During my second tour of Germany I was assigned to the 8th ID's Long Range Surveillance (LRS) detachment. In addition to our normal training evolutions we would occasionally get tasked to support the OPFOR at the Combined Maneuver Training Center at Hohenfels.
We looked forward to those taskings because it allowed us to work on some of the more esoteric parts of the LRS mission like building sub-surface hides (UGH!) and using Cache Reports. Usually, a team would be given another team's caches and the team would go to Hohenfels, emplace the caches, fill out the Cache Reports, and give the reports to the appropriate team. It was a simple system and it worked well. During internal AARs it was good to get feedback on how well you had done.
This time it was different. The OPFOR commander wanted to give his joes some training in caches so he coordinated with our CO to send our caches ahead and have the OPFOR emplace them. The 1SG offered to send a couple of us with the caches to help conduct the training. This offer was declined because the OPFOR CO said he had a couple of former LRS guys and they were proficient. Good enough, says we, and off go 6 teams worth of water, chow, and batteries to Hohenfels. We follow a couple of weeks later.
We get to Hohenfels and it's the same ol'- same ol': briefings, ROE, MILES draw, zeroing, WARNORDs, OPORDs and insertion. At the time, a LRS team was 6 guys and they carried 3-5 days of supplies with them. In an emergency, it can be stretched to 7 days, but it's a pretty thin margin. We didn't even think about stretching it because we always had our caches to fall back on.
The "war" starts and everything is hunky-dory at first. We're doing what LRS does: shadowing, infiltrating, reporting, and leaving the BLUEFOR wondering who the heck called that artillery strike. Day 4 dawned and I'm running low on batteries for the DMDG (Digital Magnetic Data Group or D-Mag for short. It was a burst transmission device. A message was encoded, typed in and burst out an HF - ham - radio, the PRC-104. Pretty primitive as I look back on it, but it was high speed in it's day.) We're also beginning to run low on chow, so the TL breaks out the cache reports and we move to our nearest cache.
We get to the area the cache is supposed to be in with no issues, skirting the perimeter of a BLUEFOR mech company that was laagered in. And then spend the next 4 hours looking for our stuff. No dice. So I establish comms and we report that we can't find our cache. What came back was in plain text, which was unusual, "Don't feel alone, the other team's are reporting the same thing." We were LIVID at how we had gotten screwed by the OPFOR. After fuming for a few minutes the TL, a rangy North Carolinian with bright red hair said, "I got an idea. Y'all ruck up."
We went back to the area where we had seen the Bradley company. We clover-leafed around their perimeter and determined that these guys were pretty good. They had thrown out some hasty wire and the joes had scraped out fighting positions. But there were gaps - gaps in the wire and gaps in their fire plan. We drifted through one of the gaps. Once we were inside the wire, the TL walked over to where a Soldier lay and quietly asked, "Where's the CO's track?"
The Soldier groggily answered that it was over to the right about 25 meters or so. Bear in mind, that it was 2 or 3 in the morning, pitch black and this guy had no NODs. So I didn't think anything less of this kid's abilities as a Soldier. We walk over to the CO's track and saw an individual with a handset jammed inside his K-pot (Unlike the line guys, EVERYBODY on the team had NODS.) The TL asks, "Where's the CO?"
"I AM the CO."
The TL's face broke into a snaggle-tooth grin, "Good to meet ya," he drawled and offered his hand, "We're the OPFOR LRS team that's been watching you for the last few hours or so."
The Mech CO jumped and went for his pistol. A couple of heads popped up to see what the commotion was about.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sir. Cool your jets. We got an offer for ya," The TL said, grin still firmly attached to his face.
"Look. We're not the regular OPFOR. We're here as augmentees. We trusted those (It sounded like "Buckhead," but I knew we were no wheres near Atlanta.) to put our caches in for us and they didn't. They left us out there flapping. So, we got no use for them now. They wanna play games with us? We're going play games with them. Here's the deal - you feed us, you water us and you got yourself a LRS team for the rest of your rotation."
"Why don't I just capture you and take your maps and overlays?"
"You can have our maps, for what little good it'll do you," I piped in, "And we don't use overlays."
"We can not only tell you where they're at, but where they're going to be and their routes," The ATL chimed in.
Then the 1SG came up, "This is BS. Get these jokers tied up and call it in." A couple of joes sprung up to do the 1SG's bidding.
"Not so fast, First Sergeant," the CO said. He looked at us hard for a long minute. "If you're effing with me, if this is your idea of a joke, there will be reprecussions that go beyond The Box."
"No joke, Sir," The TL said, "We got screwed over, so now we're going to screw back. Leb, give the man our SOI. As a sign of good faith." I handed over the Signal Operating Instructions, the list call signs, passwords and frequencies for a unit.
"First Sergeant, get these men some water and MREs."
"And batteries," I added.
"Batteries, too"
"How the eff did you guys get in here?"
He was looking at me, so I shrugged, "There's always a way in, First Sergeant. You just have to be patient enough to find it. Finding a way out...Now THERE's the trick." He just chuckled and shook his head.
After getting our resupply, we sat down with the company command group and went over last known positions of the OPFOR and what their OPLAN was.
We then established a comms schedule and an RV schedule with them and for the next ten days we sent bare bones/BS reports back to the OPFOR while providing intel and hip-pocket analysis of the OPFOR's movements and intent. Also for the next ten days, this young captain was always johnny on the spot. I'm certain his Battalion thought he was the second coming of Patton. The Company and Battlion received all the accolades Brigade and 3ID could shower them with.
As for us, we went back to Wildflecken carrying the secret smile of those who had poked the bear with a stick and lived to tell about it. At our AAR, we were asked how we managed to stay in the fight after the other five teams had to be withdrawn to be resupplied. We told them that we'd sneak into BLUEFOR company and battalion trains areas and take what we needed. We were given kudos for initiative and fieldcraft, but told that it wasn't a high percentage course of action in an actual shooting war. We agreed, but it worked in that one instance and we were pretty happy with the outcome.
We did learn what happened to our caches. They arrived at OPFOR HQ, but the cache training had been cancelled and the OPFOR hadn't bothered to tell us. So our stuff sat at their Battalion S4 for the entire rotation. Jackwagons.
A few weeks after the rotation, The BLUEFOR company commander called our CO and asked him if he could spare Team 2 for the day. Our CO agreed, but was puzzled why he wanted that particular team. The BLUEFOR guy explained he had seen us in Hohenfels and was impressed by the way we infiltrated into company laagers. He wanted us to give his NCOs and Officers a "What not to do" class on setting up a perimeter.
So we piled into the company van and took off for their Kasserne a few days later. When we get to the company area, the CO meets us and says, "We'll get to that class in a minute. We have a quick awards ceremony to knock out and we'll get to it. Y'all just hang out in the back."
The First Sergeant draws the company up and turns it over to the CO.
"Persons to be honored, POST." A pause. "Team 2, that means you."
We were shocked, to say the least. We hastily organized ourselves in march order - Senior Scout, TL, RTO (Me, at the time), Scout/Observer, Scout/Observer, and ATL - and posted ourselves in front of the CO.
The company XO began to read, "To all who shall see these presents, greetings..." as the First Sergeant and company clerk walked up to us. The clerk had a board in his hands with 6 green folders stamped with the US Army emblem in gold. The BLUEFOR Company Commander awarded us all with AAMs. Pretty effin' cool of him, I thought. As he was pinning on our AAMs he said with a smile, "I told you there'd be reprecussions, didn't I?"
The company was fallen out and we went inside their barracks where they had a party organized in the day room. Never did get around to giving that class on account of too much hefeweitzen.
