LCAD - Lion Claws Appreciation Day

John Lu is well-known in airsoft circles as the godfather of large, organized airsoft operations. With familiar names like Operation Bulldog, Operation Irene, Operation North Wind, and, most familiar to southern Californians, Operation Lion Claws, serious airsofters know John and his Best of USA Marketing as a hallmark of fun, exciting, multiple day airsoft battles. Operation Lion Claws is held over the 3-day Memorial Day weekend and, the last two years, it was based in the foothills above Hesperia (on a Boy Scout Camp) on a massive area of operations (or AO) with scrub terrain, ridgelines, tree-lined canyons, disbursed buildings, and a criss-cross pattern of dirt roads. The action is fast, furious, and about as close to the real thing as an airsofter is going to get.

John recognizes that those of us lucky enough to play at Lion Claws, in the heat of the high desert, long for a similar event during the cooler months of fall and winter and over the last couple of years he has sponsored a smaller, one-day event known as Lion Claws Appreciation Day. Although Lion Claws hosts 600 to 800 combatants, LCAD is a much smaller affair, with about 150 airsofters, both male and female, and the action uses a much smaller portion of the AO. It also breaks the day into two distinct battles with a lunch break conveniently placed between the two.

This year, we played the Hunt for the Lion Claws Angels in the morning (the Angels are local models and actresses, several of whom are now veterans of other battles) and the Search for John Lu's Remains ("Warlord" John was killed at the end of the May battles) in the afternoon. Playing as US Marines and allied with the Russians, we had to fight our way through a very tight S-shaped canyon to push the hadji's into a tight corner and recover John's skeleton. LCAD was a nice way to get in one last big battle before heading into the holidays.

David Baker

The Airsoft Lawyer