I met Johnny "Tequila Chaser" Spencer (TC) back on Air Warrior for windows on AOL in the mid 1990s.
Not sure if he was Damned Yet or not as I was in the 33rd Strike group at the time and that was a long time ago.
He alpha and beta tested Air Warrior II and III with many of us.
I believe he worked at Kesmai/Gamestorm for a while the same time I was there with Grey Eagle, Mage, Moggy, Cularo, Wedge, Submission and many other names some of the older folks may remember. I believe TC worked as paid trainer for Air Warrior III.
Me and TC started becoming friends right after AH opened up but before I joined the Damned back around 2001ish. At the time we both had Nextels with the Push To Talk feature from our jobs and we would BS with each other when we got bored at work.
I found that we both had a love for Aviation, specially WWII Aviation, and we both loved the F4u corsair.
He eventually became an AH trainer, and he really really liked to help new players.
Around the same time a great deal of squadrons that came over from Air Warrior started failing. Both the 33rd Strike Group and the Ariel Crowd Control Service closed up for good.
Whels, Devi, and Myself Joined the Damned together at the same time back in 2002ish and TC was right their to great us and get us acclimated to the squad.
This is were I found out how special of a human being Johnny "Tequila Chaser" Spencer was.
He would wing with anyone, even if you where having a bad day with a case of grumpy guss cranky pants.
TC would reach out to anyone, even outside the game.
He would call and talk to anyone.
He would help anyone.
He would even send out presents and cards to people in the game that he had never met in person.
He rarely had anything bad to say about anyone ever. At most he would critique or offer up some constructive criticism.
Johnny "Tequila Chaser" Spencer was one of the nicest people in any game you could ever know.
He was a good player a good squad leader and an over all awesome member of the AW/AH community.
He was my friend and I will miss until we meet again in next life.
_____________________________ _________________________
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air . . .
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew –
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
_____________________________ _________________________
High Flight by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., of No. 53 Operational Training Unit, Royal Canadian Air Force
