Small Unit Training Day
Oft derided on the internet as "playing dress up in the woods", being able to plan and work with others in a threatening situation was once a skill all men in the community were expected to possess.
The goosebumps ran up my neck as I read the Op Order one more time. It had been a while since we trained, lives get busy, kids have activities, and a change of land ownership a few years back had removed access to the one spot that offered something the others did not, privacy. But as I final checked gear the night before I was grateful, these once polished skills were about to be a little less rusty!
OP ORDER
Situation (fictional):
- Enemy: Hostile actors associated with the group "Climate Justice Now" (CJN) have been setting up Meshtastic LoRa relays on high points to provide secure communications to their teams planning and conducting sabotage operations against civilian infrastructure in the area. The abandoned fire lookout tower at 10T XXXXXXXE XXXXXXXN represents a naturally desirable location for such an emplacement, though it is unknown if there is any activity currently at this location. If in use, the CJN would be expected to place battery banks, solar panels, and electronics devices at the location, and may man or patrol the location periodically.
- Own Forces: We are part of a larger group whose goal is to degrade CJN operations within our AO by sending out small reconnaissance teams to identify vulnerable points in CJN communications and supply lines for subsequent exploitation.
Mission (real):
Document any evidence of activity IVO tower at 10T XXXXXXXE XXXXXXXN while avoiding contact.
Execution:
- Intent: Recon the assigned area for activity without being exposed and submit report of findings to base camp NLT 1800L/0100Z in support of ops planning that will occur based on that report.
-CONOPS: The team will insert into the area in vehicles under the pretense of a trail restoration crew to a vehicle rally point near 10T XXXXXXXE XXXXXXXN before approaching and surveiling the site on foot, making use of opportunities to practice LDA crossings and patrol formations as the terrain allows. Team will utilize earth tone civilian clothes and be armed with rifles and 3+ magazines each, radios, observation tools, and associated gear for cold weather patrol.
Admin/Logistics:
- Medical: All team members will carry an IFAK and conduct self aid / buddy aid as appropriate, casualties will be taken to the vehicle rally point and evacuated from there to receive higher level care.
-Food/Water: All team members will carry water and the ability to safely source additional from the landscape. All team members will carry the equivalent of 1 MRE in rations of choice.
-Resupply: Additional medical gear, water, ammunition, and food will be stored in the vehicles if needed.
Command / Signal:
- XX will assume overall command and team lead of Bravo team. XX will be 2nd in command and team lead of Alpha.
- Radios will be programmed to XXX.XXX Mhz analogue. Alt: XXX.XXX Mhz.
- Challenge and reply: Iron / Maiden
- Base camp will be listening for report on X.XXX Mhz @ 1500 on the WF.
Convoy
The initial rally point was in town, where a handful of guys in hi-vis jackets and hunter orange caps passed out maps, checked radios, and hashed out the order and procedure for passing as a group through the locked gates ahead. 15 minutes later we were gone.
The route passed by some popular trailheads, into logging company lands, and after a few miles of roads only the braver mountain bikers travel to an area little traveled on a Sunday. Once stopped and tucked away up a road nearly choked with scotch broom, we dismounted and set watch for a few minutes to take in the surroundings. It was quiet. It was time to gear up.
On The Move
Casting aside the hi-vis clothing and donning a camo BDU top, chest rig and rifle made the transition quick, and soon we were picking our way south, single file up the old logging road. At a set of ponds we turned west and encountered our first surprise. Having crossed onto a different set of lands, it was readily apparent that a good deal of effort had been undertaken to make the roads impassible. Significant numbers of small trees and brush had been cut to fall over what was left of the old logging road and deny passage to all but the most determined. We persisted, and gained significant experience setting security while half the team negotiated obstacles. It soon became a rhythm, and we were heartened when the obstacles became more dispersed as we continued onward.
But after achieving an objective near another set of ponds, we turned to head uphill only to find that the path (really more of a game trail) through the grove of reprod we intended to cross was covered with even denser cut tree than what we had experienced so far. Avoiding this intentional obstacle was deemed wise, and we headed for a knob and saddle that would allow us to hook around and toward our objective.
The off trail terrain is dense in the PNW, in conditions that are not too far removed from rain forest status, but we have seen far worse and eventually made it to the knob, nick named “bird kill” thereafter due to the feather pile of what might have been a ring tailed dove near the top. On the way we noted 3 distant gunshots, and a chainsaw running somewhere to our southeast.
From there we crossed the saddle and found ourselves on a road bed that wasn’t on the map, but had also been subjected to the same tree cutting area denial efforts as the others. Putting in a halt away from the road bed we assessed that with 3.5 more hours of sunlight, of which we could expect 2 more hours before visibility under the forest canopy became degraded, we were better off turning back if we expected to navigate back along a different route than we had come in on for security purposes.
Having dropped back down the knob we side hilled into a ravine heading roughly northeast, and put in another halt to chart azimuths and do a team water and gear check. The dense woods play tricks on your sense of direction. Up on the knob the sun was visible through the trees as it sank towards the west but down in the ravine a near uniform gloom was all that could be gleaned from the winter afternoon sky. Some felt the ravine was taking us south, but the compass showed northeast. After some quiet discussion the team continued down the ravine until some ponds confirmed that we were now a few hundred meters southeast of the vehicles. Handrailing the ponds to the west, we slowly climbed back up to pop out back onto the overgrown road we had parked on, about 150 yards from the trucks. After a pause to listen and a quick assignment of responsibilities one team went in, covered by the other, to clear the area around the vehicles before all were called in to gear down.
As equipment was stowed and the “trail crew” appearance restored, one guy ruefully joked that it was a good day even though we failed in our mission. This prompted some disagreement from others, so we drafted our SALUTE report as a group to determine if our patrol had generated useful information for the situation given in the Op Order.
SALUTE
Size: Unknown, but level of effort indicates multiple individuals or more.
Activity: Access denial efforts on road beds and trails using cut trees and brush to impede foot or mounted entry to the area.
Location: All easily passable routs to the South and East of lookout at 10T XXXXXXXE XXXXXXXN.
Unit/Uniform: Unknown
Time: Cut wood and buds on felled trees indicate that activity has been ongoing within the last month.
Equipment: Chainsaws and vehicles.
Conclusion
The report raises more questions than it answers, as is often the case with intelligence, but the mission was to check for activity and we found it. It was a great exercise in planning and executing in a manner that represents some very probable requirements in an unstable area. Changing profile to match the environment, hiding capabilities, conducting clandestine movement to your goal, whatever that is, and then backing out and hiding in plain sight again. This isn't getting dressed up in all you amazon airsoft gear to take selfies, these are the skills of the guerilla.
“Be the reason the woods are haunted” - Clay Martin