[Ansteorra-archery] Some Gulf War XIII Combat Archery Stats

[Eadric Anstapa]

jspinks at ix.netcom.com said:

> Having not been to Gulf War yet (maybe next year) and not knowing 
> the procedure I would like to inquire of one thing- I understand 
> the logic of getting equipment inspected in bulk but are there no 
> direct records of authorized combat archers and marshals that 
> could use the equipment?  If safety is the main concern then it 
> would seem we should know who is using the equipment.
> 

You are correct there are no direct records kept at war of who was
there that could use what equipment, and if it was it would be of
little use on the field.  The use would only be for statistical
purposes after the fact.  If you are a marshal and you need to
verify that someone is authorized to use a weapon then you go up to
them and ask to see their authorization card.

If you needed to be able to look out on the field and see that a
fighter was using a weapon that he was authorized for them you would
have to mark the fighters in some meaningful way.  So in that case
we would have to put some colored tape on the fighter to represent
which side he was on, then put a different colored tape on him to
indicate that he was sword/board authorized, then put different tape
on him to indicate that he was missile combat authorized, then put
different tape to indicate that he was fiberglass spear authorized,
then put different tape on him to indicate that he was siege
authorized, then put different tape on him to indicate that he was
unpadded glaive authorized, etc. etc.

When every fighter comes through inspection point his card is
checked to see that he is an authorized fighter of some sort.  If he
is authorized and his armor passes inspection then he is gets a
stikker on his helm to prove that he went trough the inspection
process and he is allowed on the field.  We trust that he is a noble
and honorable man and will only use weapons he is authorized to use
because there is no practical way to police that in large melees.  

Lets face it,  I could go through inspection point in armor, present
my card, be inspected, and get the appropriate sticker on my helm,
and then go back to camp and give someones else my helm (with the
sticker) and let them go out on the field without the rest of his
armor being inspected or withotu him ever having to repsent an auth
card.  Unless we fully inspect every fighter before every melee
there is just to practical way to police this.  At some point you
have to trust people to do the right thing and just satisfy yourself
with punishing them harshly when they knowingly do the wrong thing.  

Weapons are likewise inspected and some of them are marked either
with spray paint or stickers.  Every bow and or crossbow gets an
inspection sticker on it that has it's vital information.  

Arrows and bolts are not marked, they are just logged.  It would be
a massive amount of work to mark each of the throusands of arrows
that come through inspection and quite honestly even if they are
marked you a marshal really cant look out on the field and tell that
so it is only any good after the fact.

Now, at Pennsic where many of the particpants are anti-CA they make
you take all of your arrows and bolts back to the fromal inspection
point EVERY DAY.  They have to be reinspected EVERY DAY, and have
the "Color of the Day" spray painted on them.  You are not supposed
to go on the field unless your arrow has the color of the day on it
and if you get caught using arrows that dont have the color of the
day then you dont get to go on the field anymore for that event.

If we had to reinspect 7000 arrows/bolts every day we would never
get it done, at the end of the war your arrows have so much paint on
them that they look like crap and it all blurs together and you
can't tell what was sprayed where or when.  Once again, we try to
trust that people do the right things.  If we catch you using
illegal arrows then you come off the field and we go to marshals
court if needed.  You are expected to tell us when and where the
arrows you where using were inspected and we look in the looks books
to verify that and handle it as is appropriate.

Regards,

-- 
Arcus Eadric Anstapa
Ansteorra
eadric at scabrewer.com