Paintball Adventures…

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Hello all,

I just wanted to share with you the joys of paintball.  I only wish I could find my digital camera so I could show you the damage it did.  Anyway, it was a corporate team building exercise between the company I work for and a similar company in the ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Denver area.  We had never met these people before, but they work in our industry and we all thought it would be fun.

Finally the day arrives. We had been waiting all morning eager with anticipation and chattering away about how much fun we are going to have.   We drive up, late.  And we come upon this group of people in matching t-shirts with their company name and numbers on the back and camouflage pants.  We thought we were done for.  We had heard they had a few ex marines on their team.  We only had a couple of people who had ever played paintball before on our team.  Their only weakness we could think of was that they had more girls on their team that we did.  We only had 2, me included. 

We all get in line to sign our lives away on the waiver, in case of serious injury or death.  Then we eagerly get in line to get our paintball guns and our ammo.  We are given a sit down and a set of serious instructions how to protect ourselves by wearing our goggles CONSTANTLY.  If we didn't we would have to be reminded by doing 20 pushups.  If you failed that, then you were out of the game.  I wore my goggles the entire time.  I didn't want to lose an eye, or my life for a game. 

We are then lead onto the field and given a set of rules and 2 different home bases, or forts, to start from.  The object of this game is to get to the wooden gun in the middle of the field turned in the opposite direction of your home base and whichever teams succeeds in keeping the gun turned that direction once the whistle blows, wins the game.  Sounds easy.  But there are obstacles and bunkers to hide behind.  We have to make sure the other team doesn't kill us.  We have to protect our teammates.  I wasn't sure how I would do, so I stayed close to the back.  I am a pretty good shot, but I had never played before, and I wasn't sure how I was at tactical maneuvers. 

I moved up to the middle and was able to keep the other team at bay.  I helped with cover fire to keep a couple of teammates from getting shot.  But then it was too late.  One team mate was down.  But I was able to kill the guy that shot him.  Unfortunately for me, I put my head up too far and was shot in the temple.  Luckily I had the face mask on and it didn't hurt.  But that meant I was out and had to go back to our home base and wait for the regeneration whistle.  But it was late in the game and the whistle blew for the end of it.  We won this round! 

Game 2

After a short break for lunch and to cool down a bit we go back on the field for the next round.  This game was on a larger field.  There were larger bunkers and larger open spaces as well.  The object of this game was to get our team flag up the pole and keep it there by the time the game time had run out.  We also had to keep the other team's flag down. 

We all start out at our home base.  And the good thing is that there is a lot more space between our fort and theirs, so we are able to get a little closer before we are in harms way.  Some of us go up on the left.  Some straight up the middle.  And a few of us go to the right.  We even have a sniper or two crawling in the grass.

  I went to the right and I am behind a small bunker and a large tree.  I am able to supply some cover fire, but not for long.  I am shot in the neck.  It hurts terribly.  But I can't tell if the paintball burst.  If there is no paint I am still in the game.  But I am out there alone.  So I run back to base with my arms up in the air saying I am dead to check and to recoup from the pain.  Lucky for me I am not dead yet, no paint.  Of course it still hurts like hell and I am trying to keep myself from getting shot a second time.

 I run back out in the same direction keeping my head down a little more.  I am shooting near the flags trying to keep the other team's player from getting their flag up.  My gun jams and I can't get it to work.  Then I finally get it working and I run out of ammo.  I run up to the referee to get more ammunition.  I am safely on the hill out of the way of fire.  But I have to go back in.  I run behind a large old spool that used to have cable on it.   My boss and teammate tells me to run up to the next bunker.  So I do as he commands.  But it is so much smaller and I am sure to get hit.  I am just providing cover so he can go in and get our flag up.  I get shot in the shin and the chest.  I am out. 

I go back to our home base waiting for the regeneration whistle again.  But the end of the game is near.  I am hot, exhausted and sore.  But I love every minute of it.  I am also exhilarated.  End of game whistle blows and we win again. Victory!!

Game 3-The Alamo

Well since we have won the last couple of games the referee decides that we should play Alamo.  And that the other team should defend their fort.  It is our job to infiltrate and kill them all and we will win the game.  Or if anyone is left standing from the other team in their fort they will win. 

The battle begins.  Again, this field is large; it is the same one we used for the game before with the flag raising.  But this time we have a lot more space where we won't get shot.  We are able get really close before we need to start hiding behind bunkers.  They are enclosed within the walls of their fort.  I get behind a tree and try to take aim.  I shoot off a couple of round and realize I left the barrel sock on the end of the paintball rifle.  I kneel down and take the barrel sock off and get back into position.  Now my gun is jammed.  I have to go to a ref to get it fixed.  I am back in the game and I follow a co-worker into some bushes.  He moves ahead of me off to the left and through the bushes. He gets through, no shots at him.  I follow closely behind.  I am on my belly crawling with my gun ahead of me hoping to get a shot of someone on the other team.  Too late, I have been hit.  I try to stand up, but I am in some thick bushes.  I yell, I am dead, I am dead, but I get repeatedly shot across the chest and my arms.  It hurts like hell.  I am trying to run out of the way.  I go back to home base to wait for the regeneration whistle. Lucky for me, because of the pain in my arm, the game is almost over.  The end of game whistle blows and we killed everyone on their team except one.  We won this round.  Now it is our turn to defend the fort…

We are all looking for a place to hide behind and yet still be able to get clear shots of the enemy.  I end up in the middle inside the fort behind a wall with some tall barrels.  It is pretty good cover but it is also somewhat limiting in my view outside the walls.  A coworker is down in front of me past the wall outside behind a bunker with a better view telling me where to shoot.  We keep some of them at bay with cover fire.  She yells, there is someone to the left behind the tree.  I start shooting along with some of my other co workers.  We hit the soldier behind the tree.  He is out, but another one follows closely behind him.  We continue shooting and we get him too.  All of a sudden I am getting fire closely hitting the barrel by me.  I crouch down for cover.  My co worker yells there is someone on my left again.  I stick my gun barrel out of the hole in the wall and start shooting without looking because I am still getting fire.  I shot him.  But I quickly get hit myself on my gun.  I am out of this game.  I slowly walk back to where the referees are waiting for the game to end.  Unfortunately I find out the last person I hit, wasn't one of the enemy, it was my boss.  I had shot him 5 times.  (not a good thing)  At least it was close to the end of the game and we still had plenty of people alive on our team.  Whistle blows and we WIN AGAIN!  That is 3 in a row baby!!

Game 4

It has been a little more than 3 hours and we are all tired, bruised and very dirty.  But we decide to go another round.  This game is called Suicide bomber.  The point of the game is to get a flack jacket, wear it and go into the enemy camp home base without getting shot in one of the limbs or head.  Any place that you get shot on the flack jacket is immune.  However, if you get shot in the gun, arms, legs or head, you are dead and have to drop the flack jacket wherever you are and go back to your home base to be regenerated. 

This game is a little tougher.  We had to split up into even and odd camps.  That meant that both teams, who had just met on this day were now working together and against each other at the same time.  I was on the odd team and had some people from my office and some from the other office. Luckily we got the one guy that was the sniper from the other team and he was in full camouflage.  Of course this also made it harder to tell who was on your team.  The point of this game was to get inside the other camp and we were all mixed up.  And with the face mask on it is even harder to tell; even when the other team had on these tiny orange arm bands. 

I was supposed to stay in the middle and provide cover fire once again.  Most of my team had gone off to the right and down by the creek to try to get to the flack jacket first.  Unfortunately the even team got to it pretty quickly and infiltrated onto our side.  I was in a good position though and kept taking people out.  My gun was suddenly out of ammo.  The ref was close by and I yelled to him so I could get some more.  I filled up quickly and got back behind the bunker.  I wasn't there long when I was hit.  And all of my ammo spilled onto my head.  I was covered in paint and couldn't really see.  My hopper was hit by the paintball from the other team and spilled all over me.  I am dead again.  The ref helped me out and refilled my hopper.  I had to go back to home base to regenerate.  Unfortunately I got stuck there because the other team got so close and kept shooting.  But the good thing was that me and a couple of other people were there and keeping them at bay so they couldn't win the game. 

Someone shot the guy on the other team who had the flack jacket so close.  The vest was maybe 30 feet away on the ground.  Our team was trying to get to jacket as quickly as possible.  One of our snipers gets it, my boss.  He runs with it down by the creek.  I am finally able to get out from home base.  The only problem is the most of our team runs with the sniper to keep the vest with our team.  There is hardly anyone to protect our side.  I decide to hang back.  I am about 15 feet from home base behind another bunker.  And just that fast the other team gets through again and starts coming our way.  I am shooting lots of cover fire.  It's a good thing too, because there are 2 guys that have the flack jacket now and I shot one and my coworker gets the other.  Just in time, our sniper gets the jacket back and runs to the other side to their home base. 

Again we win the game!  It is a sweep. 

I am definitely pumped.  I killed at least 7 people.  Probably more, but it is hard to tell from a distance and behind cover.   We are already talking about when we can all do this again.  

It has been a week now since we played paintball and I still have my bruises, they are looking better.  It was totally worth it.  They are my battle scars, war wounds.  I am proud of them.