Roll Call Thread Addition -where are we all from ?

[TOMLABEL]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Just turned 49 a couple of weeks ago.

Me too almost - April 18th.

Happy Belated Birthday!!!![8D]

TOMLABEL

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Just turned 49 a couple of weeks ago.

ORIGINAL: TOMLABEL
Me too almost - April 18th.

Happy Belated Birthday!!!![8D]

TOMLABEL

That's weird, we're only a day apart in age. Same year.

Bill

[jamesjohns]

Some of us older types grew up around WW2 vets. Teachers, coaches, scout masters, neighbors, dads, uncles, you name it. Certainly a big influence on many people on this forum.

Although I'm on the young end of the age range, thinking of the WWII generation I had regular contact with. Growing up most of them never really shared any stories with us kids. After doing my own time during the 1st Gulf, there where still some of these gentlemen around, they opened up more and shared some of their own experiences, for which I am very appreciative and grateful. Now that I'm older and had a few more trips, I wish I could visit with them again, but sadly most of them have passed on.

When I think of "Veteran", I point to these gentlemen and know my own experiences amount to about .001% of what they went through.

One Grandfather was an Infantryman in Africa and Italy; understandably never talked about the war. Other Grandfather logistics in the US, joined the Army expecting to go over seas and ended up stationed only a couple hundred miles from home, never left the States. Number of Great-Uncles, one a medic in France was captured and told me how at the end of the war was drawing near the guards main concern was the Americans got to them before the Russians, another with the 82nd for 3 jumps then wounded, my mom said he was active in the anti-Vietnam war movement. Grandma had a brother that was MIA, later changed to KIA in Europe, she always had a picture of him in her purse. Several teachers, middle school Principal had lots of pictures of WWII aircraft in his office was Air Corp in Europe. A math teacher was on a destroyer (? if I recall right) in the Atlantic, every year he swapped classes with history teacher and talk about the convoy battles/WWII, was one history unit everyone enjoyed. Minister in church meet the Russians at the Elbe, sometimes talked about WWII, war during his sermons and the need for peace, he had a son that died in Vietnam.

A neighbor farmed beside us was a gunner on a B-17, my dad & him helped each other out a lot/shared equipment, I worked a lot for him as a teenager. As little kids my sister once asked where his arm was, told us "It fell off somewhere over Holland". Another neighbor was a Marine in the Pacific think he was at Okinawa, his advice when I thought of joining military, "go to college". One of my Grandfathers best friends was on a minesweeper in the Pacific, one time asked him about it. He said if he "had any brains he would have been a lot more scared". My father in-law & mother-in-law grew up during WWII, (he was Korean War, Infantry), interesting to hear about WWII through the eyes of a teen growing up during it. One of my best friends dad was in France/Germany, worked at the post office, great guy, lot of fun, said his unit was the first to shell German soil, always talked loud & was hard of hearing (he was an Arty Officer [;)]) told stories about trading canned food for fresh food with locals and most of the time giving them a great deal because he felt sorrow for them.

[rockmedic109]

I meet all the qualifications except for education. It appears my lack of education makes me look like a fern amongst a forest of redwoods.

I did qualify for an advanced degree from the University of California at Hard Knoxx [:D].

[Marshall]

Dutch!

4 years air force in the old days.

Been playing the game since it came out by SSL, the game developed immensely, and i just keep coming back for more.

[Rafid]

I seem to fall out of the demographic here:

...early interest in history and reading: Partially - reading yes, history no
...early war gaming: no, WITPAE is the first game (cardboard or digital) of this kind for me
...model builders: no
...ex-military: no
...45-60 yr range: no - I was born in 1984, which makes me the youngest to have posted on this thread, I believe.
...post-secondary schooling: check (got one at least)

definitively guilty of geekdom though, which should probably be added to the list

[Itdepends]

Born and raised in the SW of Western Australia
Just under a year from 40, early Gen X
Did a little bit of model building in my early years but rarely finished one and never got the hang of painting well. Bought a large set of paints about a year ago intending to spruce up some steampunk floating warships and ended up using them to paint a bunch of voodoo puppets for a board game instead.
Mining professional, BSc in Chemistry and Extractive Metallurgy

I didn't do a lot of boardgaming in my formative years but did have the privilege of growing up during the birth of the computing age. Many weeks of pocket money/allowance found its way into the local video game arcade- at least until the day I got my first computer- a commodore 64.
Wargaming on the home computer against the AI was the best way to find an "opponent" in the early days. I played a lot of Overrun and Typhoon of Steel. Once I graduated to a PC it was Steel Panthers and Close Combat (ahh the poor russian anti tank squads- his armour is too thiiiick).

Even now I find it easier to get an opponent on the PC rather than in person- although there are some great solitaire boardgames out now days. Codeword Cromwell and Omaha Beach were recent discoveries for me and I'm now waiting on Apache/Warthog leader and Hunters (U boats) to arrive.

Always had an interest in WWII, but generally preferred the Euro/Soviet theatre as the germans. However the fog of war and player interaction with WITPAE has me hooked, I haven't found anything that comes close to it.

My dad was in the navy, pretty sure he finished before I was born. According to him, my Grandfather served in the Royal Marines in Burma but I never talked about it with him (Grandad), he passed a couple of years ago. One day I might dig into that a bit further but the records are still closed to the public.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Rafid

I seem to fall out of the demographic here:

...early interest in history and reading: Partially - reading yes, history no
...early war gaming: no, WITPAE is the first game (cardboard or digital) of this kind for me
...model builders: no
...ex-military: no
...45-60 yr range: no - I was born in 1984, which makes me the youngest to have posted on this thread, I believe.
...post-secondary schooling: check (got one at least)

definitively guilty of geekdom though, which should probably be added to the list

warspite1

Rafid Wow! So with a background like that - particularly the no early wargaming and the history - no, where does the interest in this game come from? How did you even get into it?

You mention Geekdom - is it the logistics? Or has the game untapped a hidden love of the military and/or history?

Many thanks

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: rockmedic109

I meet all the qualifications except for education. It appears my lack of education makes me look like a fern amongst a forest of redwoods.

I did qualify for an advanced degree from the University of California at Hard Knoxx [:D].

Thought this was about where we are from. Not our creds.

Don't knock yourself for the lack of an education.

I'm a self taught architect with neither a degree nor a license and serve in the same capacity as any other staff architect and am recognized in the design community in the Tampa Bay area as one of the most competent around.

Personally, I have had the severe displeasure of being forced to work with far too many degreed and licensed incompetent buffoons to ever be gullible enough to accept possession of them as adequate indicators of intelligence and competence.

Been playing wargames for 42 years having cut my teeth on the Avalon Hill and SPI classics of the 1970s.

My collection of board wargames is well over 200. I was a beta tester for Avalon Hill's classic Advanced Third Reich with my name appearing in the design credits.

Don't really know if those are adequate creds to impress anyone and really don't care.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Rafid

...45-60 yr range: no - I was born in 1984, which makes me the youngest to have posted on this thread, I believe.

'95 here, so no joy, not by a long shot.

From my understanding of things, there's a fair few of us in the younger demographic bracket.

[Mundy]

Born in New London, Wisconsin.
 
Spent 9 years in exile in Superior, Wisconsin before finally settling back in Neenah. Wisconsin.
 
About covers it.

[wneumann]

Tampa (Florida), across the bay from Hans Bolter. Not impossible that we've crossed (or almost crossed) paths without either of us knowing it. If Hans is a (NHL) hockey fan, we've very probably spent time inside the same building at the same time.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: wneumann

Tampa (Florida), across the bay from Hans Bolter. Not impossible that we've crossed (or almost crossed) paths without either of us knowing it. If Hans is a (NHL) hockey fan, we've very probably spent time inside the same building at the same time.

Only been to a handful of Lightning games.

My brother and sister in law are huge fans.

And BTW, what little time I did spend at college was in Gatorland.

Orange and Blue, Orange and Blue, Orange and Blue Blue Blue!

The main hobby that gets me out of the house is astronomy.

I've been an active member of the St. Petersburg Astronomy Club (the largest in the southeast U.S.) for close to 20 years.

We use the 40 acre clearing in the Withlacochee River Park just east of Dade City for our dark sky observing site.

[pnzrgnral]

Born and raised in Maryland, with Baltimore as hometown; started reading early and subjects military were a very early favorite. Lotsa' vets in the family, predominately Navy. First wargame was AH's "Blitzkrig" at the age of ten; dozens of wargames followed, including D&D when in its infancy in the mid-70's. Enlisted in the Army at 19 years of age in 79 to kick Iranian ass and defend the world from Soviet Bolshevism. Computer wargames began to accumulate with the introduction of the Commodore 64. My mind and heart loved being in the infantry, but my body, over the years, didn't agree - plenty of aches & pains, owwies and such to remind me that I'm in my mid-50's and not a twenty-something staff sergeant serving in a Ranger battalion anymore. Or even a mech infantry unit. The Pacific has always been a favorite subject, especially naval, but being assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii for two tours, I was able to travel the Pacific extensively and see some of the terrain fought over in AE (and elsewhere). Although an MOS-qualified German linguist (good high school education there), I could never get assigned to Europe. Once you become a Ranger, The Big Green Machine owns your a** and you go where they want you to. So no opportunity to visit European battlefields or museums...or drink BIER.

[Vaevictis_386]

US

[TOMLABEL]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

That's weird, we're only a day apart in age. Same year.

Bill

Yes, that is kinda weird, but cool indeed!!![8D]

Maybe that explains for once why a programmer and an art guy could understand each other and work together on this AE project so well!!! [:D]

TOMLABEL

[jakla1027]

Pocatello, Idaho. Good ole USA!!! I'm 29, and have lived in Idaho my whole life. My career, welder. No military service, just became interested interested in Military History at the age of 12, been studying it ever since, collect WWII era guns. And have been putting together my own library of military history books.

As a side note guys. Pocatello, ID has remenants of what everyone here refers to as "the gun plant". It's a large group of buildings, shops,& warehouses that the US navy built here in WWII. They manufactured a large selection of the numouros naval guns used during WWII. From what I've gathered they produced everything from the 16" guns down to 5" guns used by the Navy. Today the plant is still being used by various fabrication companies. They also test fired guns out in the desert, shot them at a big inactive volcanic butte. What a firing range

[Big B]

Born in Hollywood CA in the 50's, then lived in Los Angeles and Orange County (the latter mostly) the rest of my life. My Dad's side of the family got to the 'New World' (what later became Rhode Island) over 400 years ago...so yeah - I'm American.

[RogerJNeilson]

Ok sorry I'm late to this thread, just got back from a small 2,700 rail holiday round Central Europe. [Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna, Venice, Florence, Rome, Turin, Paris]

I'm a Geordie - born at the end of Hadrian's Wall - and live in Northumberland, UK.

Been active with this since it came out, prior was a WITP player and have now 5 decades or one form of wargaming or another under my belt.

Currently in three PBEMs....

Roger

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

That's weird, we're only a day apart in age. Same year.

Bill

ORIGINAL: TOMLABEL
Yes, that is kinda weird, but cool indeed!!![8D]

Maybe that explains for once why a programmer and an art guy could understand each other and work together on this AE project so well!!! [:D]

TOMLABEL

I did grow up with an art guy too. [:)] It is kinda cool.

Bill