The Virtues of Full Face Protection

[MarlFox]

Earlier this summer, I had an inclination to play some CQB. Innocent enough,right? Mr Smiley ( my training knife) and I hadn't been able to inflict very much terror in the open terrain of Draex field or elsewheres. So the waiver was signed, the MC 51 was loaded up, and the adrenaline high began. The three of us ( gun,knife,and happy me) were all feeling quite pleased with ourselves. I'd racked up a whopping TWO knife kills (as all you veteran operators know, one is hard enough) ... but that was not satisfactory. No. I just had to make number three. A ghastly mistake,as we shall soon find out.

Stealthily crouching behind a box, the intended victim approached my location at 12 o'clock. He was armed with an Israeli Galil, (the stock folded in) and completely oblivious to the traumatizing death that awaited him. Laying aside the SMG, out came Mr. Smiley. He was coming closer...

"Wait for it" , I told myself, "he's not close enough, you'll get yourself shot !! "

Just DO IT before he sees you !" The less sensible part of my brain said.

Throwing aside my distinct premonitions aside, I pounced upon my unsuspecting target.

Unsuspecting as he may have been, his reflex was faster than a Bugatti Veyron. I had underestimated my opponent. As my blade stroked upwards towards his torso, he whipped his Galil into action. I heard a shot... and felt... something. The whole thing happened in the space of about three seconds. I was surprised when he told me my epic knife kill was for naught, because he had shot me. I despise people calling their hits on me, but then I reached up to my face.... and felt the blood running down. The shot was on the left side of my face,beneath the edge of my mouth.

I continued to play that round,blood seeping from my face,and didn't look at the wound till it was over.Every Operator on my team who seen me would stare ,and ask if i was ok, so I knew it must be bad. After a brief examination,I concluded it was certainly the worst airsoft inflicted wound I'd taken, but I honestly didn't think it was all that gruesome or distorting.
And I certainly didn't suspect that I had .20 of plastic embedded in my face.

It took an abnormally long while for the wound to heal, but that didn't concern me like it should have. Eventaully it scarred, and I thought that was it. But a few months later, I started feeling this weird ,hard ...thing under my lower lip. I could feel it from both the inside and the outside. Scar tissue? No,it was too symetrical. Do I seriously have a bb stuck in my face?! Sure enough, a dental X ray confirmed it. I had become a sort of airsoft Andrew Jackson. I thought of leaving it in, but the possibilities for it to migrate, build up excess tissue, and cause other such problems later on convinced me to have it removed. I've never had any surgical procedures performed on me in my years of existence. But today,that is about to change, as I go into surgery this morning to have the projectile taken out . I also would never have assumed the cause of such an operation would be airsoft.

Or is it? One could easily take a story like this,and use it bash the sport, and say airsoft guns are "unsafe". Well, that just isn't the case. I was trying to be a boss, and did something that my instincts told me not to do. The OPERATOR was being unsafe, the weapon couldn't help itself. I am truly grateful that my opponent was controlled ,and only fired a single shot, or it could have been much more ugly. You could say the moral of the story here is to wear full face protection. I think although that is highly recommended,it's more than that. The bottom line is that for airsoft to be safe, YOU must practice safety. We as human beings generally get a certain feeling when we're about to commit an epic attrocity of stupidness. DO NOT ignore that feeling. Don't try and whip around and shoot the person who's offering you a bang kill. Don't go over and pick up an unexploded Thunder B grenade (YES, I've seen that happen). Don't charge people with your spring pistol. You get the idea. While it is true that proper gear insures a certain amount of safety, it is ultimately up to you, the operator, to act with control, intelligence, and common sense. For your own safety,and for the safety of all your fellow players.

happy noob huntin' y'all

-MarlFox
(Isaac)


P.S. I'd love it if Operators here have intelligent and beneficial input on what I just shared. But if you're only planning on being derogatory, or telling me how foolish I was being, or how things could have happened,or about the time your cousin got a speedloader stuck up his nose, please, fall silent.

[Tank]

haha great post issac i definitly agree for CQB full face full seal.... infact full seal eye protection on any field. now for full face out in the woods.... you could prolly get away with going without full face but suggested in my opinion.

[Phoenix]

Awesome post.

I would never go into a CQB action without full face protection, its too close (as is clearly identified by the C in CQB). In the field I don't worry about full face too much just because I'm on a field. Sure it stings when I get hit in the lip area, but I'm pretty sure it won't break skin and embed at 25+ feet. However, when I find myself getting shot at less than 10' (Seth...) I know that having a face mask is critical to keeping my gorgeous features intact, so what I do is mask up when I carry a close quarter weapon, and leave the mask off when I'm shooting a rifle. I have only a lower face shield so it allows that quick modification. That's my opinion on full face protection: critical for close battles, recommended for field depending on playing style.

Now, let me share an oft repeated story of how being an unsafe operator can get you hurt, and in my case: badly. DC was taking part in a Cimmerian operation in Cisco Grove, high up this road straight out of a nightmare amongst these granite boulders and, for lack of a better work, megoliths. They were as much as part of the mountains as being on the mountain. Anyway DC was instructed to take this rock which we easily did and then were told we were too good so we were getting blasted off the rock to move the evolution along. Komissar climbed down to this ledge and was going to help people down to it and climb down the rock. I looked at the ledge and thought "I can make this jump, stick it and then make a smaller jump a little further down the ledge". Man plan, God laughs and when I made the jump I cleared the ledge and plummeted 12-16 feet. I was "lucky" enough to land on my feet and maintain the presence of mind to keep my gun away from my body and roll with the impact, but the roll wasn't enough as the impact of my feet hitting the ground made it feel lt like I jacked up some muscles in my lower back. After determining that I was done for the day, I hiked back down to my truck (thanks Kat and Blazed!) and drove home. It wasn't till a hot shower and NSAIDs did nothing did I decide to hit the ER for some harder pain meds and maybe some muscle relaxers, to quiet the spasms. An X-ray later proved it was much, much worse than a torn muscle: I had a compression fracture on my T-12 vertebrae. Four days in the hospital, two weeks with a brace and 100 days off work were the price I paid for being unsafe. Like you said, this sport is truly only as safe as the people playing it. I don't want my story to diminish what you said (cause its not a speedloader up any orifice), I think its important to highlight that safety isn't just in the equipment. You were unsafe, I was unsafe, it happens. It shouldn't but it does. We over estimate our abilities, we underestimate our opponents, we get over confident, doesn't matter. We're humans, it will happen eventually and hopefully by being properly equipped we can minimize our damages, but proper equipment and a safety focused mindset are key to playing, uninjured and safely for everyone.

So remember kids: to play airsoft safe, you need full seal eye protection, probably a face mask, a safety conscious attitude and a parachute. well at least the first three.

[John Jensen]

I hope you take some pictures. I cant say I have ever actually seen a BB in someones skin. I guess that is a good thing though. Thanks for the story. As everyone has said, stay safe. It is always the things you would never expect to happen that end up happening.

[MarlFox]

  Yes, I actaully remember that story now that you bring it up ,Phoenix . You shared it when we were driving down in your truck from the (..cancelled) Operation Maiden Steel. Thanks for sharing again,that is the type of input I was looking for . Fortunately my injury was less excruciating, but of course the cause is the same ,lol. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way.

 

  Jensen, I just got back from surgery. Unfortunately, the nerve that signals movement to the corner of the mouth was uncomfortably close to the neccesary area of incision. So what was the brilliant solution? Yeah, they had to take it out from the inside of my mouth. And that, my friend, is not something you want to see pictures of.  It's possible that I could post an X ray later ,though.

[Spartan]

Holy crap you guys get the worst of luck. Great post, shows the reality of the dangers of the game. I agree that it is neccesary for indoor or even some MOUT, but for woods as long as you got good eye wear and a balaclava or shemagh you should maybe be alright. Thats scary. Thanks for the alert.

[Blazed]

I go out to play airsoft with my full face mask ESP because of how I play. Maybe if I was a sniper I might be like um I'm ok I can do without but anyone who knows me knows I don't get down like that and most the shots I take is in my face because usually that's all They can see. Fact is I might sneak up on that sniper and blast his ass in the face just because I can! Point is don't leave your face to the discretion of other people when your playing airsoft because it's gonna get shot. Please don't whine about it either because that's what we're doing is trying to blast each other with bb's and if you don't wear a face mask its nobody's fault but your own!

[SCRAMBLE]

Great Post MarlFox, I have heard of someone getting a BB under the skin but never someone who had to have it surgically removed. I think that posting the X-ray would be very interesting to see. Best of luck on the recovery.

[Bryce "Fox" Stone]

Owch, that sounds pretty damned nasty. Worst I got was a line of bright red welts across my stomach from my best mate when I called him a *Censored* for making 'I'm banging your wife' jokes while he had my SCAR-H and we were pinking cans for practice. I got him back for it later, but yeah. CQB you definitely want the face protection  I'm looking into getting some when I get back (Again), but as far as field ops go, generally just thick enough clothing and a Shemagh (Or helmet) is pretty adequate. 

Will certainly be getting a face-mask of some sort when I get back, but I'm agreeing with Scramble, you don't have a copy of that X-Ray? That'd almost be a trophy thing you should display.

"I made knife kills in CQB and all I got was this lousy .25g in my face."

[MarlFox]

   I'm am working on getting a copy of the X ray to photograph. It's not exactly my top priority in life a the moment , but I hope to eventually get it and post it on here . And for the record, the surgery was pretty unpleasant. Apparently, some surgeons are still not completely embracing of modern medical techniques. The person slicing into my flesh was an older Jamaican woman, who had a habit of DESCRIBING what exactly she was doing as she was doing it. I was already uncomfortable having needles and scalpels inside my mouth, but to have to listen to phrases like " ok, I'm going to make an incision right here..." " Does this hurt,I don't want to inject too much *some random sedative* ?" "you're turning pale, are you ok? " .  

   Before the surgery, she put a rubber glove on my left hand. I asked her why. Her calm reply was " well, I might need you to assist with your surgery".  Sure enough, I ended up helping her squeeze the projectile out of the incision, my fingers splashed with my own blood. I've heard of soldiers and explorers having to assist with,or even perform their own surgery,but I've heard of that being a practice of modern 21st century medicine. Is there anyone here that has medical knowledge that can tell me if that is at all common? 

[MarlFox]

haha that should have been "but I've NEVER heard of that being a practice of modern 21st century medicine" Too late to edit

[Tank]

where did you get this surgery?

 

and for the talking its supposed to calm the patient.... sometimes..... she must be newish....

[Bluewolf]

Yea Red Stirpe Beer is never a good sedative, especially when the doctor is drinking it instead of administering it!