Creation


The Creation of The 1st Paintball Light Infantry The Creation of the 1st Paintball Light Infantry I remember my first game of paintball. It was just me and my buddy Carl, out in the woods near some railroad tracks in Hanahan, South Carolina. We both sported brand new Splatmasters, the latest and fastest shooting pistol then available. We faced off for the better part of three hours during which time we fired maybe fifty rounds. We each got one another at least once and had a blast. From this humble beginning my paintball career (some would say craze) started. Perhaps you to remember those days of oil based paintballs, Splatmasters, and shop goggles. If so you may remember firing one hundred rounds for the first time and thinking "Wow, I shot a lot of paint". Paintball has always been fun, but from the first day I went to a field to play I found myself disappointed. The fields were so small that games always erupted in a huge fire fight seconds after the whistle blew. There was no stealth, no room to flank, and no organization anyway. "The other guys are there, let's go get them" formed the basis of the tactics used. I understood field owners needed to sell paint to live, but it was not as much fun. In college at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, I had the chance to command a platoon sized group of paintballers. As five man teams we always lost because we were broke, but when we played scenario based 24 hour games we excelled! Why? Because even massive FA paintslingers cannot overcome organized attacks by players who know what they are doing. The scenario games were great, and commanding The Citadel Paintball team was the best paintball experience I have had. Alas, I finally graduated and entered the real world. I hooked up with a local semi-pro team for a few years, but found myself disillusioned by the tournament scene. They always degenerated into paintslingingfests. I saw cheating and arguing and grew disturbed. This was a GAME people! Hobbies are supposed to be fun. Before long I found myself making excuses to miss practice, and finally I left. The team went on to pro level events and did well for itself, so I guess they did better without me. I sold my gear for a song, got married, had kids and moved on. I missed paintball, but not the politics of the tournament scene. A year later I discovered Civil War Reenacting. Here was a chance to do something cool and organized. It was more expensive then paintball, but was a blast. I served from the rank of private to Colonel, and even managed to "shell" Charleston, South Carolina as a Commodore in command of two gunboats. It was fun and I loved it...but my wife didn't. It took too much time away from home. So after four years of fun I sold my reenacting gear. I mentioned paintball to my wife (who is a consumate tomboy) and was surprised to hear her get excited about it. After she promised to play Paintball with me, I bought some Tippman's. We had a blast, (paintball is a great way to settle disagreements, but your neighbors will wonder). Secretely I still knew that there was something more that was missing from the game. We played together several times, then I discovered the new big games. I was at a Wayne Dollack big game in Florida having a blast when the thought occurred, what if we were organized before we showed up? I found the stalking I had missed, but still saw the disorder created when five man teams set off to accomPLIsh a Battalion or big team objective. Among themselves small teams operated efficiently, but when a lone player showed up (like I had) they were basically a fifth wheel. I thought back to my reenacting days and the 135th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle Of Antietam. I remember the 17,000 or more men who came together to make that happen. They studied the tactics, the orders, and the formations. And then they put it all together. Then I had an epiphany. What would happen if Paintballers were organized the same basic reenactors were? A MEGA TEAM would be a great idea! But there was one major problem. Reenactors have the resource books available so that when they show up, they already know how they communicate. A reenactor from California could easily command one from South Florida because they studied the same books, used the same phrases, and had the same organization. Paintball had no such system of tactics and communication. Military tactics didn't quite fit, so each team had developed their own tactics, hand signals, and ways of doing things. Paintball magazines were always full of different tactics for specific situations, but how did five guys from different areas expect to operate as a unit when they had studied different magazines. With no tactical manuals to fall back on, each small team developed their own. How do we remedy that? We write the book. I went back to the tactics we had used in college. They were formed around letters of the alphabet that the maneuver resembled to allow players to learn the tactics at a glance. For example, a FOXTROT formation can be viewed as an "F" laying on its back. The lines coming up representing the flank on which the attack is based. These were simple tactics, not designed to win tournaments, but to allow coordination on the field. At The Citadel we had combined this with simple American Sign Language to come up with a way to communicate silently, and verbally. Yelling "flank them on the left" is considerably more noticeable to the enemy than is "FOXTROT LIMA". In addition the commands could be given easily with two quick ASL signs. These were the tactics that led us to victory in scenario games in college and form the backbone of those used in Paintball Light Infantry Operations. So from October 1998 to January 2000 I wrote it. With input from my wife, other players, and internet buddies. My wife and I had combined with a few other rec ball players and were informally calling ourselves The PaintWarriors. We had a set of ideas that became the Paintball Warrior Battle Doctrine around which the Paintball Light Infantry was formed. In addition to set tactics, we needed immediate action drills so each member of a squad would know what to do and where to go when something happened. We needed to standardize communications gear with inexpensive radios, and miraculously the Motorola Talkabouts appeared. Some laughed when I insisted on including an immediate action drill for coming under artillery fire, then Tippmann Ordnance came out with their mortar and artillery systems. Only one thing was missing. How were we going to govern this unit? The easiest suggestion was basically a dictatorship, but this always lead to problems in the reenacting community and usually resulted in a sPLIt of the unit. We studied the by laws of some of the best reenacting organizations out there and finally decided on one vital point: the organizational command and the field command should be separate and should rotate democratically through all those teams in the unit. Thus the position of Executive Coordinator was created instead of Colonel, General, or commander. The position would rotate every six months from team to team and the person serving could not command a field event while acting as Executive Coordinator (EC). This keeps conflict of interest problems to a minimum. Each team would receive a vote on the Battalion Captains Council. They would govern the unit. Furthermore, we would allow each team to select by any method they chose to elect their BCC representative. Paintballers are very individualistic, and we recognized that. The Paintball Light Infantry (PLI) does not intrude itself in how an individual member team is run. We only impose those ideals that are common among players already. That is, no cheating, honor above all, and safe handling of paintball guns. It could not be seen as an attempt to take over their teams, but a way to complement their capability in the field. Finally we set about bringing the unit into existence. In January of 2000 we began recruiting persons to serve as Acting Detachment Commanders across the United States and Canada. Their primary job would be to recruit members and spread the word that a new unit with a new philosophy was around. So far it appears to be getting a good start. There will be problems, and we will have beefs, but hopefully we can work together to bring about a sea change in the way paintball is played. We believe that one day, events will be sponsored not by fields and stores, but by Mega-Team on Mega-Team matches, where true strategy comes into play, not crude mass attacks. As reenacting started out small, it has grown into a huge hobby, but there are already more paintballers in the United States than there are reenactors! We need to grow beyond the 5 man team. Think outside the box! Reenacting has at its core small units all over the country that "fall in" together to form Battalions, Divisions, and Armies. It is for this reason that the PLI was formed. Your unit is the small core one that can study the books and learn to command and interact with other teams. Even small teams will figure into the leadership rotation and will get the opportunity to lead National Level Events. This keeps us away from a dictatorship type unit where the many serve as cannon fodder for the commanding team, and allows everyone the chance to lead. Reenacting has a great system, and one that has taken years to evolve, but Paintball has the advantage of being able to use the experience gained by reenactors to further our own hobby. Imagine one day, 10,000 Paintballers formed intohuge teams going at it on the field in true fashion, with paintmortars, paintgrenades, squad automatic markers, grenadier squads, paintball assault weapons, mines, painttanks, armoured personnel carriers, and a standard system of tactics, communication, and organization. It is up to us to bring it about. If you are interested, contact the Paintball Light Infantry at http://pli.tripod.com. Join us in taking the next step in paintball evolution. THE PAINTBALL TEAM OF THE NEW MILLENIUM!! THE MEGA-TEAM!!!!