The Only Easy Day... Was Yesterday

"Boys, I know I'm sending you into the meat grinder on this one..." "They're defending it, so it means we want it. Especially if it gets us to Six-Two-Seven."

- General Shepherd and Captain MacTavish

 is a singleplayer level of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The player controls Gary "Roach" Sanderson. The objective is to take over an oil rig being used as a SAM site by the Russians so Task Force 141, as well as the U.S. Navy and Air Force, can safely assault The Gulag.

Summary
The player will begin the level by riding on a SEAL Delivery Vehicle (also known as SDV) from the USS Chicago, a Los Angeles-class submarine, to the oil rig. At various points of the level, the player will have to choose where to breach into a room. After breaking into it, the player will move in slow-motion as they kill the various enemies and save the hostages. As you work your way up the oil rig, you will encounter a Little Bird helicopter (at which point some enemies will rappel down from the upper deck); There is an AT4 in the immediate vicinity, and several rocket launchers behind you. You can also use your M203 grenade launcher to bring the Little Bird down, provided you have grenades left. Once you reach the top deck, the enemy will deploy smoke. Your SCAR with Thermal Scope will come in handy, but if you replaced it, there are several F2000 and PP2000 with Thermal Scopes nearby. This is a good place to use your Claymores, as the enemy may try to flank you around the cargo containers. Once the area is clear, there is a final breaching door; be especially careful on this one. Not only are there hostages, but also explosive barrels. Take care of the enemy that rushes you, then carefully aim at all the other enemies. Once all enemies are dead, you will join Soap on the helipad and climb onto a Little Bird, which will take you to a Russian gulag.

Weapon Loadout
In this level, the player starts with a M4A1 Carbine with a Red Dot Sight, Silencer and M203 Grenade Launcher AKA the SOPMOD, and a SCAR-H with a Thermal Scope and Silencer. The silencers on both weapons will disappear after placing the C4 on Deck Two.

Intel Items
Intel No. 22 (1/3 Intel) After 1st breach, go up 2 flights of stairs. A room just before outside, a middle shelf facing South.

Intel No. 23(2/3 Intel) After you shoot down the chopper, and you go around the next corner, after that little fire fight, follow MacTavish up then down some stairs. It's on some pallets under the stairs you go down.

Intel No. 24 (3/3 Intel) On 2nd level, near the stairs before 3rd breach. Enter the building facing west, then turn North.

Tips
In the final smoke screen assault, towards the right edge of the map, there is a narrow passage between the fence and a container. The enemies on the second floor do not have a good line of sight on you if you crouch here. This position can be easily defended by planting a claymore (you can pick up claymores in the room to the right before you go up the stairs from Level 1 to Level 2; on Level 2 next to the Stinger missiles; on Level 2 where Soap goes up the stairs to a room for flanking the enemies (there are 2 spots in this room); and on Level 3 immediately after coming off the stairs, towards the left) on both the front and rear ends of the narrow passage and going crouch/prone. Enemies on the second floor can then be slowly eliminated from this location (stand to shoot, crouch to cover; you need to peek around the front end corner to spot the enemies to the left on the second floor). Plant another claymore as soon as one has been triggered. As long as you crouch and it is protected by claymores this position is perfectly safe from enemy gunfire. The only danger comes from enemy grenades, where the majority of which can be thrown back. For those that cannot be thrown back however, the player must briefly displace from this position to escape the explosion and replant any claymore that has been destroyed by the grenade. You can bypass this part of the level if you move quickly once you get to the top level, however it takes some luck. If you sprint to the breaching doors and manage to evade enemies, you can go straight to breaching and not have to deal with the smokescreens.

Trivia

 * The level's title is derived from the motto of the U.S. Navy SEALs "The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday".
 * In the art book, it is stated that originally there were plans for a campaign level that had the player controlling a U.S. Navy SEAL team member, leading to the inspiration of this level, and oil rig takedowns are something real SEALs train for. Also, the infiltration method was via SDVs. It is very possible that some of the TF141 members are SEALs themselves.
 * This is one of the two levels where you go underwater, this one by design. The other one is Endgame when your boat goes through the rapids and down the waterfall.
 * As a possible nod to the SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs series, one of the TF141 members that assists in this section has the callsign "Boomer," the same name as a SEAL team member from the series, along with "Jester," another reference as well.

Underwater

 * At the beginning, you can see Roach's arms on the SDV.
 * The guard by the railing near the beginning has only 1 HP. It is possible to kill him by hitting him anywhere with any weapon, or even directly with a grenade, though this will result in the mission failing. If you get close enough by sneaking up behind him one of your team members would take him out for you.
 * When you are in the SDV, you can see schools of fish swimming past you go disappear inside a glacier.
 * Whilst under the oil rig, you will see many fish swimming past. If you look closely, they will actually swim through the pipes.

Lower Levels

 * You can swim around all you like before taking out the guards.
 * Soap tells you to take out the guard nearest to you, and that he is in position. However, swimming over to the TF141 member closest to the enemy guard reveals that it is not Soap and instead Zach, as shown when you are helped up. Instead, Soap spawns when you are helped up by the two other TF141 members.
 * When fellow TF141 members help you out of the water after you take out the guard, it is unknown how you get out of your scuba gear, or if you even remove it before you move out to secure the hostages.
 * When you have killed the guard, the water level suddenly raises. You cannot dive under the floor anymore.
 * The soldier that the player drags underwater and kills always has the same model, while the one opposite him will always be different. Likewise, the soldier having a smoke while leaning over the rails will always be the same.
 * When you start the level, there will be two randomly generated TF 141 soldiers. They will stay at the bottom, but when you breach the first room and then go back down, they have disappeared.
 * Sometimes if you sprint ahead of MacTavish you can run straight up to the Russian leaning over the balcony and he will run off. He will do this even if you sneak up to him before Soap and the team get there otherwise they will shoot him


 * After your first breach, go upstairs and watch the helicopter. Then go back down to the breached room and knife the TV. You will fail the mission saying that you alerted the enemy..

Middle Levels

 * If the player alerts the helicopter that is seen patrolling the perimeter, it will spin up its guns, and they will fail the mission and receive the message "You have alerted the enemy - the hostages have been executed." Oddly enough, if you manage to hit the chopper with the M203 Grenade Launcher, it will burst into flames and crash into the sea and you will still be able to continue the mission without penalty. This is strange, considering that the explosion and helicopter crash should have caused the entire oil platform to go on alert.
 * The body on which the player plants the C4 explosive is scripted to lie in that location and is dead as soon as the player breaches the room.
 * When the player detonates the C4, the other soldiers in the room are still in one piece, which is odd because in real life they would be blown to pieces. This was probably done to keep the violence low, and Robert Bowling himself confirmed that there was no dismemberment in the game.
 * After you have planted the C4 following the second breach, the hostages can be seen (if you look quickly enough towards the direction where you have initially come from) being escorted downstairs. The hostages then go downstairs where you can't follow them. If you try to keep the hostages on screen while planting the C4 (the C4's are positioned in such a way that it is not easy to see any hostage on screen) and then wait inside the room you would see the hostages magically disappear when the enemies approach the room.
 * During certain breaches, it is possible to shoot the knife-wielding Russian so that the knife will float above the dead soldier.

Compromised

 * Soap starts the mission with an MP5K with Red Dot Sight and Silencer like the others, but when setting up the ambush of the Russian patrol he uses an M4A1 SOPMOD with Grenade Launcher and Red Dot Sight.
 * There is an irony to this ambush—in the Call of Duty: World At War level "Hard Landing" almost half a unit of friendly Marines is killed when they investigate a shot-down plane only to find that enemies had booby trapped the corpses, killing the troops who were investigating them. The explosion then prompted a hidden group of enemies to attack. After the ambush, one of the surviving marines, Private Polonsky, says, "Can't believe they'd booby trap our dead..."
 * When the Little Bird comes to attack you after troops rope in, it is possible to shoot down the Little Bird with an RPG, M203, or an AT-4, but you have to aim and fire it fast before it blinds you with a searchlight and kills the player. There are also Stinger missiles in the room to the right.
 * If you manage to destroy the Little Bird with a rocket, Ghost remarks with "Nice shot, Roach."
 * If the player ignores the enemy helicopter when it attacks, it will continue to pursue all the way to the top deck, providing the player stays in its spotlight. If the player evades its light, it will stay on lower decks searching. It will instantly disappear when the player breaches the final room.
 * The seagulls flying around the area cannot be killed.

Top Deck

 * The smokescreen will not disappear until the enemies are all dead. The enemies will throw smoke grenades until they are killed. On Veteran difficulty however the smoke screen would not dissipate even after all the enemies are killed. It only disappears after the player has breached the room.
 * In the firefight with the smokescreens, you are not allowed to breach the doors until all outside hostiles have been killed
 * You can sprint through the smokescreen to the left door, and just by killing some enemies with a shotgun or M203 (about 4 or 5) you can breach that door without having to kill all the enemies, but you have to rush to that door.
 * Even though Captain MacTavish says to 'change to thermal optics if you have it' when the enemy makes a smokescreen, he himself doesn't have a gun with thermal optics, instead an M4A1 w/ Red Dot Sight and Grenade Launcher.
 * After you breach the last room, if you shoot the barrels and make them explode it will say "Mission Failed: Set Off Explosives" and behind the words you will see a lot of explosions.

Extraction

 * At the end of the level, if you fall down to the water, there will be blood on the screen similar to when you fall off the mountain in Cliffhanger.
 * The player boards the right side of the Little Bird. At the start of the next mission, the player has switched sides.
 * Soap is the only one on the Little Bird who does not have an M14 EBR, and instead uses an M4A1.
 * Ghost will not get on the Little Bird with Roach and MacTavish, but after reaching The Gulag he gets off another Little Bird.
 * This is the only mission in which the Marines are actually seen, as they rope down a helicopter to disarm the SAM sites and rescue the hostages. They all wear the Army Combat Uniform, however, as opposed to the Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform. This was likely done to conserve memory and disc space resources.
 * All of the Marines use M16A4's, this is accurate as this is the standard rifle for the United States Marine Corps.
 * Of the two pilots in your helicopter at the end of the level, the pilot on Soap's side, the side on which you are supposed to sit, has the model of Lt. Volker from the level "Shock and Awe" in CoD4, whereas the other has the model of Captain Pelayo, the female pilot you rescue also in "Shock and Awe".
 * The two pilots at the end have enlisted ranks; this is inaccurate, as pilots are either officers or warrant officers.
 * If you look at the soldiers riding on the Little Birds as the mission ends, you can see they are character models of the Army Rangers instead of the TF141 operators.
 * If you look at the pilots of the Little Birds at the end of the mission through the thermal scope, you will find that their body heat can not be detected at all.
 * Sometimes, one of the pilot can be called Pvt. Roycewicz, like in CoD4, but if the pilot is named Pvt. Roycewicz, it will be a female pilot.

Miscellaneous

 * It is strange that Russian soldiers take their own people hostage, although they claim themselves Ultranationalists. The oil rig might belong to a foreign company, or the Russians may have somehow found out that the oil rig was about to be attacked.
 * The player's team (Team 1) is launched from the dry deck shelter (DDS) of the USS Chicago (SSN-721) while Team 2 is launched from the USS Dallas (SSN-700). Both are Los Angeles-class submarines. In the present day, the Dallas is indeed a DDS-capable submarine but the Chicago is not. Of course, by the year 2016 (when the game takes place), it is possible that the Chicago could be converted into a DDS host ship. Also of note: during the mission briefing, the Chicago's DDS is erroneously shown fitted in front of the sub's sail structure. However, in the actual mission, the DDS modules are correctly configured aft of the sail on both subs.
 * The submarines USS Chicago and USS Dallas were featured in Tom Clancy novels Red Storm Rising and The Hunt for Red October, respectively.
 * The Russian helicopter actually is a Little Bird, which are used only by U.S. Special Ops forces, although the helicopter also sometimes is used by other Special Operation Forces. The British "SAS" and the Danish "Jægerkorpset" use them, as an example.
 * Team One is comprised of Soap, Ghost, Roach, and Peasant.
 * Peasant always carries a MP5K with Red Dot Sight and silencer, but sometimes it has red camouflage.
 * If Peasant dies when you see an enemy helicopter the second time and you are on a lower deck, Avatar will replace him. He carries an M14 EBR.
 * Team Two, which comprises of Robot and Zach, disappears after rescuing the second group of hostages directly after you plant the C4. However, two Zodiac boats carrying what appears to be the freed hostages, can be seen leaving the oil rig if you look to your left immediately after ascending to Level 2 (the level where you have to take out the Little Bird) from the stairs. It is most likely this is Team Two.
 * The soldiers' names will be different from this level to "The Gulag"
 * The ocean colours and design are the same as the blue tiger camouflage.
 * The M4 SOPMOD and the SCAR-H Silenced w/ Thermal Sight both lose their respective silencer after detonating the C4. However, if the player exchanges one of these weapons for another, and picks it up again after detonating the C4, they will retain their silencers.
 * A PP2000 with a Thermal Scope can be found in this level, though it's not an attachment in multiplayer.
 * It is possible to find an Intervention with a Thermal Scope. However, it is not advisable to use it during the smokescreen firefight due to its large zoom. It can still be useful to take out the enemies in the windows, however.


 * If the Intervention is equipped during the final breach, the breaching animation will be different, spending less time planting the charge and a longer slow-motion time.
 * In this mission, White Tape Camouflage can be found.
 * The "breaching charge" used is actually a Frame Charge, which is typically used to blast holes in walls or blow out windows. An actual Breaching Charge used by Special Forces is a small pack of plastic explosive on the end of a stick or a frail rod. When used, it is leaned against a door with the explosive near the middle to clear the doorway evenly. Strangely, such a tactic was discarded more than a decade ago when breaching rounds were found more favorable. On rare occasions, real Breaching Charges were effectively used as door traps.
 * In Multiplayer, the Navy SEALs' faction borrows Task Force 141's character models from this mission.
 * In reality, the Sixth Fleet operates in the Mediterranean Sea, not in the Pacific Ocean as depicted in the game.
 * As of today, U.S.S. Chicago and U.S.S. Dallas are not part of the Sixth Fleet, although they may be reassigned to the Sixth Fleet if the subs enter their area of operations.
 * At the very end on the helipad, the Little Bird has the words "No Fear" written on its nose.