Reverse Unboxing, Ep 5: Ryan, SOCOM Aviation, Afghanistan
Another successful event under our belts! With RTX being a smashing success and us gearing up for the big Rooster Teeth Call to Arms extravaganza on July 23rd, things have been a bit busy around here…but not too busy to keep up with our supply crate mission!
Episode 5 this week, code named DOUBLE TAP, is a crate going to Ryan and his crew of Special Operations Aviators stationed in Afghanistan. Ryan and his team help the Afghan military train on how to fly the Russian helicopters they have in their inventory for counternarcotic and counterinsurgent operations. Seeing how both Iraqi and Afghan host nation militaries generally run away screaming at the first sign of trouble when we’re not around to support them, imagining a unit of Afghan pilots with actual helicopters seems…pretty hard to believe. But that’s what Special Forces mission is: to build up a host nation military so they can stand on their own two feet.
Here’s Ryan’s request:
Good Evening from Afghanistan. I am a 18 year chief Aviator assigned to a Russian helicopter training unit. Normally I fly the UH60 Blackhawk where I am an Instructor Pilot, Instrument Examiner, Maintenance Test Pilot, and Maintenance Examiner…our unit is a Special Operations Aviation unit flying the Mi-17 Helicopter. Our mission is a Train, Advise and Assist mission, training the Afghan Special Operations, Counter Narcotics Aviation Unit. Our missions tend to be those that require some good decompression time when we return. We have fallen in on very old compounds where we live with the Afghans or in close proximity to them. Most of the MWR or USO areas have already been pulled out and our unit does not have any electronic gaming type equipment. We are asking for anything you can do to help even if it is only for one of the locations. Anything is better than nothing and we can send it around as needed. If able to request items I would say the guys would like First Person Shooter Games, Sporting Games, and Flying Games. I don’t think there is really a preference of XBOX over Play Station as beggars can not be choosers. We do not have a lot of TVs so maybe a small portable projector for a TV but again we may be able to scrounge some TVs.
Ugh. Living NEXT to Afghanis and working with them is one thing, but living WITH them is something entirely different. There’s a thing that every US and NATO soldier is concerned about, and it’s called “Insider Threat”. That’s the concept where a bad guy can come in, go through the fairly simple system of becoming an Afghan Army soldier or police officer, and then wait until they’re trusted on the inside to turn their AK-47s on their Western counterparts. It happens an unfortunate number of times to make anyone living in these conditions have the constant fear of one of their supposed compatriots suddenly switch sides and start shooting at them. So yeah, let’s take care of Ryan and his crew.
Big thanks to all our supporters and sponsors, including Ubisoft, Humble Bundle, Deep Silver, EA, Microsoft, Game Informer, Turtle Rock Studios, HideIt Wall Mounts, and our t-shirt providers at A2Z Emblems from New Jersey.
Also, want to take some time out to thank new supporters as listed in the video, Pivothead, that provided the video camera glasses for the shoot, as well as Ethan Whinston and his family for continuing to send out a ridiculous amount of physical donations every few months!
The grand total of this supply crate according to Amazon (I guess not including the box), comes out to a staggering $2467, and couldn’t have happened without all these great folks providing support to us!
If you’d like to make a donation that gets highlighted in one of our videos, Stack-Up takes lightly used PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games and gear as well as cash donations. Please help us help these vets out here:
