It was hot work, easy to fuck off on, and the local plant life was vivid, beautiful and very distracting at first sight, but daydreaming was not his way. Instead, he counted. Steps, features of the terrain, taking note of the ground as they passed it for future reference. When he had a good position of concealment, he took a knee and took stock of the area. And it was as they were moving through those trees with that feathery leaf type, that Danny made the signal for the entire squad to freeze.

Yeah I'm still not sure whether I should put my character in one of the fireteams here or just make an NPC team for him to roll with seeing as we're a platoon. Honestly a squad would have been fine imo.

Rhodesians / South Africa have been an area of interest of mine for a while. Did you know the SADF still had horse mounted cavalry up until 2012. Cool blokes.

<Snipped quote by Trivval>

Either that or platoon level leadership, such as Collins' commo guy. So he probably got a taste from the Fountain of Youth, as it were.

<Snipped quote by HeySeuss>
LOL...I've been training in Krav Maga for the past four years. It is a lot like that fountain of youth Pieter is sippin' on. Oh yea, I'm older than Pieter btw. :/

EDIT: I remember when I did WWII re-enactments about 17 - 20 years ago, I once had a 60 year old retired infantry officer in my rifle squad. HE was frickin' hard core. The old dudes don't fall out. They are tough and keep up.

Excellent post here...
<Snipped quote by HeySeuss>

I like this. Counting. When I was in the Infantry Officer Basic Course, we would walk a 600 meter path along a specific trail in the woods of Fort Benning, Georgia. As we walked, we would count our left steps. The purpose was to determine our “Pace Count”. This pace count is used by Infantry leaders, Officers and NCOs to determine how far they have traveled. By using the pace count as well as measuring distance on the map, the two confirmed one another or helped to tell you, you were lost. After counting one’s steps, you divide the number by six and that tells you how many left steps you take in 100 meters. For me, this number was 64.

…the signal for the entire squad to freeze, would be a clenched fist held up with the non-firing arm at a right angle. Every member of the patrol repeats the hand and arm signal and movement ceases. Do not take a knee, do not point weapons in the appropriate direction, simply stop moving. This is different from the halt hand and arm signal. When this signal is given, take a knee and point weapons out and away from the impromptu “cigar-shaped” perimeter the squad assumes when it halts.

Here we go. Got a preliminary sheet up here. If it looks good, I'll move it over. I'm still working through on a fair bit of it, but I'm pretty well close to finished with it short of anything looking horribly out of place.

János Istálló [+]

Name: Istálló János
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/Nationality: Hungarian
Former Units:

-34th Bercsényi László Special Forces Battalion (Szolnok Helicoptor Base)
-37th Rákóczi Ferencs II Engineering Regiment (Szentes)

Rank: Törzsőrmester (OR-6)
Role: Rifleman

Physical Description:

A stocky man, with dark hair and a swarthy complexion. At 5'10", János is relatively unremarkable except for a pockmarked square face with a large nose and dark, grey-blue eyes set wide upon his face. Arms studded with several burns across his back from a helicopter crash while serving with 37th Engineering Regiment as part of a rotation in Iraq in 2005. Large calloused hands are reminders of János' sometimes short temper, as well as the manual labor involved with his time with the engineers.

Skillset:

-Long Range Patrols
-Navigation
-Leadership
-Fire Support Liason
-Airborne Qualified
-Heavy Weapons Training
-Combat Engineering
-HRT/Counter-terror Training
-Mountain Training
-Jungle Training
-Languages (CEFRL Levels): Hungarian (NF), English (C2), French (C1), German (B2), Czech (B1), Russian (C1), Pashto (A2)

History:

Born in Budapest's 12th District, in the hills of the city's Right Bank, János as the son of a Communist Party official,had every expectation of great things about him, to be raised high through his father's Party connections once he came of age. Sadly, none of that came to pass, as Hungary overthrew its Communist government with free elections in May of 1990. Despite the regime change, János was taught at decent private schools throughout the city, and he briefly attended the Eötvös Lorand University in the city before growing bored with his studies at nineteen.

He joined the military as an escape, as something to do really to escape the tedium and also find himself a steady job. After training, he served with the 37th Engineering Regiment, based out of Szentes in the south of the country, and mostly found his service to consist of disaster relief, especially flood management. He did, however, have a chance to serve abroad, when the regiment was tasked as Hungary's commitment to the NATO peacekeeping operation in Kosovo, and later the Hungarian mission to Iraq. While in Iraq, he worked mostly on providing security for EOD operations or working on reconstruction projects throughout the country. While returning from work rebuilding a village after heavy fighting against militants, his helicopter was severely damaged. The chopper was brought down in a controlled crash deep in the desert some time later. Despite injuries, including burns across his back, he and all the others survived, evacuating the crash site, until a US convoy coming along the ground route was able to pick them up.

Some time after, he and the unit were cycled back home, and while there, János put in for a transfer and selection to then 34th Reconnaissance Battalion, wanting something more than what his service in the engineering regiment seemed to be providing. Upon passing training, as well as the restructuring of the unit into a special operations unit, instead of a simple light infantry and reconnaissance force, János found the livelier service that he wanted, serving as a trainer with the Afghan National Army, as well as conducting border security operations along the Serbian border, and several anti-terror missions within Hungary itself. Serving aboard Italian and French warships as part of the EUFOR commitment, his team also spent a few months off of Somalia, launching anti-piracy missions deep into the country.

He's recently left the military. However, after just three months at home however, János was approached by several former comrades of his from his time, including numerous American, French, and British soldiers who had over the past several years left their services for the private sector. They'd come from various assorted other companies, but they all seemed to be gravitating toward Centurion. Curiosity piqued, János followed suit and booked a trip to find out what all the fuss was about - after all, they were paying some absolutely ridiculous rates that were too hard to pass up.

Psychological Profile:

János is largely an even-tempered man, considerate of his actions while never quite hitting that point where he might be considered indecisive. As a soldier who'd joined up for lack of anything better to do, he has few, if any, of the moral compunctions that many of his comrades who joined out of higher ideals might have. It can lead to a difficult moment as he presses for expediency and efficiency, and not necessarily the most by the book approach to a situation. His main vices are tobacco and alcohol, which he partakes of liberally when he can: with whiskey, wine, and his pipe being his favored methods, though he's all too happy to take up a cigarette in the field.

Equipment:

See the character guide and notes on equipment.
-H&K 416 (16.1 inch barrel) (390 Rounds). Attachments include an M-320 Grenade Launcher (5 rounds), AN/PEQ-2
-SIG P226 (30 Rounds)
-Bayonet
-Fragmentation, Smoke, Stingers
-Ballistic Helmet
-Armored Tactical
-Camelback
-IFAK
-Assault Pack
-Survival Axe
-Entrenching Tool
-Cigarettes, Lighter, Pipe, and Tobacco

Just to get a little clarification before I post, I'm with @CaptainBritton and the dog (which honestly is the reason I chose that squad xD), so we are already in the squad together during the first mission?