a 9 line and there is a front line ambulance on it's way to get you. If they manage to scoop you up and get you back to camp in less than 30 minutes then you're only out for 30 minutes instead of 2 hours.

As for the border watching thing:

Yes, East Wind always starts off as an alert that transitions into a war.

That means:

You spend time prepping your positions, placing wire obstacles such as this C-wire or putting in mine fields.



You spend plenty of time watching the border, seeing what the enemy is up to on their side, trying to determine routes they are using, patterns etc.



Laying in commo wire and setting up all you commo systems. (The West Germans seen here laid out 4 kilometers of telephone wire last year giving them a real edge on being able to keep in touch from the far flung reaches of their patrol area.)


Familiarize yourself with the equipment you'll be using. (most of us do not have a BTR-40 at home to drive)


Conduct OJT to make sure everyone knows what they are doing when the time comes. Here Soviet section leaders are learning from an instructor who teaches at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth.

Generally by Sunday we go goggles on and the "war" starts sometime after that.

Dude that is what true milsim is.  Most guys say they want milsim but do not relaize that in the Army somebody is a cook and mechanics and and and on and on all those boring jobs you really don't want.  

NOT EVERYBODY CAN BE A DOOR KICKING OPERATOR.  

So East Wind is true milsim expect to be bored at times.

Sorry End Rant

Dang I so want to go to this but do not really see it happening.

And sometimes the door kicking operator gets shot in the chest by the cook when they try to crash the dinner delivery.

Don't mess with the cooks.


MadDog, head NATO cook. Really does spend almost all of his time cooking, goes out on food delivery runs and seems to always massacre any enemy that comes by. Then serves pineapple upside down cake...


Misha, Warsaw Pact cook at East Wind I. Also not someone you want to run into on a dark night in the forest. (Not a bad cook either)

Boredom is not really much of an issue. We tend to do things with a sense of purpose and given the amount of terrain we are working over, you tend to stay pretty busy trying to keep situational awareness out there.

Not that much time to get bored. If you are bored, you should probably be sleeping, eating, shaving or pooping instead of just sitting there.

Rock5 wrote:Dude that is what true milsim is.  Most guys say they want milsim but do not relaize that in the Army somebody is a cook and mechanics and and and on and on all those boring jobs you really don't want.  

NOT EVERYBODY CAN BE A DOOR KICKING OPERATOR.  

So East Wind is true milsim expect to be bored at times.

Sorry End Rant

Dang I so want to go to this but do not really see it happening.

I realize. I've never been a fan of someone saying they want milsim. In my opinion, your milsimming if when you get shot, you are done with the game for good. This wouldn't be much fun would it? So one could argue that even their game is not Milsim.

No wait, what if we said that if you get shot you can never play airsoft again!

That would be even more Milsim!

The "sim" part of Milsim is for simulation which is what most Milsim guys are going for.

The biggest direction we try to push the experience with respawn rules is this:

Medic system in place so that the battlefield favors those who stay tight, work as a group, and retain possession of the battle space at the conclusion of a fight.

Respawn system that insures that nobody killed in one gunfight is able to return to the same gunfight. Ever been to a game where you shoot the fat kid with the Multicam boonie cap then 10 minutes later you shoot the fat kid with the Multicam boonie cap then 10 minutes later you shoot the fat kid with the Multicam boonie cap then 10 minutes later he finally gets you? Does it matter that you had your act together? Does it matter that you took your objective quickly with minimal losses and dug in fast and well? Does it matter that you have interlocking fields of fire, good comms, claymores in place and a plan? Not if the enemy’s respawn point is 200 meters away and they have an endless supply of fat kids with Multicam boonie caps…

Medevac system in place so that the battlefield favors those who can communicate effectively and can control their logistics.

The end result is not a 1 for 1 thing it's just the best way to work it in order to get the closest result we can while still keeping it simple.



For what it is worth, getting shot is not the end in real life either. Trust me, I have been shot in real life and I am still here.

I was not trying to degrade the cooks it is just a crap job in the Army, I knew some that could hump with the best of the Combat Arms guys.  If you give me two hours of downtime I will be bored but quickly go to sleep.  

I would really like to go to this event hopefully when everything comes together Eastwind will still be around.  

I really like the respawn situation you have going.

Oh I didn't figure you were knocking the cooks, it's just sort of funny how vicious some of the cooks are at East Wind. I am pretty sure that if Mad Dog (NATO cook) had an negligent discharge it would probably end up killing an enemy scout. He's just one of those guys who can drive off somewhere with an M151 full of grilled cheese sandwiches, a M1911a1 and 7 rounds of ammo and still end up being dangerous.

On the two hours thing, trust me, you'd sleep, we all do...

Eastwind is a fabulous adventure and the Matterhorn of airsoft, the most 'realistic' (and bone tiring) airsoft event you will likely ever attend. Everyone should attend once if they can swing it.

Good to hear from you Fallout!

I appreciate the good words.

It's been a busy season working on East Wind projects. Any of you who know an East Wind attendee have probably clued in on the fact that to many of us, this is not a once a year event but a year round obsession. At my house for instance, we rarely put in less than 40 hours a week working on East Wind stuff. On dedicated work weekends, it is not unusual for us to get up at 06:00 and work all the way round till 21:00 on projects hit the sack then do it again the next day... We stretch our goals then drive hard to meet them. Anyhow, without further ado here's what's new since July:

NATO Forces:  


6001 at East Wind 6

M151a1 6001 is my personal mutt.  Some of you probably don't know me enough to know what a nut case I can be about gear but this is a good example.   6001 was at East Wind last year where it did quite well.  I drove it around basically all summer and everything was fine apart from the fact it was getting a little hot on extended high speed runs most likely due to the MASSIVE amount of grass seed that was lodged in the radiator.   I set to work to take care of a few issues related to that and 1.6 cups of mission creep later ended up basically overhauling the entire engine and changing basically every single bearing, joint and seal on the thing.   Should be pretty good now I think...  


M151a1 6007 was almost ready for East Wind 6 but ended up being too much to take on at the time.   Gallion bought it earlier this year and has taken on the overhaul.  His attention to detail and desire to have it be as nice as he can within his limited budget has lead to a very serious structural overhaul with the help of his very capable stepdad Ed.   He's now got the straightest and strongest mutt of all out here.   Just need to pull out and overhaul the front suspension system get the brake system all installed, and wrap up some wiring issues and we'll be ready to rock the block with this one.  


M151a1 6008 belongs to Switzer down in South Texas.  Over Thanksgiving weekend Curfman, Z, and I made a run down to help Switzer get the restore of this one kicked off.  After plenty of bodly welding getting everything structurally sound, Z got a coat of MERDC 4 color temperate Europe paint on it.  Still have some work to do on this guy but it shouldn't take all that much to have it up and rolling along.  


M35A2 6015 got a set of new fancy radial tires.   These are a MASSIVE improve for the deuces and doa  great deal to reduce drive fatigue on long convoys down and back from East Wind.  


M35a2 6019 is already converted to single rear wheel configuration.  David should have the 11.00-20 radials rounded up for it pretty soon then it too will be a radial truck.


M151A2 6021 got all of it's PMCS work done and it is currently deployed to D-Day ready for East Wind 7.  


m151a1 6022, long the red headed step child, has a new owner now in David who is hard at work on the pieces he is able to get hauled back to KC to work on.   Shorty, as soon as either 6037 or 6007 clears out, 6022 will be in the depot getting some major body overhaul work done.  We may yet see this one in time for East Wind 7.  


M35A2 6025 got an M66 gun ring installed on it.  Now we can finally keep those pesky Hinds at bay.  


M151A2 6033 got all finished up earlier this summer and caught a ride out west to Ft. Riley on the back of 6015.


At the Soldier Fort Stagg quickly set to work proving that normal cars are for squares.  6033 has been racking up the miles out there as both a daily driver as well as roaring all over the ranges amazing Stagg and others out there with what an M151A2 can do.  


M718 6037, our front line ambulance, is nearing completion.  Here Curfman shows off the new (old) ambulance top.  


The biggest stumbling block for this guy was it's transmission.   It had a bad input shaft bearing which has now been replaced.  Just waiting on a seal kit and we'll have it all together and ready to stick back in.  


M882 #707 just joined the family.  It's an ex-Missouri National Guard radio truck that was bought by Ready for East Wind duty.   As is usually the case with the M880 series, it needs remarkably little work to get into good order and should be all set to go fairly quickly.  


Up north in sun baked blistering sands of of southern Manitoba, Rob Bye set to work building a pair of Carl Gustav launchers for our Canadian contingent.



Down south in the frozen pine forests of South Louisiana Mercy set to work getting resin/rubber SA-80 bayonets cast for our UK guys.   You cannot be commonwealth infantry without bayonets you know!

Meanwhile over on Warpac:  


Stagg's Gaz-69M has been carted up to Wamego for service work.  This one really is in pretty decent shape so it ought to turn around really fast.  


In keeping with the general trend to containerise more in order to reduce set up times.  The Warpac has put together a new containerized supply shelter.


Warpac troops really got to work hard on drive train maintenance for their smaller vehicles this year.  For once, in a long time, it is looking like we may successfully deploy ALL of the Warpac vehicles next year!   Good work guys.  


The BTR-40 spun a rod at East Wind 6 and has, over the summer and fall, been getting it's engine overhauled.  Here Art pressure washes out the engine bay prior to it getting a new coat of paint.  





Trucker and I took a weekend and did some long haul trucking pulling the Robur LO-2002 from DDAP down to Mobile Alabama for Doorman to begin overhauling.  Lots of little stuff to do on this one but none too crazy.  Besides, I think Doorman will probably be able to fund the entire overhaul by selling off the acorns that were stashed in it by pack rats over the years.  




The SPW-152 is even moving along.   It's engine and transmission are installed.  The custom drive shaft is being built right now that goes between the transmission and the transfer case.   Once that's on there, it will move under it's own power.  We still need to get some of the this and that stuff taken care of like plumbing in the cooling system, adding some wiring and installing an air compressor for the air brakes but regardless, this big guy is well on it's way.  


East Wind is a very recon oriented event.  The two sides literally get ZERO intel from admin and have to rely on their own assets to determine what is going on in the field.   That puts a lot of value on good optics.  Good fortune smiled upon our East Germans as a supplier here in the states put the VERY high quality original East German Zeiss binoculars on sale for $90 a pair (they are usually closer to $300)  Many of our East German sprung into action scarfing them up.   These binos should help a great deal in the field at East Wind 7 and beyond.  


Not to be outdone by last years introduction of the tripod mounted MG-3 by the West Germans Coop out in Jersey has been getting a PKM set up for tripod operation as well.  In normal airsoft a tripod mounted medium machine gun is not match for a little fat kid with an MP5 and a high cap but when you start running 24/7, a medium machine gun quickly proves it value in the defense since you can preplan your fires and effectively support nearby positions that you cannot even see.