Inside an Oklahoma Airsoft Event Reflecting Real-World Conflict

A few days before attending a 40-hour continuous light infantry simulation, I shared the plan with my therapist.

She responded with visible concern, clearly questioning the wisdom of my decision.

Having stepped away from covering the war in Ukraine about a year ago, I found myself preparing to report on a staged conflict in southern Oklahoma, where participants dressed as NATO and Russian soldiers.

This event, titled the “Fall of Salsk,” held significance for my new reporting focus on gun culture and policy in the U.S. and beyond. It drew hundreds of enthusiasts engaging in airsoft, a hobby involving realistic replica firearms that fire plastic pellets.

Although airsoft events had been covered before the pandemic, the hobby’s surge in popularity amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offered meaningful insight. It raised questions about how people engage in simulated warfare while a devastating real conflict unfolds overseas.

What emerged was a striking disconnect among many young American participants, influenced by selective social media portrayals of the actual war. It reminded me of a saying from my time as an infantry Marine over a decade ago: “America isn’t at war. The Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall.”