MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A team of sailors were pinned down. Rounds whizzing overhead kept the nine of them hunkered down, making it difficult to fend off their enemy’s advancing attack. Time was running out. In what took mere seconds but seemed like an eternity amidst the gunfire and yelling, the team captain, with a wave of his hand, signaled the charge. The men leapt from their position and let loose with everything they had. When the shooting ceased, everyone was blotched with paint and laughing.

The sailors “fought” at the Camp Pendleton Paintball Park Friday.

“It’s a lot of fun out here,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Blake L. Gilbert during a break. “We’re all having a good time.”

Gilbert and 17 other sailors with the Deep Submergence Unit, Naval Air Station, North Island, Coronado, jumped ship and spent a day pounding the ground at Pendleton and shooting paint at each other.

The gunplay was all in good fun, explained the group’s senior man.

“Today is one of our (morale, welfare and recreation) MWR functions,” explained Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike Vick. “We tried paintball once before, and it was a complete blast.”

This time around was no different.

The welcoming war began with the men breaking up into two teams of nine. Gilbert, and Petty Officer 1st Class Julio E. Hernandez were team captains.

After getting their guns and ammo from the park staff at the issue facility, the teams positioned themselves at opposite ends of the course.

“Try not to get hit,” said Gilbert, 35, of Ogallala, Neb., with a chuckle. “That’s our strategy.”

The machinist mate and his team’s chief tactic, however, was simple: locate, close with, and destroy their competition with fire and maneuver.

The sailors laid down fire with their paintball guns and closed the distance between themselves as they battled it out for more than three hours.

Getting shot by a paintball, moving at speeds of more than 200 feet per second, involves some degree of pain.

“They sting when they hit you,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Anthony Gamb, a 37-year-old electronic technician from Monroe, N.Y. “I got hit on the hand, and it left a nice welt.”

They fought many battles, with each team obtaining victories. Only one team, however, would win the war.

“The level of competition is high,” said Vick, 41, of San Diego. “These guys were going for me because I’m their boss.”

Vick and the rest of the gunslingers agreed the day of fighting ended in a tie and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Paintball and other activities that boost moral, explained Vick, are important for the sailors with the Deep Submergence Unit, who routinely remain submerged in the seas for hours on end.

“We specialize in submarine rescue,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Sean N. Azpeitia.

The 28-year-old sonar submarine technician from Riverside said he and his unit had recently returned from Russia, where they rescued seven Russian sailors from a sinking submarine.

Vick was pleased with how the day of paintball turned out.

“This place was nice, and we had a good time,” he said. “It’s important to unwind.”

The park’s operator, Russ Maynard, said paintball is an activity that offers excitement for thrill-seekers.

“You get a lot of the intensity of combat,” explained the 56-year-old from San Diego. “And it’s safe. You get the adrenaline rush and tunnel vision and it’s safe and fun, too.”

For more information about the Pendleton Paintball Park, contact Russ Maynard for details by calling 1-800-899-9957.