Hatchet Force

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February 8-10, 2008. This was the first Hatchet Force Challenge, a new annual competition where teams will have to use a variety of skills to complete objectives and finish in time to receive the trophy.

This year’s AO was a remote desert location with unforgiving terrain, and plenty of abandoned gold mines. Every individual competing had to be alert at all times not only thinking about his primary objective but concentrating on every step in this environment.

Each team has a required gear list, and limited ammunition to take with them through the Hatchet Force Challenge course, an intense series of objectives putting their organization and team cohesiveness to the test.

They were inserted with a map, and several grid coordinates as objectives. As they moved to the first objective they found an enemy machine gun emplacement and a whole lot of hostile fire. After an intense battle, and casualties, the teams had to organize and rappel down into a canyon (in full gear) which would take them to their next objective.

Fighting through the canyon, they eventually came to their second objective, an enemy missile emplacement with more opposing forces ready and waiting for them. Another battle complete, but the war of the day wasn’t over. They had enough time to communicate a SITREP and re-arm (using the enemy supply crates), before they had to move out to their next task.

The third and primary objective was to locate a core from a crashed U.S. Intelligence satellite. It contained information sensitive to national security and has the highest priority. Information from other satellite and UAV intel reports stated that the satellite core was picked up by an enemy patrol and taken into one of their many mountainside hideouts, an abandoned mining cave.

As they neared the entrance, everything seemed quiet. Too quiet. No sooner did they reach their objective than they were ambushed by more enemy forces. But with all the momentum built up from they day of combat, they weren’t going to let it slow them down. As they moved into a large cave system, filled with 40+ ft. vertical shafts and low-hanging rock ceilings, they were greeted by a familiar voice. A USSF soldier had been fighting his way around this cave system and looking for the core for days. He had lost all contact with the outside world, and even though he was the only survivor of his team, was focused on one thing only; completing his mission. Together they fought through the remaining forces in the cave system and eventually found what they came for. The only problem? It was laying at the bottom of a 90+ft vertical mine shaft. Nominated as their most experienced climbers, each team sent one individual to rappel down into the mineshaft to retrieve the 50lb. satellite core. After it was retrieved, the teams had to work together to pull their man, and their objective to safety.

Exfil. With the primary objective secure, it was time to get the hell outta dodge. The final objective was to get to their extraction point in as little time as possible. After a long and difficult day navigating through canyons, and along steep cliffs, each team fought it’s way back over the same excruciatingly tough terrain. But they made it. They had completed their objectives and were each victorious. The Hatchet Challenge was over.

In the end, there was only one winner, the team which made it to the extraction point in the least amount of time. It was a VERY close call, and with only 13 minutes difference, but Team 2 (Green team), lead by Daniel Alarcon won the day.

This was the first year in what we hope to be a long-running annual challenge in which tactically-minded teams can test their skills in one of the most difficult, mentally and physically, events they have ever attended. Next year will be another time and a different area, but the challenge will be just as tough. If you think you have what it takes to take on the Hatchet Challenge, just let us know.

-Hatchet Force.

HF Photos
CODEREDFOX Photos

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 1559:48 and is filed under Main, Ops, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.