LITERAL
- (a) Write: “I, Amir Freeman, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents ____ hours of work.”
- (b) Marine Corps, U.S. "USMC Training Manual" Fairy Tale Review 10.1, The Emerald Issue (2014): 190-203. United States Marine Corp. U.S.M.C. Web.
- (c) Done
- (d) For my IC #1 I took on the task of operating a Military Simulation Unit in ARMA 3. I did the adminstrative task of manning the roster, came up with the curriculum, lead the trainings and squads during our operations alongside operating the server so that our guys were capable of getting on to train. ARMA 3 has realistic ballistics, combat and even medical systems that has made it into a game that has seized to be so much a game but a military simulator. When I first started playing it three years, I became invested in a type of gaming called "MilSim Gaming." An attempt to make ARMA even more realistic than it already was through usage of mods that added advanced medical systems (so advanced, they require a player in game to know how to administer morphine, check blood pressure and diagnose a patient) and mods that would make the A.I behave even more like real people. For a year, I "served" as a line infantry soldier in multiple different units that operated in MilSim. Eventually, I was promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant in one of these military simulation units and began leading squads of real guys in game, commanding ten to twelve men in this game. After another six months, I was promoted to the rank of 1st lieutenant and began leading 30 or so men. This investment of time in these units was what lead me to becoming interested in Military Strategy and Tactics. It is important to understand the very realistic nature of ARMA 3, while nothing can ever be the real thing or very close to actual combat, this is the closet that most people can get.
Interpretive
As a founding member, LTO and OC I have a lot to do outside of the gain to make sure everything is running smoothly for our members. I create a Unit Roster (UR) so I know who is currently a part of our organization.. The UR contains the emails, names, ranks, and attendance of every member currently a part of OTSF. All to provide an easier time for our non-comissioned officers who have to be able to just look and know who is who, what squad theyre in, and what their personality is. The two most important things in the UR though, is the Player UID and the Attendance sheet both of which are an integral part to making sure our operations run smoothly and everyone is showing up to the training. The UR is pictured below this paragraph.
The next important administrative thing I have to do is creating a training curriculum that I can glance over to make sure that all our guys are on par with the high standards we have for our members. This is done for every single position we have available, if youre a combat medic, you must go through specific combat medic training. If youre a pilot, you must go through 15 hours of pilot training if you want to fly transports and 30 hours if you want to fly air support for ground troops. These different classes are what we call specializations in OTSF, but no matter what specialization you choose, ever member has to go through Infantry Training Courses (ITC) which is also referred to as Small-Unit Operators Course and the curriculum for that is pictured above. The ITC Curriculum consist of ten pages separated into an outline like that picture above and an page where each drill/tactic is summarized. The ITC from our previous months will have a portion linked below for review by you.
The rest of the Independent Component was actually particpating in the Training Operations that I created and leading the men. With that in mind, I have provided access to one of our previous hours and operation logs alongside pictures taken with my various subordinates during our operations. We hold our operations and training every sunday at 5pm PST with training typically lasting two to three hours and operations lasting anywhere from 5 to 8 hours. These operations are done with military simulation in mind and are very professionally done. This is because as a milsim group, as soon as we get in game, we assume the demeanor of an actual military unit completing its objective assigned by high command. You will not hear our guys referring to each other as "brad" or "tom" in videos but as "Alpha 1-1" and "Alpha 1-2."
Running a Military Simulation Unit takes a lot of time and dedication, I spend most of my day working with developers and then studying USMC training manuals to constantly come up with new things that are fun but practical to teach my guys. I have spent way more than 30 hours doing this since the beginning of the Senior Project and can prove it to be well documented.
APPLIED
This component gave me such a better understanding of how terrifying it is in the middle of combat. When you're in the middle of a firefight and you have 40-ish guys looking to you for leadership, and you only have a split second to decide what to do, It can be very stressful. Furthermore, it shows you how to critically think and gives you an understanding of how why the United States Military is so ridgidly discplined. An example would be when we were trying to teach twenty new recruits how to work together. We gave them a mission that was impossible to complete without teamwork. The goal of the mission was simple, to teach the recruits that ARMA 3 is not like a shooter. It is not a game that you can just rush in, shoot everything and win. It is a game that actually simulates real-life and you will not get through things without working together with one and other.
Going back to the leadership aspect, there were many times when I was learning to be an officer in the unit when we’d give permadeath missions. These missions were designed to enforce discpline and drill into everyones head what Milsim is about. These operations would take upwards of 5-7 hours but here was the catch. If you died in game, you were required to be present at your computer for the duration of the operation. Which means if something went wrong an hour into the operation, youd be stuck at your computer for another 4 hours doing nothing. This was the closest to real death we could get, and people were a lot more serious when they realized how boring that would be. As an officer, you're faced with making decisions that in the case of ARMA might consign guys to hours of boredom and in real life, death.
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