It's amazing what you can achieve when someone puts a loaded weapon into your hand.
This weekend I saw firsthand the difference between the youth of today and those of us with a more "aged" or mature disposition that had grown up in a much tougher regime.
First squad with me, Mad Mick was the pilot, "Bilbo" so called because of his height, Sham 2, younger, stronger but not as fit as The Sham (Squad 2), Rambo junior, a spit of the big fellah hisself complete with long flowing curly locks and bulging biceps, and myself. As usual we had arranged for accommodation in a local hostelry to maintain cover and arrived with about an hour to go before the assault was to begin. Second squad had made slightly better time , Tom (known as the Ram), The Sham (the eldest of the squad, a body building fitness freak), Davy (Slim guy, chemistry expert, didnt talk much), Aido (usually quiet but a tough nut to crack and soccer mad). The straggler, Liam, that we thought couldn't make it on time was already in position and had organised a quick meal before the transportation arrived.
What arrived to take us to the assault location was an ancient bus (or the remains of one) which rattled its way to the base camp reminiscent of something from a bad fifties B movie, shocks didn't exist and by the time we got there the nerves were strained from the constan ratlling and shaking our bodies had endured during this final stage of travelling to war.
After a final ration break (this could be the last meal for some of us and was approached with the gusto of men in line for the electric chair) we were finally kitted up and after a very brief introduction to the new prototype gun, we were kicked out into the staging area. There we met the other groups who had come together for these final major assaults. Four groups of ten came together and we were split into two forces. our two five man squads split up between the two, we were not used, however, to moving in such large groups as we now were part of. The other groups comprised greener younger men, we were by far the most seasoned group of warriors of the lot, many of us veterans of previous campaigns. We didn't like the feel of this. Bilbo had been left pale and slightly deaf, still hearing echoes of the corrugated steel which had been shot three times in quick succession approximately four feet from his head during the demonstration. He leaned over and whispered to me "jaysus, I'll never make it through this one". He had been separated into the other group from ours. "Christ man", I replied, "just use the young fellahs as cannon fodder, kick em out in front and you'll be fine", I could see that he couldn't hear me, he was lost in another world and he walked away to his men looking wan and pale.
For the first assault we were staging from a fortress type location, our primary objective was to take the village to the north west that we knew was the frontal base for the enemy. East of the village (our North-East)was the remains of a church (secondary objective) that we should take first to form a staging area for the main assault on the village. It had to be taken to allow firing solutions to provide cover for our flanking assault squads. At the very least it would prevent it's use as a sniper hole as it allowed an elevated aerial view of the complete area. Our supply train was directly to our east within easy reach, yet far enough from the action to allow munitions storage and a safe medevac area. After a few minutes to get our bearings the notice to attack came through and we were off. We split our force into four five man squads one stayed behind to take care of munitioons and to prevent a flanking rear attack, one was to try to flank the village moving westerly then north and finally to attack the village from the west. Our squad (We five remaining veterans stayed together) and another five man squad formed of the much younger warriors made our way north to the church.
It was quiet, too quiet. We hadn't met much in the line of resistance, one of the younger guys had to return to the base for medical attention, he hadn't learned to stay in cover and a stray bullet from very long range meant he had to return to base before he could come back to us to help with the main assault. We shimmied our way from tree to tree, pallet to pallet, barrell to barrel, quietly crawling through the undergrowth. We had the church in our sights but there wasn't any fire coming from that area. Finally we passed word to the remaining four of the young fellahs in the second squad to make their way forward attacking from the south but to wait for a signal from us. We'd come from the eastern flank and lay down a covering solution from the east to allow them to move up. When they got into place we would attack from both flanks and split their firepower. It was a simple but effective plan so we thought, they were usually the best. all went as planned, we had made our way up the east side, had laid down covering fire to allow the young fellahs to come up from the south. They covered the distances in a much quicker time, barely giving us time to pause for breath before we had to show ourselves as they gave the signal that they were in place and to start the assault. We attacked from the east, making almost three quarters of the way before a withering hail of bullets came at us from the direction of the church grounds. we were cut down like weeds, no drawing fire from our mates to the south, the fuckers lay in the long grass like lilylivered chickens and left us to die in the assault.
As it turned out three of the five of us received minor injuries during the church attack and were able to come in after some quick medical intervention to help mop up the last of the stragglers left after myself and mick had finally breached the building. We made our way out of earshot of the yungsters who came in after the shooting had died down and all decided that we could not depnd on them. We got notice from the main command that the assault on the village had been unsuccessful. The squads who had made their way there had been ambushed, being the green youngsters that they were and a new objective was in place instead. The enemy's command base had been relocated deeper into the forest and this was to be the location for a final all out assault. we were to join the other half of our team and attack this base. When we took the base we had to hold it until reinforcements arrived. After a quick smoke we broke out the last of the field rations and took what rest we could before the call came to move out. We reloaded and grabbed what spare ammo we could carry and after a quick mapping session with the field commander stealthily inched our way forward until we had the enemy base in sight. Our other group of veterans had split off at this stage and could not be seen in the murky light whcih was all that came through the foliage over head. Suddenly up ahead we heard a warning shot and all hell broke loose. We dived for cover but ahead of us the youngsters had scrambled behind any available tree that they could and stood there frozen like rabbits in front of headlights. We screamed at them to move forward, that they would get us all killed if they stayed in the cover of the trees but they refused to budge. Finally one of them got the balls to make a burst across a ditch but fell into the mud, his weapon lying broken four feet away from him and he refused to lift his head. He just lay there for a minute before the bilbo screamed " he's no fucking good to us, I'll fucking finish him" before pumping him in the head twice and sending him to heaven. This finally galvanised the youngsters into action and with a blood curdling scream, I saw Liam racing ahead of me on my left leading the yungsters in a charge before being cut down my what seemed like a hundred shots to the torso which exploded in a multitude of what looked like red paint to me throughmy sweat sodden eyes. Finally three of our veteran squad broke into the camp while I was busy taking out a very familiar looking sniper hidden high up in the trees. Now all we had to do was hold it.
A quick smoke break was all we had time for, we heard a whistle and then what seemed like an avalanche of the dregs of hell poured at us from the murk of the trees. What remained of our squad had found the best tree cover we could and would act as snipers covering as far as we could up the forest while the yungsters would stay in the base and defend, they were to replace us if we fell. Wave upon wave of attcks came The fog of war descended, you couldn't tell friend from foe, but out of the murk came our former comrades, in a flank attack, they had gone over to the other side. I cut down three of them with a triple taps from my gun before the remaining two dived into cover. Two of my squad had been cut down and I screamed for replacements from the yungsters in the base but to no avail, again the yellow bastards wouldn't budge and myself and Mick had to claw our way backwards picking off any enemy head we could see before making what would be our last stabd in the base. A final wave was coming and the reinforcements were not going to make it through in time. With blood curdling cries they came wave after wave of them, we cut them down and more came, we moved back, I saw mick go down, the back of his head a red gooey mess. My visor fogged up, the clanging of bullets hitting galvanised steel surrounded me, to my left one of the yungsters lay with his head between his knees his hands covering his ears, his broken gun lying at his side. Three of them came in together, The last thing I remember is bullets spraying and blood red spatters creating a red fog all around them, Rambo stood over me screaming "Come on Ye Baaaastards" and all he was missing was a bandolier belt draped over one arm as he sprayed bullets in all directions. That was before it all went dark......
I came to in the back of a tank being driven around by Tom the Ram who had earlier changed sides on us. We were going back to the bus to be driven into town and Tom was at the controls.
As I write this my two legs are stiff and weak, I'm having trouble walking, my back, my head and my legs are covered with blood red circles which are slowly turning black and green, BUT I've survived another stag party, at my age. Christ the paintballing was great but them fucking youngsters were useless, us auld guys had the balls to have a crack, they stayed there and shat themselves.
Tralee got painted red by the ten auld fellahs before retiring to bed at half three in the morning, stiff, sore, but in the knowledge that the young fellahs in the other three stag parties just didn't have the balls that we did........We enjoyed it immensely and we all agree that we'll do it again.
Heres the link
May god protect her, and Damn those responsible whatever they are, Human they ain't, when caught they shouldn't get humane treatment.
