Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Muzzy on July 02, 2024, 07:05:21 PM

Title: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Muzzy on July 02, 2024, 07:05:21 PM
Hello all,

I'm doing an essay on combat flight sims and I was wondering if anyone recalls any vets who played Aces High or its predecessors. I recall there were some very early on in the old Air Warrior days and here on Aces High, but I never had any firsthand encounters with any.

If any of you recall some of these vets please let me know. I'd love to hear about them.
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: MDStampf93 on July 02, 2024, 09:58:54 PM
Vilkas, conscripted by the Germans at 13 years old in Lithuania and sent to the Eastern Front.

Vilkas flew with our squad JG 11 for many years, he passed maybe 8-10 years ago now.

Somewhere we have a lot more information about his time during WW2.
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: xanax on July 02, 2024, 10:16:58 PM
Earl "Dutch" Miller played Air Warrior in the late 90's. He flew P-39's and P-47's during the war. He had great stories and was a wealth of info. Also a really nice fella.
+Tiff/Slack has wealth of info on him and even met the gentleman.


https://www.lacrosselibrary.org/sites/default/files/u117/10-earl_miller_p-47_thunderbolt_pilot.pdf (https://www.lacrosselibrary.org/sites/default/files/u117/10-earl_miller_p-47_thunderbolt_pilot.pdf)
https://couleecremation.com/earl-dutch-miller/ (https://couleecremation.com/earl-dutch-miller/)
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Animl-AW on July 02, 2024, 10:23:09 PM
Earl "Dutch" Miller played Air Warrior in the late 90's. He flew P-39's and P-47's during the war. He had great stories and was a wealth of info. Also a really nice fella.
+Tiff/Slack has wealth of info on him and even met the gentleman.


https://www.lacrosselibrary.org/sites/default/files/u117/10-earl_miller_p-47_thunderbolt_pilot.pdf (https://www.lacrosselibrary.org/sites/default/files/u117/10-earl_miller_p-47_thunderbolt_pilot.pdf)
https://couleecremation.com/earl-dutch-miller/ (https://couleecremation.com/earl-dutch-miller/)

he was just a all around great guy. He helped us a lot on physics of AC and how they should feel. He really contributed to FM in sims. From what I recall he was also a test pilot, flew several planes we had. I miss his presence.
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Kini on July 03, 2024, 10:58:00 AM
There was an event years ago in the old Warbirds sim where several 332 Fighter Squadron pilots participated in a special scenario. I lasted about 15 minutes before being shot down by a fellow player and not one of the Red Tail pilots. 
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: JimmyD3 on July 03, 2024, 11:11:51 AM
Wasn't Earl one of the B17 bomber groups here in AH?
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: xanax on July 03, 2024, 11:39:55 AM
Wasn't Earl one of the B17 bomber groups here in AH?

I'm not sure if he ever tried AH. I think he trailed off flying in AW around 99-ish. Flossy or Slack can probably verify if he ever gave it a go over here.

I thought I had a .zip of the entire news.bigweek.org archive somewhere to try to single out and compile his posts but I can't find it. I should have taken better care of that stuff.
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: flippz on July 03, 2024, 02:02:23 PM
ET was a bomber pilot that flew both bombers and P51s (all though the p51s were not in combat conditions). He was super great guy and could whip the sorriest bomber pilot into shape in about two flights. Later in his game flying he would take off and sneak a nap in at times which usually led to him waking 30 mins later way of course and he was hilarious about it.
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: JimmyD3 on July 03, 2024, 02:33:15 PM
ET was a bomber pilot that flew both bombers and P51s (all though the p51s were not in combat conditions). He was super great guy and could whip the sorriest bomber pilot into shape in about two flights. Later in his game flying he would take off and sneak a nap in at times which usually led to him waking 30 mins later way of course and he was hilarious about it.

Good to hear from you Flippz, hope all is well.  :salute
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: TryHard on July 03, 2024, 04:04:03 PM
ET was a bomber pilot that flew both bombers and P51s (all though the p51s were not in combat conditions). He was super great guy and could whip the sorriest bomber pilot into shape in about two flights. Later in his game flying he would take off and sneak a nap in at times which usually led to him waking 30 mins later way of course and he was hilarious about it.

I believe Earl (ET37) flew B29s in Korea right?

I still remember the massive strat raids he would put together, guy was a hoot to fly with.  :salute
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Oldman731 on July 03, 2024, 09:27:39 PM
Wasn't Earl one of the B17 bomber groups here in AH?

Two different Earls.  Earl Miller flew in AW.  He flew P-39s and P-47s in North Africa and Italy during the war, and F-80s after.  He didn't make the transition to AH.

The other Earl was AH handle "ET."  He flew a wide variety of planes, was revered here for realistically leading bomber missions, and almost literally died online in his final illness.

Great people and heroes, both of them.

- oldman
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Muzzy on July 03, 2024, 10:02:01 PM
Now that my memory has been jogged, I do recall flying with Earl "ET" during one of my stints here. His bombing missions were legendary. If memory serves there was a memorial service of sorts for him here, was there not?
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: save on July 04, 2024, 01:00:27 AM
I escorted ET in some of his B17 sorties, he always joked feeling funny about me escorting him in the FW190A8   :D
I remember he said they used the B17 to distinguish wildfires after the war.
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Animl-AW on July 04, 2024, 06:39:42 AM
Two different Earls.  Earl Miller flew in AW.  He flew P-39s and P-47s in North Africa and Italy during the war, and F-80s after.  He didn't make the transition to AH.

The other Earl was AH handle "ET."  He flew a wide variety of planes, was revered here for realistically leading bomber missions, and almost literally died online in his final illness.

Great people and heroes, both of them.

- oldman

Such a great experience to have these guys.
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Frodo on July 04, 2024, 09:05:16 AM
Vilkas, conscripted by the Germans at 13 years old in Lithuania and sent to the Eastern Front.

Vilkas flew with our squad JG 11 for many years, he passed maybe 8-10 years ago now.

Somewhere we have a lot more information about his time during WW2.

 :salute So much fun to fly with. Loved when he would start singing.


There was an event years ago in the old Warbirds sim where several 332 Fighter Squadron pilots participated in a special scenario. I lasted about 15 minutes before being shot down by a fellow player and not one of the Red Tail pilots. 

I flew that with Rexx/Killjoy who sadly has passed away. Great fun and memories.  :salute  They were not easy to fly against either. If I remember right we didn't do very well.  :devil
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Puma44 on July 04, 2024, 12:20:02 PM
The other Earl was AH handle "ET."  He flew a wide variety of planes, was revered here for realistically leading bomber missions, and almost literally died online in his final illness.

Great people and heroes, both of them.

- oldman

Got to know ET off the side.  A great guy with an interesting background and breadth of experience.  One being time in the P-82.  Loved his bomber missions with escorts and realistic radio chatter in the background.  A true pleasure and consummate gentleman to know.

(https://i.postimg.cc/HnPQ9JSX/IMG-1591.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/hQTzSGRt)


Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: aztec on July 06, 2024, 10:51:27 AM
Vilkas was a WWII VET who played. He has passed on and and is greatly missed. When I was a member of JG11 Vilkas had been with them for some time. This is his story from his mouth to my ears. Vilkas was from Lithuania. As a teenager during WWII he was conscripted by the Germans and trained to be an :salute anti aircraft gunner. When I met him he was quite old and very rarely flew anymore. However he loved to gun for his squadmates and was quite good at it. I used to delight in taking him up and allowing him to wail away. He was such a wonderful old gentleman. Vilkas, ( which means wolf in Lithuanian) gave me some of the greatest joy in the game. Godspeed VilkaS AND I KNOW YOUR AIM IS STILL TRUE. :salute
Title: Re: Real World War II Vets Who Played
Post by: Molsman on July 26, 2024, 10:57:34 PM
:salute So much fun to fly with. Loved when he would start singing./quote]

Ahhh Good Ol Walter aka Vilkas my wife and I would talk to him a lot on something like discord but it was some other talk app. He always hearing about my wife’s deserts and we tried to figure out how to send him a birthday cake for his birthday one year but the cost were outrageous to send from the US to Canada so unfortunately he never had the good desserts my wife could make. 10thmd and I still keep in touch In another game and we always talk about    Vilkas history and his singing. Miss my Birthday month Buddy and remember the first time I took him up in a B29 in the game he loved the guns!!!! And Ron ya were also an escort in that run and I forgot who the other JG-11 guys were.