We had five TAPs members for the day: myself (Doc), Smokey (Jeffrey Berry), Part 67 (Robert Carucci), Stitch (Lisa Rashkin) and of course The Emasculator (Joe Carucci, “Em” for short). We met for breakfast with two of Smokey’s friends, Steve Ferrari and Matt Leavens. Both had played paintball before, but both also mentioned never being in a game of this size. We promised them a day they’d never forget. Then we loaded our new mortar into the car, along with the 50 or so paint grenades that Smokey and I had put together for today’s game. We arrived at the field at about 8am and set up our banner, finding that High Velocity had brought in Artic Paint as a measure against the cold. We hoped it would make a difference over the last game. We walked the field, showing Matt and Steve the hill and the flags that were our main objectives for the day, then set up our gear and prepared for the morning’s battle. We found out men from West Point were down to join the Red Team for the game and were excited to have them. Matt eagerly borrowed some of my old gear, and Smokey and I looked forward to trying the new mortar. Patrick “Warhammer” Galarza of the Red Raiders was our CO for this game. The Red Team started on the WWII field. At the horn’s call we sprinted for the hill in the woods overlooking the trenches. Smokey and I reached the top with Em and Wiggly close behind. The Red Team took control of the hill as we were tagged out, and began pushing through the woods and the trenches. We walked off to the armband truck with the report from a smoke bomb launcher ringing through our ears, over and over again. On our way back we decided to try the mortar, but the remote line we had purchased had a severe leak so it was out of commission. We began pushing through the woods instead, working our way up to the woods flag while the rest of the Red Team took the flag in the trenches. I soon found myself on the front line trading shots with the Blue Team with Wiggly and Smokey, keeping them from the woods flag and forcing them back to the Attack and Defend field, before being tagged out again. Running back to the woods, I got to witness Wiggly proudly climbing up a tree to retrieve one of our special mission objectives, a large prop bomb that had been stuck about 15 feet in the air. I was glad to find out he wasn’t going up there to shoot the Blue Team, and I saw him run in escort back to our CO before going to the front line again. The rest of TAPs continued to trade fire, and I kept launching Scepter grenades at the Blue team in Air Force until I ran out of air, nearly right before the horn sounded for lunch. During lunch it began to get grey. Then it began to snow. Then it got really cold, and the team started to look sheepish. I tried to take their minds off it by taking a few photos of each of them for the website. We cleaned our gear and warmed up our frozen markers for the afternoon, except for Stitch, who borrowed my T-8 pistol instead. On reinsertion, due to our point advantage, the refs escorted us for a special scenario. Warhammer informed us that we would start at the WWII plane as if we had just crashed—you guessed it!—Behind Enemy Lines. We would have to capture a reinsertion point if we wanted to reenter the game after getting tagged out. We were promptly surrounded by the Blue Team, and the horn sounded. I immediately had the team throw smoke grenades past the plane, then we began pushing through the woods along the fence line. We were bogged down quickly, however, and had to retreat back to the plane. We made a short-lived last stand, and TAPs and other Red Team members were getting tagged out quickly. Smokey’s gun had frozen again, and Stitch gave my borrowed pistol to him right before she was lit up across the chest. I was peppered by someone with an Ion soon after, leaving Smokey the only TAPs member left on the field, holding the Blue Team off with a T-8 pistol. The refs called him out before he was even hit in a generous act of mercy. At least it had stopped snowing right before the massacre. We found out that we could reinsert on the Air Force field—maybe a Red squad had captured the other insertion point. We made our way across the field, and TAPs began working with the Red Raiders, walk-ons and players from West Point to begin leap-frogging up the woods field. We soon captured the woods flag, and began pushing the Blue Team backwards through the woods. Smokey attached a land mine to the woods flagpole as a booby trap, much to West Point and the walk-ons’ elation, and we were able to capture the hill in the woods before I ran out of paint and air. I reloaded and collected the team to begin assaulting the trenches. When I was tagged out almost immediately, Em led the way without a working marker, throwing orange smoke and leading a rush to raise the trench flag. He almost made it too. The Red Team managed to raise the trench flag soon after, then keep it up as we continued to push the Blue Team further back. Stitch, Em, and Wiggly finally ran out of stamina, but continued to watch as Smokey and I led Steve and Matt in the trenches for a final assault. West Point then coordinated a rush forward with the Red scenario teams, and the Red Team overran the trenches up to the flag. I landed behind a bunker next to it, while Smokey lay prone in the trench flag pit, out of air and trying not to get hit. A smoke bomb landed right in front of me (maybe two bombs, I couldn’t tell), and I got a few lungfulls before I joined him in the pit. He passed me his last pod, and I continued to plug away at the Blues until the refs called “Iron Man!” That’s when the Red Team went ballistic, rushing the Blue Team straight into the WWII field as Smokey and I watched open-mouthed before the horn finally sounded. The Red Team had won this round. TAPs awarded the Purple Target to Stitch for her courage under fire and giving her marker up to a fellow TAP before being tagged out. The Red Crosshair went to Wiggly for locating the bomb in the tree for the Red Team and for his outstanding flanks against the Blues. Everyone had a great time, and Matt and Steve each looked forward to joining our team as full-fledged members for the next game.
