Army's Video Game

Today we got to do a special mounted combat patrol. We patrolled an area that is set aside with pop up targets, moving vehicles, IED's, villages, everything a person could ask for. I am the radio guy for the patrol and I am responsible for sending info to the higher command and to our patrol so I run the mission with a radio on each ear. I have to ask permission to start the mission and then I report any contact and how we handled it to the command post, any medical reports, and IED/UXO reports. I pass back info to the team from the higher ups to keep them on the same page so we know what we are driving into. We were set up in four 1151 up armored HMMVS and sent through two different times. Our first run was with blanks so we could get a feel for our target areas, where our check points were and how to keep safe spacing. We had a mission brief and we discussed our objectives and set out to accomplish them without shooting anything that didn't need to be shot. Really our main objective was to get a better score than the other Air Force team that went through last week. I'm not going to lie!
Our blank run went alright and we were told what we could do better during our "critique" by our OC that was in charge of us. We were determined not to make the same mistakes twice.
Our live run went much better. Our gunners shot the hell out of everything that needed to be destroyed (1200 rounds total) and our communication was awesome. We ended up with a perfect tactical score which is hard to get for an Air Force team, but we got it. And yes, we beat the other Air Force team. I really enjoy being the communication for our patrol. It is far from anything I have ever done, but I feel confident I can do it successfully in a heated situation. We had everything thrown at us in a 15 minute window and I kept everyone alive. That is a sign of teamwork at it's finest.