NS13Jarhead

It can't be. I've already ordered three of them, plus a case of the cordite aroma capsules.

Where are you located, Cody? I'm sure you've got a locally-owned 'Geek Store' (not a Best Buy) somewhere nearby. I use one called Golden Tech here in northern Virginia. They build to order, but they also have a bunch of pre-builts on the shelf. They're fairly cheap and they seem to be very reasonable in price. And as a bonus, the only software they installed on my last machine almost 3 years ago was the OS, benchmarking software, and a full version of Crysis. That means no endless hours deleting crapware like demo versions of AOL, Norton, McAfee and MS Works. I don't know if this is up to date, but they were running a special for an Intel Core i7 920 2.66/4.8GT/S, 6 GB 1333 RAM, 500 GB Hard Drive, GeForce GTX260 896MB PCIE 16X and Windows 7 Home Premium (among other things) for under $1,500.

Reporter: Why'd you shoot him 15 times? Cop: He kept moving. Every time I shot him, he moved.

bruceD. Yep, That's a Deitz. I found his stuff while I was working at the Marine Corps Museum. He came and did a painting of Marines from the mid-20th century to the present. I was lucky enough to pose for him. I'm the one on the center left with the white hat and sword in his painting "You Will Not Fail Us" But if you don't want to spend $200+ on a painting, you can get the puzzle for about $13

bruceD, It depends on how you fly. If you fly it like an arcade game, 1 or 2 missions sounds about right. If you fly it like a real pilot on a real mission, only taking reasonable chances, avoiding getting into scraps when outnumbered, you should be able to last a lot longer. However, for me, the second way is not as much fun as diving into a furball and slugging it out. My personal favorite missions are "scramble" missions, where I know I'm going to get a lot of action right away without that boring "to and from" flying. Don't get me wrong, the scenery is fantastic, but I'm a very busy man and I don't have time or patience for too much sightseeing. So, in any event, my flying style is a mix of the two, leaning about 60%-40% toward attacking every enemy I see. I'm usually able to last about 10-20 missions before either being killed or captured. Speaking of which, it's time to enlist Hauptmann Otto Treiharder, CXVII.

As I mentioned in the original thread, I try to keep the same name (due to my lack of originality). Both of my regular names reflect my somehwat pessimistic attitude about being able to keep my pilots alive for an extended period. German - Otto Treiharder British - Willie Maykett I'm not a fan of SPADs or Nieuports, so I've not developed personalities for American or French, yet.

I recently obtained a digital copy of the WWI Diary of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, USMC, the U.S. Marine Corps' first aviator. During the war, he went to France to help set up space in French flight schools for Marine Corps pilots who were starting to arrive in late 1917 and early 1918. Most of it reads like. "Got up, ate breakfast, went to this aerodrome", etc. However, there are a few interesting parts like when he convinced a pilot to take him over the lines as an observer in a two-seat SPAD and got to squeeze off a couple of ineffective rounds at a German two-seater. Although the pictures are very dark and poorly scanned, there is a photo of a Nieuport 17C.1 that the caption says has four machine guns. You can make out two on the upper wing and I'd imagine there are two more on over the engine.

Maybe we need to start another thread on our "amusing pilot names". My personal favorite, which I have used about 150 times is "Otto Treiharder"

Very interesting thread, Olham, How about: Yost (originally Jost or Joost) Hockersmith (originally Hochenschmidt) Schwartz (just plain Schwartz) The other grandparent is Harrison, obviously a krumpet.

You know, it'd go a lot faster if you use a Dremel Tool...

If it don't fit, get a bigger hammer!

Rob Halford is gay? No way! Next thing you know you'll be telling that Freddie Mercury was, too.

I was sad to hear that. Dio is on heavy rotation in my Zune (Microsoft's version of an IPOD - cheaper and almost as good). I particularly like "Rainbow in the Dark", "King of Rock and Roll" and "The Mob Rules" (from his Sabbath days). He'll live on with every headbanger who waves the "horns" during a concert. Too bad that it won't be long before people forget he was the one who started it. Farewell, Ronnie.

Dang! I thought Creaghorn was going to send us all a bottle of homemade booze! Just my luck, he's only making the best flight sim better. Oh well, gotta take what you can get.

I can just see it now - "I'll trade you two Winders and a Satchel for your Olham"

Yes, the Vickers is an awesome weapon. But imagine the damage to a wood and fabric aircraft with this...

After creating a backup of the original file, of course...

At least the Dev Team didn't model having your own tailgunner shoot holes in your own plane, which I understand happened from time to time in real life. That would really suck - shot at by your wingmen and your own crewman!

I've tried it on two computers with Vista and on both of them, the system actually slowed down! Thanks, Bill Maybe when USB 3.0 comes out, it'll actually work like it's supposed to.

Widowmaker, I agree with you 100%. Those folks in the civilian professions you mentioned, police, paramedics, and firemen share a special bond with us who served in the military. We all have been willing to put our lives on the line to protect/save people we don't even know. That, I believe, is one definition of patriotism - putting the well-being of other citizens above your own. As for the scientists - for every Neil Armstrong, there are a thousand or more unnamed geniuses (with slide rules, back in the day) who made his accomplishment possible. I say we owe a big round of applause to everyone who does their job, does it well, day in and day out, often times without reward or recognition, and gets up day after day to do it again to the best of their ability.

Herr Prop, You're welcome. Looking back, I wouldn't have done it any different. I was a somewhat screwed up kid and the USMC set me straight. Duce, You should have seen southeast DC in the late 80s to mid 90s. It was almost as bad as Mogidishu. Unfortunately, if you want to see the Silent Drill Team, you've got to go to that part of town. Olham, Honestly, I was just doing my job and going where Headquarters told me to go. The bottom two rows are just "I was there" stuff. Unfortunately, in my line of work (logistics), the Marine Corps has a tendency to send us to all the fun places.

27 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Been to 30 different countries and only shot at in four of them (five if you count Washington DC). Started as a Private, made it to Sergeant before accepting a commission and going from Second Lieutenant through Lieutenant Colonel. Only been retired for two and a half years. I still miss it sometimes - but it is nice having some stability in my homelife.

tdacon, It almost sound like you're trying to fly this with the keyboard and mouse. A joystick is a must. Some say the same for rudder pedals and TrackIR, but I'm too cheap to buy them (yet). A couple of recommendations: 1. Ignore the "trim" it won't make that much of a difference until you're much more familiar with the game and even then, it's just to make cruising between waypoints easier. 2. If your rudder is set to "auto" turn it off and use some form of rudder control - pedals or twisty stick or whatever your joystick provides you with (I've got a paddle on the throttle on my Saitek X45). 3. Set your map to "aircraft" and "1 mile" immediately (which you're already doing - good call). 4. Set your fuel and ammo to "unlimited" in the workshop (but only until you get the hang of OFF - otherwise it's cheating). 5. If you haven't done so already, set up a series of Quick Combat missions with you and a wingman against 1 enemy until you're comfortable, then increase the number and repeat. Also it helps to have everyone else at "rookie" skill level. 6. Start a campaign and just fly and enjoy. Don't rush from combat to combat with the "warp" function. Fly to the waypoints so that you can get the feel of controling your craft.

Rabu, It really depends on the game. If it's a computerized version of moving little cardboard squares around a big hexagon-grid map, then it can be educational. However some of the 1st person games are just plain mind-numbingly stupid. I saw one a couple months back where a soldier who was about to be killed at the Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand) was time transported into the future and then re-time transported back to critical parts of battles throughout history with anachonistic weapons. For example he/you get some sort of large capacity, large caliber, hand held machine gun at the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg in the US Civil War (1862). Stupid with a capital S.

When I was on a 6-month deployment around the western Pacific, a couple of the other Marines and I would play Squad Leader (with Cross of Iron expansion pack) into the wee hours of the morning almost daily. You see, while at sea between ports, there's very little for the Marines to do except sleep, eat, read or play games. We got quite good at SL, even making up some variations of the game when we'd finished all the stock scenarios - we had one where we'd slap together the city map boards from two sets, allocate x-number of battle points to buy our own customized armies and have three way battles with Russians, Germans and Americans all going against one another at the same time.