1/23/00
S! all,
First of all a very happy new year/century/millenium etc to all our pilots. As you may be aware we are one year old this month, M. Raptor (Icepick), Kos and myself being the only pilots still aboard from this period. And what a year its been; I vividly remember me and Pick discussing excitedly the possibility of flying team tactics as the EAW community was still a collection of lone wolves at that time. We took over the helm in March and No.609 as we all know and love it was born. Previous to this we had several very good pilots leave our ranks due to poor organisation in the squadron and we were deternined to set things right. Despite several teething troubles I believe our beloved squadron now has most of the basics sorted out, though we all continue to learn from our mistakes. In the coming months we'll see other pilots come up for their first birthdays as part of the team and I'd like to announce these on this page. As I don't have all of this gen written down I'd like it if you could write to me when this event comes around. SSGF suggested a 'Long Service Ribbon' for all pilots present for one year. I think this is an excellent idea and I'll get onto it as soon as I can.
I have been working very long days in my new (hopefully temporary) job making coffins (yeah, I know..."LOL") and I've not had much time or inclination for anything else in my spare time but crashing out on the couch watching the History Channel. Hopefully this will change when I get used to working these hours and my poor brain realizes it needs more than five hours sleep a night. Anyway, I wont be around as much as in the past for the timebeing and updates may take a while.
The roster has now been updated to reflect recent changes;
Good old M. Raptor is back as Rel's wingman in Red Section. Welcome home Pick! (I refuse to call you 'Raptor...so there!). More hearty welcomes go out to Viper who returns to Black Section after a couple of months in the work trenches, this time as Wolfman's wingee. Good to have you home mate!
SSGF has been promoted to element leader in Black Section, as Cas is busy at present with exams etc. Brian's sterling performance in the war makes him an ideal choice for this post and we know he'll do a great job. Cas has been placed on reserve and we hope to see him back soon.
We have several new recruits, mainly from Canada (Kos has hit the streets out there with recruiting forms) so check out the evaluation table for details. Welcome aboard chaps!
The final (very exciting) debiefs are up in HQ from Dave, Destroyer and SSGF covering the final night's missions versus NJG/88 in their 262s. It would be nice to have a brief history of the war, covering changes in tactics, quotes from debriefs, scores per year etc...As I'm very busy at present, does anyone fancy doing this? It'd be put on the history page and would be very useful for us (as well as other allied Sqns) in any future wars.
I am very happy to announce that Destroyer has volunteered to act as our publicity officer, getting links on other related pages etc...Thanks very much Dest and we know you'll be as commited to this task as you have been to leading C Flight. We are very lucky to have such a decent bunch of pilots in our mob and its very gratifying for me to see so many people stay the course over the last year. Also to see so many people return to our ranks after leaving for a couple of months. Just remember...if you want to leave we probably wont let you...so you might as well stay!
As I don't have time to update this page as often as I'd like, I would like to suggest that you send me your present kill scores for the ladder and the war. In future, I WILL NOT update these unless I hear from you. The scores got tricky with people leaving/rejoining the ladder and it does get confusing, so please tell others about this.
Well, thats about it for now. Lots of things still need to be done; several images, pilot pics etc need to get done as well as a million other little details. See you all very soon, and if you need a coffin I'm the man to ask. Comp.