Damn, I forgot Brooke! Sorry man
Why I play this sim? Well, like most others, I've always had an interest in WWII aviation, read tons of books, went to more than a few air shows, all that stuff. Played all the early "sims", though my first was "F15E Strike Eagle" for the C64.
In spite of that, there was always something about the "roar" of a WWII warbird that shook me all the way down to my 'nads, leaving me staring in slack jawed wonder as a B17 or a Mustang went by overhead.
One day, while on GEnie, I stumbeld across the AW boards. From there I was hooked. I had months of $500+ credit card bills..hell, maxed the damn thing out before I was forced to moderate my time. During that time, I was found by QT and the Hams and invited to join. At about the same time, I became an AWTA trainer, which paid my GEnie bill and eliminated the biggest obstacle to flying...sims that is. During this time I also grabbed my priate pilots SEAL rating, and put about 20 hours towards an instrument rating before cash flow problems caled a halt to that.
I followed AW to CRIS and DELPHI, though I didn't stay at the latter long, and became a Trainer on AOL as well...paid the bills

I "guided" in a few other games there as well.
AW went to the web, and I followed there too, first in the alpha, then the closed and open beta (I htink I was in the alpha....memory fades). AW started to die after EA got their claws in it, and I sort of faded away shorly before its ultimate demise.
One day I stopped in here, and though the signal to noise ratio was much lower, I still heard some of the familar banter from the old days. I signed up, took to the air, and have been struggling to get better every day of the past 2-3 months
. There's still the old thril of working to saddle up, though I still can't hit watermelon when I do, but this too shall pass.
Till then, I'll still picture myself looking over to my wingman, giving the old "thumbs up" as we push the throttles forward, and wave to the happy coolies toiling in the paddies as we once again lift off to to battle in the rising sun.