442ndRCT Soldier's Forum

Guys,

Thanks for a great battle.I was only able to do Saturday, however it was most enjoyable! Looking forward to another PTO next year.

Doc

Well I'm gonna have to say thank you guys for coming out. Wouldn't have been much fun with really small groups on both sides. Besides you guys kept my stomach aching with laughter during downtime.

It was quite ironic that there was no one from the "CHG's 4th Marines", everyone there was from another unit

These guys came as 4th Marines = (5) 2nd Armor, (12) 101st Airborne, (11) 442ndRCT, (3) 9thID, (1) 12SS, and (1) 10SS. There was also (3) Austies. Plus two Photographers who were uncles of member in 101st Airborne. There were also (4) members of the 442ndRCT who came as Japenese Soldiers.

davep wrote:It was quite ironic that there was no one from the "CHG's 4th Marines", everyone there was from another unit

These guys came as 4th Marines = (5) 2nd Armor, (12) 101st Airborne, (11) 442ndRCT, (3) 9thID, (1) 12SS, and (1) 10SS. There was also (3) Austies. Plus two Photographers who were uncles of member in 101st Airborne. There were also (4) members of the 442ndRCT who came as Japenese Soldiers.

Thats why they created it as a secondary impression unit. One time a year or even two if we ever get that lucky doesn't justify doing it as a main impression. We're just a cobble of people from other units. Even most/some of the Japanese and Aussies were from other units. Its just a fun way to acquire that piece or full set of another impression that you always wanted to do. For me there is too much to choose from and little time/money.

But thats the cool part. I like being able to hang out with guys I would normally be shooting at on the field or wouldn't meet at all.

Thats why they created it as a secondary impression unit.

For those who attented it was a "secondary" impression, but there are those who make the 4th Marines their primary impression, and those people were not in attenance at the only PTO battle of the year.

Those guys that do that Dave only go to Living History Events. They always say they are going to the battle, but never show up. That's fine. We had fun anyway.

barcelonablom wrote:Thats why they created it as a secondary impression unit. One time a year or even two if we ever get that lucky doesn't justify doing it as a main impression. We're just a cobble of people from other units. Even most/some of the Japanese and Aussies were from other units. Its just a fun way to acquire that piece or full set of another impression that you always wanted to do. For me there is too much to choose from and little time/money.

But thats the cool part. I like being able to hang out with guys I would normally be shooting at on the field or wouldn't meet at all.

That was well said Richard and an excellent observation. That is why it would be tough to make this a primary impression. On the IJA side neither Woody nor myself would be able to take the IJA to another level as we are both unit leaders of other units. We do have someone earmarked for that position but he is currently in Iraq for at least a year.

On the plus side, what would you guys say to 'two' PTO events a year?

I say...push forward on two PTOs a year. I mean, we have two Camp Roberts event a year...why not have two PTOs. Plenty of scenarios we could do. Tarawa, Iwo, Guadalcanal, etc.

i had a lot of fun thank you

it was defineatly worth getting home at 0101 this morning

I would really like to have 2 PTO events a year. I had a great time. All of the guys in attendance did a great job. We all worked together as a team, had fun, and no one had to do everything. We all shared the work as well as the fun. Awesome job guys. Brilliant!

Yeah, my point is the "4th Marines" as impression is an automatic secondary impression for any CHG unit wanting to come to a PTO Battle. The "4th Marines" is an an open city. This weekend was great, no body was in charge, nobody pull rank, we picked someone to lead/run and we all moved out and fun.

Speaking from the 'other' side and perspective, this year the Marines did an outstanding job coordinating. I was highly impressed watching you guys come over the ridge and up the road covering both flanks. It was quite impressive. We did the best we could with the numbers we had and the tactics we were allowed and to a large extent it worked well. The location was great and the weather was good. Last year the allied coordination was really not very good and from our perspective it was like watching a bunch of loose groups and squads mill around till somebody started shooting and then they came running. Once the camp was located many stayed there and were not willing to go back out into the field to engage the enemy or would sit in the closest cover outside the Japanese camp waiting for them to come alive so they wouldn't have to walk and could shoot them as the stood up. This year was much different. Kudos to the Marines for getting everything in shape.

We did get lucky though. As little as two weeks ago we had no clue where the battle was going to be despite applying for it months in advance. The Army and environmentalists kept kicking us out of area after area and then it got micromanaged by the environmentalists after we finally got X-ray so we got kicked around some more. Thank god we had the foresight to travel to the location a month before and check out the site. As it was it took an entire day before we could establish how to get to the site and exactly were we would be allowed to go. If we had waited till the weekend of the event as we did last year to do all this it would have been hell and a very disorganized battle.

Point in case on the weather. A month ago when we reconned it the weather was very nice, cool breezes and everything was green and lush. This month the grass had dried and the cool breezes were still there but the hot summer air was beginning to blow on Saturday night and it did get a touch warmer. Next month it will probably be a scorcher up there. Maybe it is now.

So we managed to pull a great battle out of it despite a lot of roadblocks. This is where advanced planning came in to play. Sadly this will probably be the last time we use Camp SLO. Just to many restrictions and problems with getting all our plans changed at the last minute. Next time might be at Ozena. If we do go back to Ozena we will attempt to do it in the Guards usual 'off' season so we won't lose the barracks as we did this time.

Up to now also we tried to accomodate as many impressions as we could to increase the attendence. But the four Aussies that did the make the event show that we would most likely not suffer at all if we did more US/IJA events like many of the famous island campaigns we all want to do and know.