What would you do in this situation?
(Click on the radio button of your choice – statistics tabulated since July 2007)


Your platoon has just taken a position in a forest adjacent to miles of featureless, snow-covered farmland. Because you are lying under dense overhead cover, it is so dark where you are that you can barely see your hand in front of your face. Your gillie suit is perfectly matched to the terrain. The enemy couldn’t possibly see you in these shadows.

The full moon gives you a clear view of the farmland. There are some cattle scattered around the fields. Having grown up on a ranch, you instinctively count them.

You observe a compact pickup truck with loose hay piled in the back driving slowly some distance away. It takes a minute to find the truck in your high-power rifle scope because, as you sweep the weapon back and forth, all you see is snow and the occasional cow. But the cows are walking towards the truck now, expecting to be fed, which helps you locate it in your weapon sights.

“Probably ranchers.” you think, as they all drive the same compact pickups – Toyota must sell those things by the billions.

It is typical for the locals to feed their cattle before sunup. No worries. You secretly wish you were back on your dad’s ranch in Wyoming feeding your own cattle instead of in this God-forsaken place. Oh well, that’s the price of freedom!

They stop, drop the tailgate and immediately begin raking your position with machine gun fire from a Maxim concealed under the hay. Your spotter is the first to die. You can hear your buddies screaming in pain as the bullets smack into them. The enemy appears to know exactly where you are.