June 25, 200817 yr Author Day Five - MAPS (http://www.mapsairmuseum.org/) This morning we toured MAPS. The members of the museum lead tours through their workshop and the finished products. It was a fun tour and you can see they are always earnestly trying to expand their holdings. It was more than just a few airplanes, they also have radios, training equipment, a couple flak guns, and various other tidbits. The tour took a little over an hour and a half and was enjoyable. The tour guide spoke many factual errors but did so with the utmost love of what he was doing. Oh, and this time the camera was happy and I got F-14B photos... Bofers, we got to sit on it and traverse and elevate the gun, must have been near impossible to hit anything that wasn't right in your face! Norden bomb sight. They had a photo in it so you could get the feel, still must have taken some real skill to hit anything, even with that piece of machinery. Funny that the USAF Museum didn't have one on display. Kiowa Vietnam style F-14B as seen from Mig-17 (you could sit in the Mig, control surfaces still connected up and all) The pallets, mmm, 110nm Brad! I wasn't going to put up a Corsair photo but when I saw it on the computer with the flag behind I couldn't resist. This one is for my sister, gotta love Snoopy F-14 nose on for radome size comparison, huge! F-4 nose on for radome size comparison, tiny MAPS also has nice store items, I bought an F-14 book, F-14 hat, F-14 shirt, and F-22 shirt (for a friend). My dad bought a different F-14 shirt, there were three shirts with F-14 prints, one of them being a bit of a memorial to the end We're now in Columbus and wandered down to Origins but my badge wasn't ready yet, we'll head over again and see if I can get a ribbon for the War College track. The Matrix people should arrive tomorrow and DonG on Friday.
June 25, 200817 yr MAPS also has nice store items, I bought an F-14 book, F-14 hat, F-14 shirt, and F-22 shirt (for a friend). Any of which would make for a nice Harpoon player of the year award...
June 27, 200817 yr Author Sorry Pete, Corsair is ugly imho, F-14 is a beauty, A-6 just looks right,... Day 6, Origins Game Conference Before breakfast I headed down to buy my event tickets. One of the two is the War College ribbon which gets me into any of 30 or so seminars and additional gaming events over the course of the convention. I went to 7 hours of those seminars today and were it not for the idea that eating on occasion is good, would have enjoyed a couple of more hours. The seminar on the current state of the Russian Navy was cancelled so that kept my numbers down a bit too. When it wasn't eat or attend seminars I was spending some time at the Matrix Games area learning about and showing off their games (Matrix publishes the Harpoon computer games). So today I met employee/contractors/military personnel from... The US Naval War College wargaming division The US Army staff college wargaming division The US Air Force staff college wargaming division The US Army planning staff. The quote of the day came from this guy, "When I reported the number of security forces needed in Iraq to General Abuzaid, he gave me a very stern look." I think it is rather neat to have access to these people and their experiences. One of the attendees in two of the seminars turns out to have been a co-pilot on the NEACP planes. They were/are 747s that immediately take to the sky if a nuclear war is imminent and may carry the president, but at a minimum attempt to keep someone who can continue the government (and realistically to order a nuclear counter-attack) in the air and hopefully protected from the attack. Tony (and dad, who rested up today)
June 30, 200817 yr Author Phew, made it home on day 9, may fill in some details later, met Uncle Harpoon (Don Gilman), met Larry Bond, met a bunch of others.
June 30, 200817 yr I'm glad you included the Corsair, Tony. I spent many an hour on the radio with A-7 jockeys during my Midway days. Buddha
June 30, 200817 yr Welcome back, T. I'm sure you were a fabulous ambassador for Harpoon to all of the 'lesser' games out there.
July 1, 200817 yr The A-7 Corsair ugly??? I'm shocked, shocked that you would say such a thing. It sure as hell is, but a lot of fun to control, I can tell you that. Versatile as well. In addition to their attack role, we used them as tankers, and, when carrying 2 AIM-9's, we used them to accompany our Soviet friends who were checking out our Battle Group. After seeing Tony's pics, I wa wondering if we have any members near Dayton, OH. I grew up in OH, and the museum at Wright Patterson was a favorite destination for field trips, scout outings, etc. Unfortunately, like alot of other things, all my old pics are gone. Buddha
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