Expectations for OP: 34?

[Altairus 1]

I will be attending my first milsim at the next OP: 34 in April, and will have a group of people coming with me as well. I have been airsofting for about a year now, and have no experience when it comes to milsims for airsoft... but have been in the army for 5 years as an infantryman. I've been planning out how to organize our squad, and have been explaining to some of the people in my squad how to do certain tactical movements, etc... but have been told by people who have gone to previous OPs that I 'need to calm down'. That lead me to wonder how will the OP actually go...? My expectations are it will be run as a legit military operation (thats the appeal of milsim, from what I've seen), and thats how I have been planning things out according to my experiences, but how well does that translate to an actual milsim event like this? Specifically, I want input from other vets on how well our experience translates over to an airsoft milsim (and to OP: 34), and what I'd need to adjust in my mindset.

[TimmyHorton 72]

op34 is all about room to room and building to building movements and getting observers and a SAW gunner who know what they are doing up onto the roofs and the tower as from up there you can call out targets on the radio and shoot down with the height advantage plus short of a sniper you are untouchable up there, main thing to stress with your guys is light discipline don't back light us, make sure they get good ID's before shooting so we wont frag each other.

Op34 is a lot of stair climbing and tight spots so slim down the kit the Fob will always be less than 50M away so you don't need packs on you, there pounds will equal pain I remember last year my squad going up and down the T building 3 times in a row to keep clearing it ,I had the SAW and a m4 and I can tell you that building had a lot of stairs and it sucked. 

 

TLDR 

kit you should bring is rain gear faction colored 

weapon lights

handheld lights 

red chem lights for when you get hit

blue or green light for navigating the pitch black rooms during movements don't use red light for this

anti fog for dayzzz

baofeng uv5r radio for comms

 

you can plan tactics but you know Murphy's law, these events tend to follow a rough outline of a plan then we just work it out as we go. I'm not military but if you need something to compare as you were an 11B imagine a urban assault course but less serious and less disciplined,half the dudes have no clue and the rest of us just go nuts running around trying to complete objectives and take ground but we all have fun in our own ways.

[Alex AMS 614]

You get as much or as little out of it as you want.  There are guys who stay in constant contact with their platoon leadership, and there are guys that just run off.  The level of training and effectiveness sometimes depends on your squad.  If you have the chance to train together and make up your own TTP's then that's great.  Many people don't have the ability to do this.  If you want to train and develop better cohesiveness, then have at it.  There will be a command structure, there will be missions of different types, and it will be up to you how to best lead your squad, and remain in contact with higher.  We set it up like a simple military operation, but we can't make people stay on mission, stay to assigned areas, and keep in contact with their leadership.  We provide the sandbox, and put the toys in it, you guys are the ones that move the toys around to make things happen.  I hope this addresses some peoples mentality when they say calm down, but also says to you that it doesn't hurt to train, and get better at things.