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OIF/OEF Reenacted?


Brig
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shrapneldude
A lot of our guys get stuff from Ranger Joe's, and its usually quality stuff. It's kind of surprising to see how much civilian made stuff is over here, and being used. Kind of brings new light on to previous conflicts, and the stuff they'd use or have available.

Dent

 

 

Even more surprising how much stuff from Blackhawk and Ranger Joe's is actually being open-purchased and issued at the Battalion level! Good luck sorting "after-market" airsoft gear from stuff that was issued without an NSN! I can see the reenactors going back and forth about it now..."They didn't have this in Iraq, they had the M10294 Type A and Type B in Coyote Tan shade #12!!"

In 2005, I was ISSUED by the US Marine corps....From Blackhawk tactical: Nomex gloves, kevlar gloves, tactical sling, Nalgene bottle...other guys had Blackhawk SAW slings, blackhawk goggles and glasses, Oakley / Wiley-X / ESS goggles and glasses, before the ban on it, we had Under Armor shirts and shorts issued to us...and a host of other doo-dads that are widely available on the civillian market as well. As for collecting, imagine someone finding a "grouping" of stuff and later finding out the guy had been an Airsoft player and not an OIF / OEF vet.

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Don't forget the MRAP's...I'd love to have one back home, especially mine :(

 

Dent

 

When I was a Pup they were called a Casspir, in South Africa and SWA mind you, but it was amazing how attached you became to that rolling bunker. I am just glad some good has come out of all that blood, sweat, and tears in South Africa.

 

I still have my drivers badge for the Buffel and the Casspir, would love to take an MRAP out into the field. I always knew Bertha would bring me home.

 

T-Bone

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Two words: Jacksonville, Florida

 

UMMMMMMM.... Pulp mills, low tide and 3rd world immigrants! Now I am feeling homesick.

 

JAX was the first placed we lived when we left Africa.

 

T

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I'm not one for reenacting, either. was just curious if I'd have to see myself 20 years younger running around in the future

 

I don't know, I found groups doing two of my old units and was amazed how close they got it. The dedication was flattering, but also funny. I was asked why we used or did X and I had to explain sheepishly that it was because that was all we had around.

 

The funny thing today for me is meeting today's Platoon Leaders and NCOs...I was never that young was I? I try very hard not to show them how much I worry for them. I know what they are walking into.

 

Now I am getting way to Fing sentimental.

 

God bless them all and the men, and women, they lead.

 

T

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Gee, I recall a lot of flag waving during the first halve of the GWOT.

 

 

That was then, this is now.

 

Before I PCSd from Alaska I had been to six memorial services for friends.

 

I just wish the lads were allowed to do ALL that needed to be done.

 

Just the view from where I have been, BUT this is getting a tad personal.

 

T

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marineamtracer
You will. DS1/DS2/OIF is too big of a conflict to go gently into that good night.

 

And when you do, you'll finally have a chance to tell people the stories of your mis-spent youth. You know, the ones your wife is either tired of hearing or you're too scared to tell her.

 

 

This is alot of what I was getting at in my earlier post...

 

"mis-spent youth" and "stories my wife is either tired of hearing or I'm too scared to tell her"

 

You have got to be kidding me! First of all I am VERY proud of those years of my life. I realize that you may not have meant the words mispent youth the way I am hearing them howevever I am awful damn proud of my Marines and I. The thing that really unnerves me is the comment about the stories...You don't know me or my experiences from Adam. What do you know about being a platoon leader in Afghanistan right after 9/11? Or how about what it was like for me leading a platoon in OIF I? Can you even fathom why I wouldn't want to explain to my wife what it was like to see my favorite turd lose his legs and then go home just to commit suicide a year later? Or what it really and truely felt like the day I got hit? Do you think anyone wants to hear about the way my arm was only hanging on by tendons and flesh? Or that I would even want to talk about it to anyone? Trust me twhigam some of us saw some NASTY SH#T and want to forget it but we never will. Like I said I am very proud and I will always be but reenactors never seem to think about the things they dredge up for those of us who were really there.

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HolyHappiness
As for collecting, imagine someone finding a "grouping" of stuff and later finding out the guy had been an Airsoft player and not an OIF / OEF vet.

 

Sadly I've already seen this crap come to pass.

 

Last Ogden gunshow I saw a kid I knew that had bought a chinese-made-for-airsoft ACU molle vest with every belgian bell and whistle you could put on it dancing around the gunshow with it for sale. He sold it to a collector I know very well. Note that I pretty much learned everything I know about collecting from him and another guy. Bottom line- this guy was serious. Anyways the kid sold it to him for about $150. Come to find out the kid rolled it around in the dirt then wrote his Uncle's laudry mark on it and convinced the old man that "his uncle" wore that when his convoy was ambushed in Masad.

 

I still wish to this day I run into that kid so I can teach him a thing or two about fraud.

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This is alot of what I was getting at in my earlier post...

 

"mis-spent youth" and "stories my wife is either tired of hearing or I'm too scared to tell her"

 

You have got to be kidding me! First of all I am VERY proud of those years of my life. I realize that you may not have meant the words mispent youth the way I am hearing them howevever I am awful damn proud of my Marines and I. The thing that really unnerves me is the comment about the stories...You don't know me or my experiences from Adam. What do you know about being a platoon leader in Afghanistan right after 9/11? Or how about what it was like for me leading a platoon in OIF I? Can you even fathom why I wouldn't want to explain to my wife what it was like to see my favorite turd lose his legs and then go home just to commit suicide a year later? Or what it really and truely felt like the day I got hit? Do you think anyone wants to hear about the way my arm was only hanging on by tendons and flesh? Or that I would even want to talk about it to anyone? Trust me twhigam some of us saw some NASTY SH#T and want to forget it but we never will. Like I said I am very proud and I will always be but reenactors never seem to think about the things they dredge up for those of us who were really there.

I don't think he meant it as an insult, but can see how it could be interpretted that way

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marineamtracer

Brig I'm sure you are correct that he meant no disrespect by it but something about it just hits me really wrong. Obviously the ptsd gets the best of me at times but the whole reenacting thing just gets to me. Maybe because of the reenactors I know who knows what the deal is. Sorry if I offended anyone.

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shrapneldude
This is alot of what I was getting at in my earlier post...

 

"mis-spent youth" and "stories my wife is either tired of hearing or I'm too scared to tell her"

 

You have got to be kidding me! First of all I am VERY proud of those years of my life. I realize that you may not have meant the words mispent youth the way I am hearing them howevever I am awful damn proud of my Marines and I. The thing that really unnerves me is the comment about the stories...You don't know me or my experiences from Adam. What do you know about being a platoon leader in Afghanistan right after 9/11? Or how about what it was like for me leading a platoon in OIF I? Can you even fathom why I wouldn't want to explain to my wife what it was like to see my favorite turd lose his legs and then go home just to commit suicide a year later? Or what it really and truely felt like the day I got hit? Do you think anyone wants to hear about the way my arm was only hanging on by tendons and flesh? Or that I would even want to talk about it to anyone? Trust me twhigam some of us saw some NASTY SH#T and want to forget it but we never will. Like I said I am very proud and I will always be but reenactors never seem to think about the things they dredge up for those of us who were really there.

 

 

I agree with brig -- didn't look like he meant it as an insult, but it was a touch insensitive.

 

Trust me brother, you'll find a lot of that. Go to a few gun shows and listen to the hard-talkers..."Man, if I was in Iraq, I'd kill a thousand of them camel herders!" No...you'd wet your pants after the first RPG and come home and sell guns to people who kill animals for sport (the kind that don't shoot back.)

 

There are a lot of guys on this forum that have been to and are even currently in Iraq or Afghanistan, and even 'Nam and Korean war combat vets. We all got our stories and personal attachments to war and whatnot...just have to keep in mind, there are just as many if not more civillian non-veterans collecting and reenacting / playing army who will never know the sound of incoming mortar fire or the feel of a burnt hand gripping their arm in the middle of the night in a medevac ER, and furthermore...don't care. Don't get me wrong...there are PLENTY that do -- they care more than you know, but there are the clowns who just love putting on the uniform and goofing around, or being able to say they've got a full set of combat gear from every conflict since the war of 1812 but couldn't give a hoot in hell what that actually represents...dirty, awful, violent...WAR. These are the kinds of guys who get wrapped aroudn the axel about the shade of khaki or the number of threads in a web belt or the smell of a battle-worn helmet. They're out there, and we gotta deal with them...just don't let them drag you down. I'm proud of you, your family is proud of you, your country is proud of you, and for the rest of your life, no matter what kind of A-hole you deal with (not that the guy who said that in this post is an a-hole...just a-holes in general!) you know what kind of man you are and you don't have a thing to prove to anyone. Semper Fi.

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Sgt_Rock_EasyCo
Just my own personal and humble opinion here but here it is from my soap box to yours everyone...

I have never been very keen on reenacting. I know that many people do it with the intention of honoring veterans or educating the public HOWEVER I don't know of any reenactors who have actually seen combat. Don't get me wrong I am sure there are some out there and I am not by any means trying to insult ANYONE. I just have always thought that unless you were there you will never know what it was like nor can you fully realise it by reenacting it. I am sure that one day yes OEF and OIF will be reenacted but just don't count me as one of those that will be doing it. Nor will I be one to support those who are doing it. Leave me to my own memories of what I saw in OIF and OEF. Trust me reenactors you don't want to know what OIF-I was like nor do I want to have to think about the hell on earth that Hue, Khe Sahn, Chosin, Peleliu, or Belleau Wood must have been for those that were there. I know the history and I appreciate reading about it and I can relate but I don't think it's neccessary to reenact it unless it is for Hollywood. I am sure that this will upset plenty of people but it's all just my own thoughts on the matter nothing to get worked up about.

 

There are more veterans that reenact than one would think. In my old unit the VFW's in the unit probably constituted about 10% and of those probably a handful were involved in firefights. A person can perform displays and learn how the uniforms and equipment worked however reenacting takes that extra step. Guys learn how the uniforms and gear work by using them. They learn what it is to be cold, hot, hungry, tired and thirsty. The adrenaline of battle isn't the same but the intensity is there. Reenacting is good for the average Joe to learn about a war by reading and doing. It also gives a guy the taste of military behavior, team work, and a deeper understanding of how to shoot, move and communicate. There is a fun element to it and there is a good comeraderie that is very similar to the military.

 

One other element is age. As you get older, you get more mature and appreciative of what the guys before you did, and what you did. Your history becomes more important and so you are more willing to be selfless and become a "Living Historian". Not all guys do but some do.

 

My .02 as a combat veteran.

 

Rock

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Every combat veteran of every war has their memories...the good and the bad...the still, no matter how much you try and how much time has passed, will continue to vividly return. It'll never go away...and there will always be those who protested it, who call us baby killers. who spit on our ideals. Screw 'em. I just tell them..."combat, if you haven't been there, then shut your mouth"

 

Less than 1% of America has ever served in the military. Even less have ever had to endure the Hell of combat. Remember, the majority of the country will never understand what we went through or why. They were at the mall when we were taking fire

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shrapneldude
Every combat veteran of every war has their memories...the good and the bad...the still, no matter how much you try and how much time has passed, will continue to vividly return. It'll never go away...and there will always be those who protested it, who call us baby killers. who spit on our ideals. Screw 'em. I just tell them..."combat, if you haven't been there, then shut your mouth"

 

Less than 1% of America has ever served in the military. Even less have ever had to endure the Hell of combat. Remember, the majority of the country will never understand what we went through or why. They were at the mall when we were taking fire

 

Aye but when they feel bad about never having served or done anything with their lives outside of selling insurance or something, they'll go out and drop a few grand on reproduction cammies and start playing Iraq with their buddies in a corn field someplace. And they'll argue with you if you try to tell them "In 2005 we wore woodland camo mag pouches and vests because tehy didn't have the desert color stuff to issue us." "NO, you must be mistaken...it says on so-and-so's website that you did, and he's the expert because he met a lot of OIF vets and took a bunch of gear from them for his collection!" haha

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How can you reenact something when you can go to ranger joes and order everything out of a darn catalog? Right now reenacting the Iraq/ afghanistan is insulting, and might get someone punched in the mouth by a real veteran.
Spend some time on an air soft site. You’d be surprised what you’d find. Plenty of modern scenarios going on there. But as for pure “re-enactment” (which to me means a tactical re-creation with blank-firing real weapons), I still say you’ll only see it done with mostly semi-auto M-16 variants and will be lacking most of the crew-served weapons you see today (other than “Ma Duce” and M-60) as they won’t be available due to current Class III laws on newer-made automatics. You’ll be lacking most of the vehicles as well but you never know, I can imagine someone will someday make replica “Strykers” from some other vehicles for such purposes, like many of the reproduction German stuff being made today. I’m convinced you could make a passable “Hemmett” from one of those large crane trucks you see on the highways.

But how many people really thought anyone would be doing Vietnam living history of re-enactment, back in the early 80s when WW2 re-enacting first started? Trust me, NOBODY thought this would be happening ever, back then. You will eventually see the current situation being done at shows and such. I’ve seen the first Gulf War done several times as displays already. It’s just a matter of time.

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Darktrooper
Spend some time on an air soft site. You’d be surprised what you’d find. Plenty of modern scenarios going on there. But as for pure “re-enactment” (which to me means a tactical re-creation with blank-firing real weapons), I still say you’ll only see it done with mostly semi-auto M-16 variants and will be lacking most of the crew-served weapons you see today (other than “Ma Duce” and M-60) as they won’t be available due to current Class III laws on newer-made automatics. You’ll be lacking most of the vehicles as well but you never know, I can imagine someone will someday make replica “Strykers” from some other vehicles for such purposes, like many of the reproduction German stuff being made today. I’m convinced you could make a passable “Hemmett” from one of those large crane trucks you see on the highways.

But how many people really thought anyone would be doing Vietnam living history of re-enactment, back in the early 80s when WW2 re-enacting first started? Trust me, NOBODY thought this would be happening ever, back then. You will eventually see the current situation being done at shows and such. I’ve seen the first Gulf War done several times as displays already. It’s just a matter of time.

 

 

Sorry, too busy with my full time and part time real-life jobs to go out and play soldier. Half the airsofters out there are wearing more gear than I ever wore overseas anyway.

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Aye but when they feel bad about never having served or done anything with their lives outside of selling insurance or something, they'll go out and drop a few grand on reproduction cammies and start playing Iraq with their buddies in a corn field someplace. And they'll argue with you if you try to tell them "In 2005 we wore woodland camo mag pouches and vests because tehy didn't have the desert color stuff to issue us." "NO, you must be mistaken...it says on so-and-so's website that you did, and he's the expert because he met a lot of OIF vets and took a bunch of gear from them for his collection!" haha

because my date-stamped in theater photos are historically inaccurate :lol:

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Sgt_Rock_EasyCo
Maybe it's just too damn soon in my civilian life to think about such things....

 

As a kid I collected military items but then sold it all off when I got interested in girls. After I left the Army I didn't think too much about military stuff for about 20 years. I spent those twenty years doing my own thing, having fun, getting in trouble, riding motorcycles and getting laid. I got married late and we got pregnant within a year. When my Daughter was born I started becoming more introspective. If I died before she knew me I would want her to know who I was and what I did. Many things are good or bad but the one constant that I'm proud of is that I was a Paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. So I began putting my old uniforms back together to place in a footlocker for her to open when I die. She will then know at least my military history- what I did is history and written in books. Like my Airborne Brothers before me in WWII, Korea and Vietnam I realized that I was part of that history. I gleaned an appreciation for those that came before me, like never before, and then I realized that what I did was important. With age comes an appreciation for life that is viewed by looking back. My life's history is mostly written from childhood through your thirties. Most of us just work and live through our forties and then into retirement so there's just the regular living. So I can look back and see with the eyes of an older guy that what I did as a youth was significant and historical.

 

As a young man you must live your life and continue writing your life's history. What you do now, you will look back on it and appreciate. Only after the fire to prove yourself has dimmed can you truly reflect. I hope that you will be proud of what you did when you reflect.

 

So when I saw that WWII reenacting existed is when I got interested, like a kid again. I didn't have to relive my experiences but I focused on my WWII predecessors. It was good to see that people appreciate and reflect what my predecessors did because it vicariously says "we remember you" to me also.

 

Rock

2/505th PIR

5/502nd IR

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I am all for living history in deference to reenacting. In this case, I don't find it right to reenact something that is still going on. It comes down to the fact that you are impersonating a soldier when you are wearing the uniform that is still being used. If you want to reenact OIF, then join the military and see it first hand like the rest of us.

 

-Ski

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Sgt_Rock_EasyCo
I am all for living history in deference to reenacting. In this case, I don't find it right to reenact something that is still going on. It comes down to the fact that you are impersonating a soldier when you are wearing the uniform that is still being used. If you want to reenact OIF, then join the military and see it first hand like the rest of us.

 

-Ski

 

Yeah, that's a personal thing I think. Guys can do what they want to do. For me, Reenacting the Cold War is just nothing I have any interest in doing. I lived it, don't need to relive it. Now WWII was my passion as a kid and now I get to do more than collect the stuff.

 

Rock

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Yeah I'll never get that burn pit smell out my memory.

I must be lucky as hell then. After I got hit I lost my sense of smell. Could walk through fields of garbage and nothing

 

As to the OT, Heck If I had Known that Jungle Fatigues & Choco Chips would be collectors item's I would have filled my Garage with all the stuff the unit threw away over the years. The Arty unit we shared a Bldg with upgraded to 30 rd mags in 95 and threw the 20 rounders in the trash. We filled Dufflebags with them for our use. I remember a Living History display at USMA West Points

museum in Oct. 2002 and one of them was a OEF re-enactor with Full MOLLE display and Bushmaster M4

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That's already happening!

 

You think you are special? Happens to me all of the time. Of course there were no...isert widget here...used by..red force/blue force/green force...in those years. I do not care wht the picture shows, we are here to reenact the ordinary not the unique. w00t.gif

 

T-Bone

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gliderflyboy

I think the main thing we have to acknowledge, especially with WWII, was that it was the last time we had "Total War." Everyone in America's lives were affected by the war, be it rationing, working in factories making things for the military, getting drafted, volunteering, or simply seeing and reading things about it wherever you went.

 

I've had times where I've talked with WWII vets and thanked them for their service only for them to thank me back for reenacting and keeping their memories alive. Maybe it's because they never asked for thanks or for someone to take the time to honor them, yet we do and they seem to enjoy it. They've had 60+ years to detach themselves from it, and it's not a sensitive subject to them. But for anyone to reenact the current events going on now I think is absolutely ridiculous.

 

What I don't like is people looking down on reenactors for not having prior military experience. Take World War II for example. No, I was never in the Army, but you never had to wear ungodly uncomfortable brown ankle-service boots with leggings in the Army you were in either. I reenacted with a Iraq War vet who said his desert boots felt like slippers in comparison.

 

I was NEVER interested in anything military at all until I discovered my grandfather's things from WWII, and now I reenact to help myself understand a little about what he went through. It has nothing to do with glory or entitlement or anything like that, I just know there are some reenactors out there who do do it for the right reasons.

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  • 3 months later...
Out of curiosity, I was wondering if anyone out there thinks that the current wars will some day be reenacted, or will they be too unconventional to draw an interest? Are there any Gulf War reenacting groups out there?

You gotta be fu**in' kiddin' me!

Not in this life time!

Sorry, Brig, I have no desire to reenact anything of the sort. After OIF I wouldn't even reenact Chickamauga and my G-G-grandfather made the attacks against the Yankee redoubts with the 2d Kentucky Infantry (Mounted). I don't think any of my boys would want to do it but maybe my yet-to-be-born grandchildren.

Remember how romantic and noble we thought Ft Donelson, Chick and Atlanta were?

We were children once....!

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