By: Mitch Harvey
The greatest and biggest paintball experience I have ever had was at Dday in Oklahoma 2010.  Dday is one of the largest and most well known scenario paintball events in the sport; the event lasts a week and people from around the world come to Oklahoma to camp out and play. 

The event is held in the middle of the hottest part of the year and the weather is absolutely miserable – but if you love the game enough, you don’t even notice; it’s just a fun filled vacation.  With thousands of people and plenty to do, you will never get bored at Oklahoma Dday.  I brought my trusted tippmann 98 custom with remote line and for the eight hours of battle each day, it never failed me once. 

It was the morning of Saturday, the day of the "big game" and we were just about to head to the field.  I was assigned to the 4th Infantry in the alpha division and they lined us up and got a head count right before it was time to go.  Instead of walking out to the field, we hitched a ride on the back of a truck, which was convenient.  We started at a field called Utah Beach and it was the biggest paintball field I had ever seen.  We were on the ally’s side while all of the other players were on the German's side.  Since our event is a re-enactment of Dday, we boarded a landing craft and waited for the game to start. 

At first I was scared; I couldn’t believe I was re-enacting that unforgettable seen in ‘Saving Private Ryan’ when Tom Hanks and his men stormed the beach heads at Normandy.  At the top of the hill were all of the Germans ready to shoot at us once the game started.  I was in the middle of the boat when I heard the buzzer go off.  It seemed like the people couldn’t get off the boat fast enough as we were immediately pounded by an amazing barrage of paintballs.  We stumbled over each other to find cover as we scrambled onto the beach.

The battle was long and hard but we managed to push them back.  We ended up taking the beach within an hour and decided to move onto the next without rest.  Our next battle was found at Omaha beach.  This was another uphill fight with all of the ally team at the bottom again.  Even though Utah Beach was a victory, many of us were exhausted and we had trouble with our push at Omaha.  After a long firefight, the Germans got the best of us after one more united final push.  Even though the game didn’t go as we planned, we still had a blast trying and felt pretty good about our first Dday. 

The big game was fun but it was not the only thing going on during the week.  There were mini-game scenarios throughout the whole week that you could play if you want. There’s also tons of vendors selling gear and even a speedball coarse.  The mini scenerios were very fun and included (my favorite) the Civil War and an exciting night game. 

The night game was interesting and one of the most fun; it’s basically elimination paintball at 11 o'clock at night.  Playing in the dark was fun as it made it more challenging to see; this brought a more exciting element to the game.  The Civil War mini-game was a short elimination scenario game that you could not use hoppers on your paintball guns.  This makes it so you have to reload after every shot, forcing you to make each shot count.