Combat Missions

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Combat Missions was a one hour long reality TV show produced by Mark Burnett and hosted by former Survivor castaway Rudy Boesch that aired from January 2002 to April of that year on USA. It pitted four teams of military and police operatives against each other in physical challenges and "mission" scenarios. Each team had a callsign and corresponding color. The four teams were Alpha (Red), Bravo (Blue), Charlie (Yellow) and Delta (Green) The team members were past and present members of SWAT, the Green Berets, the Navy SEALs, Marine Recon, the CIA, the Delta Force, and the U.S. Army Rangers. The mission scenarios had each team face off against an opposing force (not another team) using MILES gear in real-life combat situations. Scott Helvenston, one of the contestants from the Delta team went on to work for Blackwater USA in Iraq after the show and was killed on March 31, 2004. The show was never picked up for a second season.

[edit] How the Game is Played

Each of the four teams starts the competition with six players. The 15 week contest is split into three sections. Each week is referred to as an "Evolution." During each evolution two teams are chosen to go head to head, first in a training exercise and then in a combat mission. Training exercises are usually physical challenges, including climbing, swimming, running and shooting. The team who completes the exercise quickest receives extra points towards that week's mission. The combat mission pits those two teams against each other in a combat-like scenario, some military in nature, some SWAT-related. Both teams start out with 1000 points, plus whatever was earned by the winner of the training mission. Points are then deducted for team members killed and time taken in the mission itself. Failure to complete all objectives, or the death of all team members results in a mission failure. Whichever team has the most points after both teams have run the mission wins. For the first six evolutions, the team with the lower score was forced to vote off a player, and then headed into the dossier room to select a replacement. From evolution 7 - 12, lost players were no longer replaced, severely weakening the losing teams. During the last phase, the entire losing team was kicked off in order to determine the overall winning team. After that team (Bravo) was selected, it was split into two teams of 3 who faced off. From those 3 remaining players one was eliminated in a Training Exercise, and the final two faced off in a mission in order to select the Combat Missions individual champion.

[edit] The Contestants

Name	Team	Background	Notes
Mark Jackson	Alpha	SWAT
Scott Oates	Alpha	Navy SEALs
Mell Spicer	Alpha	Navy SEALs
Harald Zundel	Alpha	Navy SEALs
Chris Pate	Alpha	SWAT
Frank Monestere	Alpha	Green Berets
Daniel Patrick O'Shea	Alpha	Navy SEALs
Eric Johnson	Alpha	Navy SEALs
Dexter Fletcher	Bravo	SWAT	CM Champion
Jeff Byers	Bravo	Navy SEALs
Steve Claggett	Bravo	SWAT
Mark Corwin	Bravo	Marine Force Recon
Bob Kain	Bravo	SWAT
Sean Sirker	Bravo	Diplomatic Security
Jody Taylor	Bravo	SWAT
Cade Courtly	Charlie	Navy SEALs
Ken Greaves	Charlie	Navy SEALs
Justin Young	Charlie	Marine Force Recon
Jeff Everage	Charlie	Navy SEALs
John Potter	Charlie	Navy SEALs
Edward Bugarin	Charlie	Delta Force
Wilson Wong	Charlie	SWAT
Ossie Crenshaw	Charlie	SWAT
Jonathan Weber	Charlie	Marine Force Recon
Baz	Delta	CIA
George Ciganik	Delta	Marine Recon, SWAT
Scott Helvenston	Delta	Navy SEALs
Rodney Nutter	Delta	Marine Force Recon
John Winn	Delta	Marine Force Recon
William Nissen	Delta	Army Rangers
Rod Teeple	Delta	Navy SEALs
Garth Estadt	Delta	Green Berets