3^rd Special Operations Brigade

The 3^rd SOB is a family-friendly flight, airsoft and milsim company that specializes in teaching real-world skills using flight simulators and video games, using an Affiliated Club system that pays local managers to build training and management teams for Mojave Rangers and 202nd Aviation Support Bn.

The 3^rd Special Operations Brigade is a way to pay people at a local level to manage a Live-Action Role Play game to national standards in order to ensure the consistency of the immersion and safety of the participants.

US-based 202nd Aviation Support Bn students who complete the Pilot’s Basic Course and check rides as well as FEMA’s free online IS 100: Introduction to the Incident Command System and IS 200: ICS for Initial Response, can join the optional 202nd Aviation Support Bn Management Team.

Management team members make commissions on every Fort Edwards Post Xchange item or event sold through their link, online or off, get real-world monthly bonuses for managing On Air virtual airline duties and a monthly stipend as part of the General Fund distribution. This manual and the online courses are the instructions for how to use that system.

No one is ever required to join the management team. Students can register for and take the Pilot’s Basic Course, complete the check rides and be certified as 202nd Aviation Support Bn Freelance Pilots and participate fully in our On Air operations. 202nd Freelance Pilots can fly routes or freelance jobs in 202nd aircraft and make the same virtual pay within the On Air game world as 202nd Aviation Support Bn Management Team members, but they don’t participate in real-world sales or certain aspects of real-world events, partly due to insurance issues, and don’t get real-world money as part of the management team joint efforts.

202nd Aviation Support Bn Organization

202nd Aviation Support Bn is built directly on FEMA’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program, as a LARP. FEMA’s IS 100, 200, 700 and 800 courses are free online and are required by every emergency services and law enforcement agency in the US.  These courses explain the Incident Command System (how things get done) and the National Incident Management System (where stuff comes from).

202nd Aviation Support Bn Management Team

202nd Aviation Support Bn students can make commissions on all of our Supply Shed products and events, including the Mojave Rangers products. The FEMA IS 100 and 200 courses are required for the management team, which requires FEMA registration, which keeps us from training terrorists, and since the Incident Command System is the basic management structure of the business.

202nd students can earn free yearly memberships to OA, Sporty’s Pilot Shop bonuses, etc. and get a stipend from the General Fund for helping manage the 202nd Aviation Support Bn offline operations. Each month every active Management team member gets a bonus from the General Fund based on their participation. The General Fund also covers gear giveaways and other bonuses.

Club members can qualify individually for rank-based stipends and other bonuses from the General Fund. The General Fund is the destination for money from Amazon.com and other un-trackable sources, plus a large percentage of every sale made through the Mojave Ranger School system.

The purpose of the General Fund is to provide an account that pays rank-based stipends and Ranger School and Leadership Course Graduate bonuses for our professional trainers, managers and merchants, who create and maintain the immersive environment for students and guests. The General Fund also pays stepped bonuses for team medics and radio operators who get real-world training and certifications.

3^rd Special Operations Brigade Products

3^rd SOB currently has,

• 10 books on Amazon.com
  • 8 classic novels (Call of the Wild, Walden, etc.)
  • 2 (so far) training manuals, the Mojave Rangers Field Manual and this book.
    • 100% of the net income from Amazon.com goes into the General Fund, because it’s not trackable for book or product sales.
  • 3^rd Special Operations Brigade is also a vendor for a variety of other products sold through our websites, including
    • airsoft guns and gear
    • flight sim gear and accessories
  • Classes, courses and events: Mojave Ranger School is developing a variety of paid on and offline courses and events
    • Our basic courses will always be free, but some advanced training and training intensives will be paid courses

A Simple Paid Hierarchy

• Students: People who join 202nd Aviation Support Bn and enroll in the Pilot’s Basic Course are students
• Freelance Pilots: Students who complete the Pilot’s Basic Course are Freelance Pilots
  • Freelance Pilots are fully operational and can fly any 202nd aircraft anywhere on any job and get virtual pay, called Credits (Cr) through the On Air Company interface, when flying online through On Air
  • FEMA’s IS100 and 200 are optional for Freelance Pilots
• Mission Pilots: Freelance Pilots who complete IS100 & 200 and join the 202nd Aviation Support Bn Management team become Mission Pilots
  • In addition to virtual pay through ON Air Mission Pilots make real-world commissions from any 3rd Special Operations Brigade Supply products, courses or events sold through their sales link.
• Patrol Base Airstrip Managers: Mission Pilots who complete the Airstrip Manager’s Course become Airstrip Managers, the first management level in 202nd.
  • Airstrip Managers make the same real-world commissions for sales through their sales link as Mission Pilots +
    • A % of each month’s production income from On Air factories supported by the Airstrip, paid as a real-world bonus from the General Fund
  • FBO Managers: FBO’s are the fixed bases that serve as fuel and supply points for Airstrips. Airstrip Managers who complete the online FBO Manager’s Course become FBO Managers.
    • Airstrip Managers make the same real-world commissions for sales through their sales link as Mission Pilots +
      • A % of each month’s production income from On Air Airstrips supported by the FBO, paid as a real-world bonus from the General Fun

How This Adapts to a Video Game World

202nd is based out of KTSP in Tehachapi, CA, partly just to give a clear start point. 202nd Aviation Support Bn currently has 3 FBO’s centered on KTSP. Each FBO represents a geographic area of the US (temporary virtual command zones), which allows 202nd Aviation Support Bn to organize downward locally using the same ICS rules.

The 202nd Aviation Support Bn ON Air Company Game World

In the On Air Company game world supplies, fuel and personnel have to be moved efficiently through our On Air game operations because everything is not always available everywhere all the time, which used to be Isaac Newton’s fault but now we’re not sure who to blame.

For the moment each FBO represents a geographical area of the US, which, under the Incident Command System, would be an Area Command, but which are currently temporary virtual command zones. People from various real-world geographic areas in the US will be assigned to the appropriate temporary virtual command zone until they or someone else in their zone qualifies as an FBO Manager, at which point the ICS chart shifts to a local command with the FBO Manager in the Incident Commander position on the chart. You’ll learn more about that in the management courses.

For 202nd game purposes, the US consists of 7 Areas of Operation (AO), managed by the Command Staff; 5 AO’s in the continental US (CONUS) and 1 each in Alaska and Hawaii.

An FBO Manager manages up to 5 Airstrips, each managed by a Patrol Base Airstrip Manager, each of which supports 1 or more On Air factories, which require the management of material and personnel and the transport of goods and products. The factories are managed by the game AI but personnel and stuff has to be transported.

Every FBO Manager can supervise up to 5 Airstrip Managers, and each airstrip can support 6 flight crews. Building Airstrips is part of the training.

Scaling Upward

At some point 202nd marketing will kick in and it will be necessary to start scaling upwards to create 202nd Aviation Support Bn Area Commands and new units, which would manage the FBO’s within a geographic region, like the US Southeast, or the state of California. This happens when there’s a concentration of real-world 202nd members in a local area, which causes the shift from the virtual management of the virtual command zones into a real-world Area Command.

The Incident Command System is designed to scale upwards as incidents expand and higher-level managers become involved.