Today we started TCE. Tactical control exercises. You could say it’s the final exam.
Right now, I’m lying in my bunk. This is an SP (observation post). Our unit has three of them. Mine is in the rear. Most of all, you have to listen. Because visibility is quite poor in the forest, but you can hear a lot.
The process is quite interesting. Early in the morning, we gathered the necessary things and went to our positions. We gathered our things with the understanding that we would have to spend the night at our positions.
And this was the first difficulty for an inexperienced person. Like me 🙂 I gathered all the necessary things. But I didn’t think about or take into account the fact that I would have to walk a certain distance with these things. Also, to complete the picture, we were in full gear. That is, body armor and a helmet. A heavy backpack, a bag, an automatic weapon, body armor, and a helmet. And we had to walk with all of this 🙂
By the way, regarding food, the TCE canteen will not be preparing meals for us for three days. We were given three dry rations from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And that will be our food for three days.
In principle, the quality of the dry rations is quite normal. There are three cans of canned food. Rice with beef, millet with beef, just beef, a can of pâté, a couple of packs of biscuits, two sticks of honey, several sticks of sugar, tea, and two wet wipes. The main food is prohibited, so it is highly desirable to heat it up. Otherwise, it will be rubbery and not tasty. Therefore, we took a small gas heater to heat up our food.
In terms of the amount of food, it’s basically normal if you eat everything. In terms of taste… well, it’s basically normal too.
We arrived and prepared our position. We made three SPs. Namely, we chose a good place, dug a hole with a shovel, and camouflaged it well. This is what the bed I made looks like.
My partner and I take turns sitting in it. We created groups to communicate. We communicate via messenger. You can guess which one. Definitely not Telegram 🙂
Drones often fly overhead. According to the rules of the game, all drones are considered hostile. And you really need to hide from them. If you don’t hide, they will either film you or drop something on you. If you are hit by a drop, you become the 300th player and your team must evacuate you. During the evacuation, you are not allowed to help your team. You must remain motionless and preferably shout, “Mommy, take me home.” As of today, if I’m not mistaken, we already have five such 300s.
If a drone takes a photo or video of you, it’s a minus for your team. And at the end of the CTZ, they will show you this photo or video, showing how you “screwed up” :).
Now I’m sitting at my SP. When I hear something, I write it in the chat. I also write down what I heard or saw in the observation log. As for the rules, we still shoot at the enemy, point our machine guns at them and say “bang-bang-bang” 🙂
However, it is permitted to use firecrackers instead of grenades. So I put one next to me on my SP in case an opponent gets too close.
There are also special grenades that look like F1s, also have a pin, also explode, but are 10 times weaker than real ones. You can also make tripwires with them. So some grown-up boys decided to play with them too 🙂
But that was just the beginning. The prelude 🙂 Usually, assaults on positions are carried out at night, somewhere between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m.
But in our case, considering that civilians lived at a certain distance from these fields, and shots and explosions can be heard very well and far at night. Permission was given to shoot and use firecrackers until 11:00 p.m. and after 5:00 a.m.
Therefore, the main assault on our positions began around 9:00 p.m. and lasted until 11:00 p.m. Blank cartridges and firecracker grenades were used. According to some rumors, our opponent bought firecrackers worth 30,000 hryvnia. Considering that the average cost of one is 50 hryvnia, you can imagine how many there were.
When it all started, the atmosphere was indeed quite lively. Blank shots, lots of grenades.
When the assault and chaos began, I realized how difficult it was to distinguish between our own people and the enemy in this chaos. Especially when one of the SPs was hit. You hear that one of the SPs has been hit, and in the darkness you see a silhouette. Who is it?
The commander said that this requires detailed discussion in advance and good coordination.
At 11:00 p.m., the order to cease fire was given, and we began taking turns guarding our SPs. Of course, there was a certain romance to guard duty at night. The night forest, crickets, etc. Unaccustomed to it and lacking experience, most people did not get much sleep.
At 6:00 a.m., without having slept much, we gathered and went to prepare for the next day’s TCE. There were no long breaks, no breakfast. Perhaps such a challenge is also part of the program.
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