By: Dave Decker

Welcome to the SONS OF VALOR web site. We would like to take a few lines and fill you in on the origins and mission of the event. In November of 2006 Jule Morrow called me and asked if I could arrange with land owners near my place to hold a WWII event as we had Civil War events.

In January, 2007 Jule, Art Hathcock, and several associates visited the site and began the process of organizing the first SOV event in March, 2007. From the beginning Art and Jule made it clear that they wanted to create an event which was a closed to the public, a tactical which would be fun for reenactors as well as a training/testing situation for all involved from HQ staff to rifleman. In order to accomplish this we opted for large spaces with road networks so there is room for vehicles and so that boundary lines could not be used as “flank guards.”

We also moved away from thinking in terms of specific “scenarios” and instead created numerous field problems which both sides would need to deal with simultaneously. We instituted ways in which missions/objectives may change during the tactical in response to the actions of the two contending forces. We established that the event would have Observers/Controllers (O/Cs), veteran reenactors and former military personnel, who “judged” units and individuals on HOW they carried out missions or took objectives rather than giving points for if they carried out the mission or took the objective.

In other words, a clumsy, head on attack may take a position but the attackers will get a low “score” while the defender who “lost” the position may score well for a spirited defense and retreat with few casualties. Finally, we created an After Action Report/Debrief which brings all the reenactors together with the O/Cs after the tactical to talk about what they observed.

By discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the reenacting units and the event we all learn a great deal. The reenactors learn what they need to work on individually and as units. The event staff and O/Cs learn what the participants believe worked and what needs to be changed for the next event. The future of SOV lays in making the events increasingly challenging and “harder” as units learn from past experience and hone their skills in the arts of WWII combat. To do this we have negotiated access to large tracts of land which will allow us to offer “fresh” ground to fight over and new tactical problems to solve.

Don’t get us wrong we know we are not the perfect event and there are others trying as hard as we are to make quality events available on both coasts and in the middle. If, however, you are in the Southeast and you or your unit are interested in learning WWII combat techniques from the ground up (and some of the frustration of combat) give the SOV event a try. We do not say it will be easy but it will be interesting!

Dave Decker