Combat Missions

Combat Missions
Genre	Reality Television
Presented by	Rudy Boesch
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	15
Production
Location(s)	Mojave Desert, California, USA
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Mark Burnett Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	USA
Original run	16 January 2002 – 17 April 2002

Combat Missions is a one hour long reality TV show produced by Mark Burnett and hosted by former Survivor castaway, Rudy Boesch, that aired from January to April in 2002 on the USA Network. It pits four teams of highly-experienced military and police operatives against each other in physical challenges and "mission" scenarios. Each team has a call sign and corresponding color. The four teams are Alpha (Red), Bravo (Blue), Charlie (Yellow) and Delta (Green). The team members were past and present members of SWAT, the United States Army Special Forces, the Navy SEALs, Marine Recon, the CIA Special Operations Group, the Delta Force, and the U.S. Army Rangers. The mission scenarios has each team face off against the opposing "Shadow force" (not another team) using MILES gear in real-life combat situations. The show was not picked up for a second season.

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 in action on March 31, 2004.

Competition

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 'total 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.

Contestants

Results

Tank takeout

Prisoner rescue

Hostage rescue

• Alpha lost 250 points for cheating. They used a poncho to cover the hostage and defeat the purpose of the MILES laser gear which was against the rules. Then they lied when asked why they did it, offering the excuse that they were "treating for shock". Daniel Patrick O'Shea (team leader for Alpha) later admitted that it was his decision to use the poncho.

Pilot down

Missile hangar

Meth lab

Fuel dump demolition

External links

• Combat Missions at the Internet Movie Database
• USA Network original show site (archived from archive.org)