WEBVTT 00:00.009 --> 00:02.120 What we're actually doing out here is 00:02.120 --> 00:04.009 we're conducting an international 00:04.009 --> 00:06.176 reconnaissance competition . We've got 00:06.176 --> 00:08.398 teams from across the globe essentially 00:08.398 --> 00:10.120 that are out here competing to 00:10.120 --> 00:12.231 demonstrate the reconnaissance skills 00:12.231 --> 00:14.453 and their military sportsmanship . It's 00:14.453 --> 00:16.231 tactical movement . It's actual 00:16.231 --> 00:18.342 reconnaissance tasks like sneaking up 00:18.342 --> 00:20.620 conducting area reconnaissance , right ? 00:20.620 --> 00:22.787 Finding the enemy , fixing the enemy , 00:22.787 --> 00:22.549 collecting information on the enemy . 00:22.639 --> 00:24.806 This is a lot of moving tactically and 00:24.806 --> 00:28.260 enemy enemy operational areas . Ok ? 00:28.500 --> 00:30.333 And so when we're looking at the 00:30.333 --> 00:32.444 reconnaissance aspect , we're talking 00:32.444 --> 00:34.556 about military skills to get close to 00:34.556 --> 00:36.778 the enemy , collect information and get 00:36.778 --> 00:36.180 out . I've been involved for about 00:36.189 --> 00:38.411 seven years initially as a competitor , 00:38.411 --> 00:40.578 then eventually as an umpire . And now 00:40.578 --> 00:42.633 the chief umpire , my experience has 00:42.633 --> 00:44.856 been that I've kind of seen it from all 00:44.856 --> 00:47.022 aspects . I was a support and uh staff 00:47.022 --> 00:49.245 and all sorts of things . My experience 00:49.245 --> 00:51.709 was um coming up getting to know the 00:51.720 --> 00:53.930 competition getting involved . Uh Now 00:53.939 --> 00:56.220 my role has become more of a guidance 00:56.229 --> 00:58.490 for future competitions . So as the 00:58.500 --> 01:00.909 chief umpire , we kind of maintain the 01:00.919 --> 01:02.975 overall spirit of the competition as 01:02.975 --> 01:05.030 well as the general guidance for the 01:05.030 --> 01:07.252 individual districts as the competition 01:07.252 --> 01:09.363 moves around the country to different 01:09.363 --> 01:11.419 districts every year . Uh We provide 01:11.419 --> 01:11.110 guidance to those districts to make 01:11.120 --> 01:13.231 sure that they get the opportunity to 01:13.231 --> 01:15.453 build a competition as they see fit but 01:15.453 --> 01:17.564 still within the spirit and intent of 01:17.564 --> 01:19.564 the initial competition . This is a 01:19.564 --> 01:21.231 really good balance between a 01:21.231 --> 01:23.064 reconnaissance competition and a 01:23.064 --> 01:25.176 military sporting event . Typically a 01:25.176 --> 01:24.900 military sporting event would be 01:24.910 --> 01:26.743 testing out the capabilities and 01:26.743 --> 01:28.521 soldiering skills of individual 01:28.521 --> 01:31.769 soldiers , you think of like best range 01:31.779 --> 01:33.835 or competitions , things like that . 01:33.835 --> 01:35.946 Whereas recons competition is to make 01:35.946 --> 01:37.835 as closely as possible a tactical 01:37.835 --> 01:39.890 environment and compete for actually 01:39.890 --> 01:42.001 conducting a mission . What we try to 01:42.001 --> 01:43.946 do here is have a good blend where 01:43.946 --> 01:46.057 teams are out conducting the tactical 01:46.057 --> 01:47.779 mission and they're stopped at 01:47.779 --> 01:49.835 checkpoints to test their soldiering 01:49.835 --> 01:52.057 skills and abilities . So some of those 01:52.057 --> 01:51.910 skills that we see is everything you 01:51.919 --> 01:53.839 typically expect medical tasks , 01:53.849 --> 01:56.389 weapons firing tasks , foreign weapons 01:56.400 --> 02:00.059 tasks , explosives tasks , it runs the 02:00.069 --> 02:02.236 whole gamut . Some of these things are 02:02.236 --> 02:04.125 just basic soldiering skills like 02:04.125 --> 02:06.589 memorization and report formats . Um 02:06.599 --> 02:08.821 what they try to change every year . So 02:08.821 --> 02:10.932 while the basic skills are the same , 02:10.932 --> 02:13.099 the actual challenges that they use to 02:13.099 --> 02:15.099 create those skills are different . 02:15.099 --> 02:17.266 I'll use a good example from this year 02:17.266 --> 02:19.889 call for fire event where they collect 02:19.899 --> 02:22.066 the information using drone footage to 02:22.066 --> 02:24.177 conduct the actual call for fire . So 02:24.177 --> 02:26.949 still using your typical NATO format , 02:26.960 --> 02:28.960 using all the regular call for fire 02:28.960 --> 02:31.016 aspects . Um but taking advantage of 02:31.016 --> 02:32.789 newer technologies during this 02:32.800 --> 02:34.856 competition . The coolest thing I've 02:34.856 --> 02:37.690 seen is to build in weapons training of 02:37.699 --> 02:40.100 weapons you typically see in Estonia 02:40.110 --> 02:42.332 and from the historical combat . And so 02:42.332 --> 02:44.449 what the commander implemented was 02:44.460 --> 02:46.516 training on local weapon systems and 02:46.516 --> 02:48.627 historical weapon systems in the area 02:48.627 --> 02:50.738 and then actually incorporating tasks 02:50.738 --> 02:52.793 during the competition to fire those 02:52.793 --> 02:55.016 weapons systems . So I thought that was 02:55.016 --> 02:56.960 pretty cool that all the teams are 02:56.960 --> 02:56.259 getting to see weapon systems , they 02:56.270 --> 02:58.492 typically wouldn't and engaging targets 02:58.492 --> 03:00.714 and actually collecting points based on 03:00.714 --> 03:02.937 the skills they've gained . The coolest 03:02.937 --> 03:05.103 thing I've probably seen is how people 03:05.103 --> 03:06.770 use tactics in a gamesmanship 03:06.770 --> 03:08.714 environment . And so it's funny to 03:08.714 --> 03:10.970 watch as teams do things as simple as 03:10.979 --> 03:13.090 strip , strip down to their underwear 03:13.090 --> 03:15.257 and run through uh recy targets to try 03:15.257 --> 03:17.090 to collect information obviously 03:17.090 --> 03:19.201 against the rules and not what you do 03:19.201 --> 03:21.201 in combat , but probably one of the 03:21.201 --> 03:23.312 funnier aspects and one of the things 03:23.312 --> 03:25.312 that makes the competition a little 03:25.312 --> 03:27.257 more lively and interesting and uh 03:27.257 --> 03:27.240 creates that camaraderie between teams 03:27.250 --> 03:29.194 and seeing these kind of funny and 03:29.194 --> 03:31.417 interesting ways that teams try to game 03:31.417 --> 03:31.839 the competition .