NS13Jarhead

If I remember correctly, you may have to download the .dds viewer plugin from the Irfanview website, too.

Like you, Trebby, my introduction to WWI gaming was via Richtofen's War. I believe that I still have mine somewhre in the basement (along with Tactics II, Squad Leader, and Gettysburg). As a young lad, though I remember that some of the rules didn't make sense. For example, why do the airplanes turn better in one direction rather than the other? My pre-teen mind had not yet grasped the concept of "torque" and the effect of a large rotating engine on which way the aircraft tended to go. Even now, I'm amazed that the designers actually tried to model that in a cardboard square/hex grid map game in the1970s. That respect for authenticity has definetly been repeated here in OFF.

It didin't seem that way when I was heaving up my stomach lining!

Must be a "Marine thing".

I've never flown in an open cockpit, but I did get to do some aerobatics in a T-2 "Buckeye" Navy jet trainer. I took a number of flights and on the three ACM (dogfighting) missions, each about 30 minutes long, I barfed 11 times, which I believe is still the NAS Pensacola record!

A retired Marine/survivalist friend of mine related a story about a conversation he had with his neighbor a couple of months back. The neighbor jokingly asked him, "Are you stockpiling food so that you will be prepared for when civilization collaped." My buddy said, "No, I'm stockpiling guns, ammuntion, and a list of addresses of people who are stockpiling food." Interesting point of view, no?

Hey! why don't we have a Dr.1 that carries five bombs like the one in the first video?!?!

Nice pix. I'm always amazed at the sheer scale of naval vessels. I've spent more than 18 months at sea aboard everything from an LST (Landing Ship, Tank) to an LHD (Amphibious Helicopter Carrier) and I'm still trying to figure out how they get something that size to move in the first place.

I was going to say "they used velcro", but then I realized that we didn't have that until the aliens landed at Roswell in 1947.

Sorry to break the news, Unc, Due to the dreaded disease of political correctness, I believe they've renamed the CFA as the "Commemorative" Air Force.

Two stories: When I moved to Pensacola, FL for some military training, I failed to really look at a map prior to renting my townhouse. Turns out my new place was 3 to 4 miles out on the approach to Runway 07. Periodically, the Blue Angels' F/A-18s would come in for landing in low in a seven plane formation that rattled the entire neighborhood. About six months ago, I was driving near Manassas, VA and I heard a strange airplane engine. I searched the skies and much to my surprise, I saw a navy blue F4U Corsair flying around! There was no airshow or anything, so it was apparently someone who owns one and had taken it up for a joyride.

One recommendation on sound. It seems that my MoBo sound processor chokes the game a little when lots of noisy things are going on (i.e., artillery, sirens, machine guns, etc.) and I get quite a bit of stutter. I haven't checked to see if it makes much difference if you have a SoundBlaster (because I haven't gotten around to buying and installing one), but I'm sure the Dev Team can add some input on this.

What made that driveway pretty was 3+ hours of shovelling by four people and a little bit of mid-day sunshine on black asphalt. We're due for another 10" to 20" starting at noon today until sometime on Wednesday. I don't have anywhere else to throw the darn snow!

Only 20" here in my part of VA. As soon as I finished my driveway, the #$&@ snow plow rammed up a 6' wall of ice, slush and snow that I had to break through!

Two peoples separated by a common language. When I was a teenager, our local PBS channel played The Benny Hill Show on Saturday evenings. I never did fully understand what he was saying, but I did enjoy "Hill's Angels". THEY spoke the international language.

I'm a big fan of Daly's, too. Believe it or not, I've actually handled both of his Medals of Honor before they were installed in the Marine Corps Museum. Below is a picture of both of Daly's Medals. But I think my favorite WW I story is the one of Pvt John J. Kelly - during the battle of Blanc Mont (Oct 1918) his unit was pinned down by a German machine gun, so he ran through 100 yards of artillery barrage, knocked out the gun with his grenades and pistol, captured 8 prisoners, took them back through the 100 yards of artillery barrage and turned them over to his lieutenant, saying "see, I told you I'd take care of it". Funny thing is that when he was told that the King of England wanted to present him with a medal, being the good Catholic that he was, he said "no f***ing protestant is going to hang a medal on my chest" (I heard this directly from his niece, Mrs. Cavaleiri, who had heard the story many times from "Uncle Johnny", himself.)

Bullethead, Here's another view of a Scarff ring. This time on a JN-4HG. As a bonus, in the background you get a quote from SgtMaj Dan Daly (MoH x2) reportedly said to motivate his men at Belleau Wood, 6 June 1918.

Although it's much more arcade than simulator, I've enjoyed the Crimson Skies game for the PC. I'd imagine the XBox version is very similar. It's an alternative history set in the late 30s and early 40s where pirates fly around in aircraft carrier zeppelins and there are all sorts of outlandish aircraft and really cheesy dialog.

Wow, what memories! I ran the game on my Amiga (1000) with the basic 256kb memory ramped up to 512kb. I think I paid about $1,500 for the rig back in 1985! Of course I was never able to make it all the way through the game, so I never saw all of the memos. Those darn ground attack missions always got me - never could quite get the train before it moved out of range.

Well, first you have to connect the homafagel to the left-handed snigglefritz then rectify the gorblat...

http://www.franklinairshow.com/Video/Comedy%202010%20Net.WMV

I can let you have at least $1,000,000. Now let me see, where did I put that Monopoly game...

Olham, You can reach Mr. Dietz at http://www.jamesdietz.com/. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Dietz when he was preparing for a painting of U.S. Marines from the second half of the 20th century. It's called "You Will Not Fail Us". I actually had the honor of posing for one of the figures. I'm the one in the blue uniform left of center. The sergeant in the blue uniform right of center is Sgt Jeremiah Workman who received the Navy Cross (our second highest award for valor) during the 2nd Battle for Fallujah.

Olham, A very interesting point. It might make for a good story - one of those "alternate history" type science fiction ones where, because of one changed event, the whole world of today is different. Imagine if MvR survived the war and took over as head of the Luftwaffe instead of Goering? How would things have turned out differently. I know we've got some creative writing types here who could really flesh out the rest. All I ask is that if you sell the story to a book publisher, split the profits with Olham and me.

Isn't it part of the HUD view (F5)?