Post by Ultra on Dec 16, 2013 23:19:03 GMT -5
I was thinking today about how long this group has been around and how many newer players probably do not know the origins of airsoft in this state. So I decided to put it in writing. I don't claim to know everything but I'll do the best I can.
West Virginia Airsoft was started by five people at a booth in the old Dwights restaurant in Huntington West Virginia in 2001. Their call signs were Bossman, Deviant, Ultra, Chappy and another guy who shall remain nameless because he turned out to be a giant turd.
Team Terror
I guess we should back up a bit because the story actually begins in 1998 with a small group of players who met online through old chat groups like on yahoo. They started playing on some property across the river in Chesapeake Ohio where the games gradually grew larger and they came into contact with the founding members of Team Strikers of Airsoft Ohio fame. Bossman, Deviant and the nameless one started a team in this group called Team Terror, picking up members Ultra and Chappy in 1999. The rise of the first incarnation of the popular airsoft social network Airsoft Ohio took place and the Chesapeake games found themselves in a regular two week rotation with games hosted by AO founders Team Stormblade's field in Goshen Ohio and later in Lebanon Ohio and Fran Bar Park in Columbus. Team Terror was AO's first OP4 team, equipping themselves with modified Night desert uniforms and German Flectarn they took to the field as the bad guys at every event. The games in our area expanded to include four pole creek in West Huntington, Wayne county's community field house, various old paintball fields and a massive multi acre field in Wayne county. The team even sent a squad out to Vegas to play in massive milsim event.
Old Chesapeake crew including Strikers founder Blade. 1999?
Chappy in Vegas
Chappy in modified OP4 uni
Picture we used as a promo for Operation Sustained Deliverance. A three day event played at the Wayne field house and deep in the Wayne county hills.
Bossman in Ohio early 2001
The O.V.M.B. and the founding of WV Airsoft
After the events of 9/11, the above mentioned meeting took place where the five primary members of Team Terror voted to change the name since the actions of terrorist killing a few thousand Americans left our name a little un-pc. The name was changed to the OVMB, the Ohio Valley Mountain Brigade and the decision was made to begin our own organization, website forum and step out of the shadow of Airsoft Ohio. The new team still operated in Ohio, including fielding a 21 man OP4 force for the organizer of AO's Combat Missions event to determine the "best team" in the state. As the years went by many new people came into the picture such as Zombie, Kilroy(who as far as I know, was the first at AO to field a Russian and German SS loadout), Nebs to name a few. The OVMB hosted games at Huntington's now demolished Veterans Memorial Field house and several other locations while attending games in Ohio and Kentucky. Despite the good intentions, the player base never reached anything to match the monstrous Airsoft Ohio and games here frequently suffered from poor attendance numbers.
Ultra rocking an M60 in 2001
Kilroy, Flint, Bossman and Ultra at the ballfields 2006
Zombie at the ball fields
Field house panorama
Kilroy in SS gear
OVMB member Sabre at field house CQB
Ultra @ ball fields
Ummm well before you could buy this in our state, it may be rumored the OVMB merc'ed out and traveled to Ohio if you paid with cases of beer.
Old website logo
My old gear pic ;D
Zombie...always trying to dodge my camera.
Ultra @ ball fields ( I was testing ACU with that gun tape since it just came out. It failed
Airsoft WV and new friends
The OVMB started to slowly dwindle down to a few people and overall games in WV really grew stagnant. I lucked out one day when I ran across a picture hosting website known as Airsoft WV and after several online chats we hooked up with a group that pretty much saved WV airsoft as a whole. From this group we met members Saac, Combat Cows, Doug and Gunnit to name a few. We even picked up people from other sources like Dan, Backstabbed, Mr U, Bolushie, Tiernan and Barnes. Even though we were limited by the places available to play, we had a lot of fun
It was here in this time period that WV Airsoft grew away from being the sole stomping grounds of one team, but grew to encompass various groups and individual players.
Backstabbed @ ball fields
Dan @ ball fields
Gunit @ ball fields
Saac @ Ball fields
Blind Fury 5 travel group
Barnes @ Blind Fury 6
Ultra and Barnes BF 5
The modern era
I guess I really do not need to post pics for this since we have them on this site and the Facebook page. I like to think of this time period as a whole new chapter in WV Airsoft. Friends have gone, friends have returned and most importantly we have made many new ones that are going to add more chapters to our story. Can I prove that we were the first in the state, no. It's to the best of our knowledge that we were the first organized airsoft group in our state and we can proudly claim our place as a corner stone in Airsoft Ohio even though to most up there our names and deeds have been forgotten. Where do we stand now? Well, in an age where anyone with a Facebook page or social media account can start airsoft groups with the click of a button we need to work on ensuing that our games, teams and individual players are of the best in quality in all fields, knowledge/ ability/ safety/sportsmanship/ sexiness/etc.
So take pride people, if you run with this crowd you are part of something that has a long history and hopefully will continue to sling plastic well into the future. ;D
West Virginia Airsoft was started by five people at a booth in the old Dwights restaurant in Huntington West Virginia in 2001. Their call signs were Bossman, Deviant, Ultra, Chappy and another guy who shall remain nameless because he turned out to be a giant turd.
Team Terror
I guess we should back up a bit because the story actually begins in 1998 with a small group of players who met online through old chat groups like on yahoo. They started playing on some property across the river in Chesapeake Ohio where the games gradually grew larger and they came into contact with the founding members of Team Strikers of Airsoft Ohio fame. Bossman, Deviant and the nameless one started a team in this group called Team Terror, picking up members Ultra and Chappy in 1999. The rise of the first incarnation of the popular airsoft social network Airsoft Ohio took place and the Chesapeake games found themselves in a regular two week rotation with games hosted by AO founders Team Stormblade's field in Goshen Ohio and later in Lebanon Ohio and Fran Bar Park in Columbus. Team Terror was AO's first OP4 team, equipping themselves with modified Night desert uniforms and German Flectarn they took to the field as the bad guys at every event. The games in our area expanded to include four pole creek in West Huntington, Wayne county's community field house, various old paintball fields and a massive multi acre field in Wayne county. The team even sent a squad out to Vegas to play in massive milsim event.
Old Chesapeake crew including Strikers founder Blade. 1999?
Chappy in Vegas
Chappy in modified OP4 uni
Picture we used as a promo for Operation Sustained Deliverance. A three day event played at the Wayne field house and deep in the Wayne county hills.
Bossman in Ohio early 2001
The O.V.M.B. and the founding of WV Airsoft
After the events of 9/11, the above mentioned meeting took place where the five primary members of Team Terror voted to change the name since the actions of terrorist killing a few thousand Americans left our name a little un-pc. The name was changed to the OVMB, the Ohio Valley Mountain Brigade and the decision was made to begin our own organization, website forum and step out of the shadow of Airsoft Ohio. The new team still operated in Ohio, including fielding a 21 man OP4 force for the organizer of AO's Combat Missions event to determine the "best team" in the state. As the years went by many new people came into the picture such as Zombie, Kilroy(who as far as I know, was the first at AO to field a Russian and German SS loadout), Nebs to name a few. The OVMB hosted games at Huntington's now demolished Veterans Memorial Field house and several other locations while attending games in Ohio and Kentucky. Despite the good intentions, the player base never reached anything to match the monstrous Airsoft Ohio and games here frequently suffered from poor attendance numbers.
Ultra rocking an M60 in 2001
Kilroy, Flint, Bossman and Ultra at the ballfields 2006
Zombie at the ball fields
Field house panorama
Kilroy in SS gear
OVMB member Sabre at field house CQB
Ultra @ ball fields
Ummm well before you could buy this in our state, it may be rumored the OVMB merc'ed out and traveled to Ohio if you paid with cases of beer.
Old website logo
My old gear pic ;D
Zombie...always trying to dodge my camera.
Ultra @ ball fields ( I was testing ACU with that gun tape since it just came out. It failed
Airsoft WV and new friends
The OVMB started to slowly dwindle down to a few people and overall games in WV really grew stagnant. I lucked out one day when I ran across a picture hosting website known as Airsoft WV and after several online chats we hooked up with a group that pretty much saved WV airsoft as a whole. From this group we met members Saac, Combat Cows, Doug and Gunnit to name a few. We even picked up people from other sources like Dan, Backstabbed, Mr U, Bolushie, Tiernan and Barnes. Even though we were limited by the places available to play, we had a lot of fun
It was here in this time period that WV Airsoft grew away from being the sole stomping grounds of one team, but grew to encompass various groups and individual players.Backstabbed @ ball fields
Dan @ ball fields
Gunit @ ball fields
Saac @ Ball fields
Blind Fury 5 travel group
Barnes @ Blind Fury 6
Ultra and Barnes BF 5
The modern era
I guess I really do not need to post pics for this since we have them on this site and the Facebook page. I like to think of this time period as a whole new chapter in WV Airsoft. Friends have gone, friends have returned and most importantly we have made many new ones that are going to add more chapters to our story. Can I prove that we were the first in the state, no. It's to the best of our knowledge that we were the first organized airsoft group in our state and we can proudly claim our place as a corner stone in Airsoft Ohio even though to most up there our names and deeds have been forgotten. Where do we stand now? Well, in an age where anyone with a Facebook page or social media account can start airsoft groups with the click of a button we need to work on ensuing that our games, teams and individual players are of the best in quality in all fields, knowledge/ ability/ safety/sportsmanship/ sexiness
/etc. So take pride people, if you run with this crowd you are part of something that has a long history and hopefully will continue to sling plastic well into the future. ;D
