Team Info

Origins of the Hellions Special Forces GroupA brief look at the team from its inception in 2004 to the present.

The Hellions are organized under the United States Army Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha team (or A-team) concept. Many of the mission concepts of real-world special operations forces can be successfully applied to the realm of scenario paintball. For that reason, the Hellions actively strive to portray elite Special Forces operators not only in the team's organizational structure, but also by embodying their emphasis on technical and tactical superiority developed through individual diligence and repetitive unit training

The primary goal of the team is to play a predominant role in the accomplishment of the central theme's mission in any big game or scenario event and emerge victorious at the end of the day. Similar to their real-world counterparts, the Hellions operate in relatively small numbers and must often find a way to overcome considerable odds in order to fulfill their mission reqrirements when opposed by much larger forces. In order to do so effectively, they must remain highly motivated and play a number of different roles concurrently. The following is a description of the various types of special missions that the Hellions perform at scenario paintball events.

UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE

Special Forces have long employed the use of Uncoventional Warfare (UW), also known as guerilla warfare, to train, equip advise and assist forces in enemy-held or controlled territory. UW covers a broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations such as subversion sabotage, escape and evasion, and the many interrelated fields of guerilla warfare and other operations of a low visibility, covert or clandestine nature. They are generally long-duration conflicts conducted by indigenous forces organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by special operations forces.

In recreational scenario events, the majority of the participants are local paintballers who have played at the host field some time in the past and are at least vaguely familiar with the terrain. Most either arrived alone or with a small group of close friends but are buy no means an organized unit. By all definitions, they are "indigenous" forces. A considerable portion of these players find no greater enjoyment than to run rampant across the field, shooting as many of the other team as possible as if it is just an giant game with. As such, they are more preoccupied with skirmishing than the success of the overall event. The mission of UW in paintball is to recruit, organize, advise and supervise as many of these local players as possible to concentrate on achieving the individual and collective missions of the scenario's theme in order to accumulate enough points to prevail at the end of the day.

SPECIAL RECONNAISSANCE

Special Forces teams are often infiltrated behind enemy lines to provide the theater commander with intelligence on the enemy or to gather information on the terrain, local populace, et cetera, of an area. Their goal is to verify, through observation or other collective methods, information concerning enemy capabilities, intentions, and activiteis in support of strategic/operational objectives or conventional forces. Reconnaissance and surveillance actions may be conducted at strategic or operational levels to complement national and theater-level collection efforts to provide information such as target acquisition, area assessment, and post-strike reconnaissance data.

In scenario events, often the success of the mission can directly depend on how well the battlefield commander is informed on the actions and movements of the Oppositional Forces, or OPFOR. The goal of Special Reconnaissance in paintball is to infiltrate behind the lines and relay important information back to higher command about OPFOR's activities so that its missions can be preempted and its deployed forces countermet.

DIRECT ACTION

Direct Action missions are short duration strikes that are used when Special Forces want to seize, capture, recover or destroy enemy weapons and information or recover designated personnel or material. It may be either overt or covert action against to seize, damage, or destroy a target; capture or recover personnel or material in support of strategic/operational objectives or conventional forces. These missions may constitute raids, ambushes, or direct assault tactics; emplacement of mines and other munitions; designation or illumination of targets for precision-guided munitions; support for cover and deception operations; or independent sabotage operations inside enemy-held territory.

In the scenario world, most missions fall under the umbrella of direct action. Whether searching for props or holding a certain location from the enemy for a specified amount of time, the majority of missions assigned to a group or team are direct actions, and the points awarded are vital to the overall success of the event. It stands to reason that a large percentage of operations conducted by a tactical scenario paintball team such as the Hellions would fall into this category.

COUNTER-TERRORISM

Speical Forces are often deployed to preclude, preempt and resolve terrorist incidents abroad. They prevent, deter and respond to terrorist activities and train other nations' military in the basics of fighting terrorism.

Source: Special Forces mission and postion descriptions were taken in part from the official U.S. Army webite.