All I just received news that our great friend Robert Rucker has passed away. The R/C combat warship world has indeed suffered a loss with Robert's passing. He was a great friend, and fun to battle with. I thought it might be nice if we could all share out fond memories of Robert, and, in a way, introduce him to those that never had the chance to battle with him. Fair winds, and following seas, my friend. Mikey
The first time I met Robert, was at Nats ( I can't recall what year it was), in Hagerstown. I arrived at the motel late Sunday night. I had been burning the candle at both ends for the last few days with work, in order to attend the Nats event, and I was too tired to stay up and visit with everyone, but I did want to drop in and say hello to the MAG folks. So I went down to one of their rooms (Frank's I think), and there, on the door, was a list of all of the axis captains that were planning to sink Robert, and in what order. I had not met Robert so far, but I had been reading some of his posts on the list-server. Let's just say that he "dabbled"in smack-talk. In fact, when I read anyone's smack-talk, or even hear the word smack-talk, I kinda think of Robert. Anyhow. I said hey to a few of the MAG folks, and turned in for the night. I was so tired that I slept through my alarm, and I actually missed the first battle. But I was ready to go for the second battle, with my brand new French heavy cruiser Suffren. So as battle was called, I ran along the shore-line looking for someone to engage, when I saw a U.S. heavy cruiser, that was close-in to shore. I headed further out into the pond, then cut in sharply, and tried to pin the U.S. heavy between myself and the shore-line. By the time he saw me coming, it was too late to bring his stern guns into action against me, so he turned to run along the shore-line, and I came up along-side of him (on his seaward side), with a slight lead, but not able to bring my stern guns into action. He must have seen that I was eventually going to run him to-earth, so he decided to take his chances, and turn around. But there was not enough sea-room, and he ran hard onto a small branch that was hanging down from a tree. He was stuck-fast. I hit reverse, and backed up to him, and let go with about 20 shots, before being run off by some allied heavy units. I was running my Suffren as an axis that Nats because the allies had a numbers advantage, and the rest of the axis were held off by the allies, and were not able to engage the stranded cruiser. The U.S. cruiser eventually sank, with minimal damage. But because he did have at least one hit, it was considered a combat sink. So as it turned out. I had obtained the first sink on Robert, and had to listen to a ration of crap from the rest of the axis fleet for the remainder of the week, for sinking him out-of-turn. That I was French, and therefore, not even a true axis, made it even worse. What I remember most about Robert (aside from the smack-talk), was that he had a great sense of humor, and a great attitude. I will miss our great friend Robert. But I will never forget the fun times that he braught to the hobby. Fond memories indeed. Mikey
