Friendly Fire

[Edric]

Friendly Fire... We have all experienced it. Most of us have done it. Why does it happen?

 

I like to break it down into a few catagories.

1. Miss-identification: We've all done it. We see someone whom we think is on the enemy team.

 

2. Spray and Pray: Most commonly done by inexperienced people who are running and shooting without regard for what is in front of them.

 

3. On Purpose: A good portion of us may have done this as a joke, some do it maliciously. Also known as ghosting.

 

So what can you do to prevent shooting your team mate? The big things are communication and skill. Look at your targets, know your team mates. Take aim, the couple seconds you take to confirm your target may save your team from being short. Avoid spraying into the bushes. Know where your team is.

[Phoenix]

This is a good piece of information to provide backdrop to Iron Spider's complex uniform divisions that do include overlaps (Woodland with cover on the US team, Woodland without cover or shemagh on the OPFOR).

 

Remember folks, situational awareness is key to success on the field, both in the real world, and on the airsoft field. Know where your team expects you to be and keep them appraised of changes as they occur on the field. This is the core of communications as Edric pointed out.

 

Take a breath before shooting. that breath is all it takes for you to properly recognize your target and know if its friend or foe.

 

To quote James Dean (well paraphrase): "Take it easy...cause the life you save might be mine."

[Tank]

i say trigger control is a big thing identifying target and for someone to prevent being shot my big thing is that facing towards the enemy not towards friendlies if that makes any sense.... and i agree with the on purpose part Ghosting ive dealt with some malicious operators who want to have your kill or think that you are stealing their kill. there are also those for fun such as putting one shot in chris (when he is marshalling) but i think trigger control and target recognition is the most important things. that has save me from shooting a lot of team mates i am sad to say though that i have shot my first friendly on this last mission day sorry zach.

[Phoenix]

Red team appreciated your contribution to our victory ;)

[Tank]

yeah that was my first oopsie of my airsoft career....

[Tank]

also i think another thing that doesn't help this is team uniforms. We all wear woodland and for the most part we all wear hats of some sort making it difficult to differentiate and i know that is the reason we ask operators to bring a shemagh for oposing teams

 

Edric: i am glad you post discussions like these it is always interesting to hear about what other people think about the subject. You always seem to post things that are common on the battlefield and yet uncommonly posted in discussion. i like that and thank you

[Edric]

Thanks Tank. I like reading the discussions.

[Stephen Patti]

I know that I'm not as experienced as you guys. I've only been playing about 2 1/2 years. Sometimes I have problems with being shot at by a team mate and then making the mistake of "Hey he's shooting at me!!!! He must not be be on my team." Then I return fire... and you pretty much knows how it turns out. There are several solutions to this problem. Please correct me If I'm wrong.

1. Smaller teams. We know for sure who is on our team.

2. Drastically different uniforms. I know everyone wears camos of some sort and loves them. But... we should have guys wearing street clothes. It would be way easier to distinguish. I know no-one wants to give up their invisibility, but it is one answer.

3. And finally the one I don't like the most but it will work: wearing different colored armbands to determine sides. And of course they can't be red because they will get mistaken for dead rags. And they also give away your position. Wearing an orange armband is like saying "Here I am! SHOOT ME!!!"

Hope I maybe helped a little...

[Edric]

Interesting thoughts Steven. On Draex field, for missions days, we keep it pretty casual as far as uniforms requirements and divide it up between Caps/Covers v.s. Shemags. Though, generally speaking, even in our missions days we tend to prefer a more mil-sim environment. That being the case, we generally recognize the fact that most of the enemies our military has faced and will face have a similar general style uniform. We have tried the Sandys v.s. Woodland split in the past, and found that invariably the Woodland team was 3 to 4 times the size of the Sandys team. We've tried the colored tape method as well, and have found that it eliminates the "real" feeling. So, it's a tricky one to be sure.

During our scripted OPs, we generally assign specific people to a specific uniform, with some sort of distinguishing feature to help for identification. But even then, some of the uniforms are very similar. This is where team communication and organization come into play. It's easier to keep track of a team that communicates well together and stays in squads.

Keep the discussion going though. It's why I start these things.

[Northman]

Having a  call and response routine is a good option.  the military has used them for years.  I think we have all seen Saving Private Ryan.  there is a great scene there where Paul Giamaitti is yellling "THUNDER, THUNDER or we will fire on you"  Yes it gives away your position, and yes if someone was not paying attention at the beggining of the match they wont know the correct response.  But if your working as a team they guy calling out the dosent have to expose himeself, and when the unidentified player dosnt use the correct response you know for sure that you can begin to engage an unfriendly target. 

 

It can even be as simple as "Blue Team?" with a thumbs up or a reply call of "Blue Team" 

 

And if you check your target,  cant ID it, asked other players near by if there are friendlys about, have used a call and response, and still cant figure out who it is.  Shooting them might not be a bad idea.