My thoughts:

I wanted to watch Combat Missions Wednesday night, but there was a Navy SEAL recruiting video on. What was that about? Geez. I'd like to thank Alpha for voting out "EJ," which I think stands for "Egotistical Jerk." One episode with him talking is enough. First, talking smack about SWAT... how exactly will a SWAT-dominated unit winning the competition be an injustice to the law enforcement community? And what was that garbage he was spouting about how SEALs have the advantage compared to other special units, because SEALs work as a team? And other special units don't? Please. Is this the result of a Stanford education?

Rudy telling Jackson to go to "at ease" when he walked into Rudy's office... too late, with the way Jackson shambled into his C.O.'s office.

Alpha, especially Oates, was hilarious during the training missions. *German accent* "Fly up zee ropes, German! Go to zee choppah! Do eet!" Man, I was rolling. And SGM NotDevers (Utterback) calling Steve Taggett "Spartacus?" Brilliant.

Bob Kain doing voiceover on Dex's portfolio? Hilarious. And yay, Sirker has a personality! Not MUCH, but there's one there.

Bravo. Just. Can't. Lose. It's mean, but I was cheering when Alpha was dropping like flies... I want Bravo to go all the way. If Oates had cleared every room in that hangar, he would've found the FauxTerrorist ATF agent, and Alpha would've won. But he didn't, and so they lost. Sucks to be one man short... it REALLY sucks to be two men short.

Next ep... Helveston takes aim at Cade? Oh, no you don't!

This show is a guilty pleasure of mine. I catch the episodes on Sunday nights at midnight after SVU on USA. That Helveston is funny as hell!

Static, Sirker couldn't even climb a rope!!!!! He's the reason they lost that challenge. But it's so nerve racking to watch them continuously pull it out with a win!!

I can't believe neither team got the ATF guy. I was laughing when Oates was walking around looking for him and calling out his name! everyone practically fit that description they were given. I can't come up with a scenerio that would help get him out to safety without being recognized or shot at first. Although, Alpha had a guy, one guy knew it was the wrong guy, but his teammate kept saying it was the right guy. Idiot. I wish they would show when the teams are told that they did something wrong. IE... the ATF agent (wrong guy) or shooting at the 23 truck when they wanted the 13 truck.

They said they were voting out EJ because he wasn't an original member. I thought The German wasn't an original????

so i just tuned into this show for the very first time and ....

this has got to be one of the coolest things i have ever seen!

on the one hand i wish they had normal people, but on the other, more logical side, having seals duke it out with swat/berets and the like is pretty flurking cool. i can already tell that this will become my next vice!

one quick question though ... what are the mechanics behind the guns? do teams typically use their standard issue weapons? like is the mp5navy the standard gun for most of these groups? also, how does shooting/firing work? i think it's light driven - is that correct? and if so (or not), how does the gun have a recoil to it?

No, they dont typically use their standard issue weapons. During one of their training exercises they had to do : Weapon Assembly
Each squad must work together to assemble a series of weapons from a box of assorted parts. They use what looks to me, are M16's (could be the newer version of the M16, the M4's).





MILES 2000 LASER SYSTEM
Cubic is the world's leading provider of air and ground combat training systems for U.S. and allied forces. Cubic's sophisticated laser-based weapons training system, MILES 2000, is being used by all of the squads on Combat Missions.

It looks like part of the mission involves the ATF agent fleeing the room as soon as the shooting starts. I think Bravo filled the room with lasers before ATFAgent could get to cover, though. If ATFAgent makes it out of the room, and the Combat Missions squad goes through and clears all the rooms of the hangers after the shooting is over, which they should, if they're trying to find a friendly to extract, then I think they'd be able to bring ATFAgent to safety.

The Weapons Assembly "training mission" involved different kinds of weapons, including foreign weapons, apparently. The weapons that the CM squads used on the hangar mission were M-4s... they may have used M-16s on previous missions. The M-4s are newer, but their purpose isn't necessarily the "next step" of M-16... it is a more compact, more lightweight version of the M-16 with a collapsible stock and shorter barrel, which (I think) is designed more for CQB-situations.

If I remember right, blanks have a little kick to them. The MILES system that they use is basically Laser Tag, all grown up. It's used in military training missions.

Ack.... just finished watching the episode....

Dang, how the heck were you supposed to determine who the ATF agent really was short of having a T-shirt on that says "ATF"?

The Miles Laser Gear looks cool. It seems that part of the episode is a commercial for that system. Certainly better than the Laser Force geat I used to play with. However, I noticed that occassionally, the gear gives a short beep instead of the long "you're dead" buzz. What's up with that?

Yeah, no kidding. They got crappy intel. I wonder where the guy went when Alpha went in there? He fleed the hangar... but after that? I'm interested to see if the other two teams manage to rescue the poor guy.
I'm pretty sure the short beep is a "near miss" warning, to let the wearer know that someone is firing at him, and that he'd better find some cover soon.

Were you saying that to me? or qbert??? I know about the m16 and the m4. Look at the other forum webpage with my pictures on it...

Sorry, part to you, part to qbert. It's been fixed.