Volume 14
Issue 392
July 23, 2005

PaintBall News

™

Oklahoma D-Day 2005

By James Dawson
Photos by James Dawson   

Two by two they drove up the winding country road to Oklahoma D-Day 2005, several miles off the beaten track and just left of the middle of nowhere. Players arrived at the field in the rolling hills as early as June 2nd...more than a week before the games on the 11th and 12th. While work on the five hundred acre field occurs throughout the year, a big volunteer push to finish the detail work comes with the arrival of eager players. As in years past, the week leading into the weekend game was filled with special courses: a sniper certification and training class, one for small unit leadership, and the internationally famous Obstacle Course.

The Obstacle Course kicked off on Wednesday with a team log carry, a traditional challenge with a new twist: the course wrapped around a new terrain park for the ATV riders who come to the field on special weekends. Hundreds of boots kicked up a rolling dust which settled on their outfits and turned to mud in the swamp crawl.
Continued

   

Best Kept Secret

The morning was damp and the gauntlet had been thrown for months. The defending Red Force was hungry for revenge after suffering a demoralizing defeat at "Operation Flashpoint". The Blue Forces left no survivors behind and handed the Crimson Tide their most humiliating defect ever. That was all the motivation that they needed to return the favor to the Blue Horde. The attacking Blue Horde was repelled with extreme vengeance and was driven back to their lightning attack air force base.
The Red Patriots were motivated by their past experience and they successfully defended their homeland. The fog of war was released as the smoke generators put down a pea soup screen for the fighting. Continued