Night Raid!

Played a game of Black Ops Saturday night with Patrick. Two 4-man JTF2 teams were tasked to snatch a Taliban commander hiding in a village. The raid takes place at night, so stealth rules and sentries are in play. Just pretend all the pictures are that livid green colour from Night Vision Gear.

Table layout. Canadians enter lower left. Target in house with red poker chip

Crossing the irrigation ditch

They had been inserted a kilometer away. WO Stan Uchanski had picked an approach route that have them some cover among the grape mounds but passed the fewest compounds. The last thing he wanted was a dog giving them away.

Carefully they all crossed the ditch. Pete on the SAW covered them as everyone scrambled up.

A splash and muffled "fuck"
"Damn it Carl, keep it quiet."

Everyone gathered in the shadows of an orchard wall. Stan sent Pete and his no. 2 across the road to cover the final advance from some ruins. He had just joined them among the rubble when the sputtering of a small engine and the blob of a weak headlamp made them all hug the shadows tighter and hold their breath.

Random civilian

After the motorcycle passed, Stan keyed his mic. "Mike? Go."
"Roger.Sending."
Several muffled shots dropped the two closest guards. One fell with a loud groan and clatter as he dropped his AK.

Assault team advancing

One of the other guards started shouting. A Taliban came out of the left hand building, spraying bullets from a PKM LMG.

Marksman takes out sentries

Pete responded with the C9, dropping him in the archway. Carl and Tom ran up to put a couple of grenades followed by bursts from their C7 rifles into the room, chopping down a section of Taliban as they were still grabbing their weapons.

Clearing the first building

Other fighters boiled out of the target compound though. Bullets snapped around them. Carl and Tom were quickly knocked down. Turbaned fighters shouldering RPG launchers appeared on the roof and at the corner. Pete and Mike quickly took them out, covering Stan as he dashed over to his stricken team members.

Man down!

Uchanski tore open his first aid kit as bullets ripped up the air around him. Their target, the Taliban commander jumped into the pickup truck and gunned the engine. Sands flew as he backed up narrowly missing some of his guards.

Firefight in the street

Uchanski yelled at his RTO, who was carrying a grenade launcher. "Sparky! Take him out!" A fragmentation grenade exploded against the front tire, flattening it, damaging the engine and shattering the side window.

The C9 team joined in, spraying the truck with 5.56mm rounds. Return fire hit them both, but too late, the Taliban commander was bleeding out in the cab of the smoking truck.

At this point both sides made a hasty disengagement. Sparky yelling the 9-Liner into the radio and arranging for a helicopter extraction as they carried their casualties out of danger.

Tom was VSA when they got to the Blackhawk. By the time they had returned to KAF cellphone chatter picked up by a listening post confirmed that the target was dead along with half of the Taliban cell.

For extreme coolness and bravery under fire while rescuing his wounded comrades which contributed to the success of the mission, WO Uchanski was awarded the Military Medal.

It was a tight game. I don't know if the Canadians could have done better.