Jeff and the Axis usually burn/maim/shoot an effigy of the Allied admiral each year... footage coming soon!
I wasn't there but I heard one year somewhere.. (was it before Mwc) .. The Allied guys put authentic Japanese death certificates on the hotel room doors of the Axis.. I am sure somebody knows the story
Stuff like that has happened a few times. Before I started (Not sure when) the Axis (I think) mailed a noticed to the wife when someone was sunk. You'd sink Monday, by Thursday your wife got an official looking letter in the mail from the "State Department" that your ship was lost with all hands. In 01 The Axis made a graveyard, complete with white crosses and your name on them when you sank. There was a procession when Randy's Jap DD was sunk by friendly fire (Jeff L) in campain. In 02 the cross came out again, but didn't make it past Monday. In 09 Tim K was Adm, he gave the Allies medals for: Captain of the Day, Wingman and the Purple Sinker, I think there was another one... I got one of each, the Purple sinker has two crosses. In 10, when Ron H was Allied Adm, the Allies had a death notice that was given to Axis captains who sank. Written German & Japanese, so it's was more realistic. There were many years, starting in 04, that we had the sink map posted and you put a sticker where your ship sank.
There have been a few instances of "Authentic New Orleans" voodoo dolls with pins in them attached to hotel room doors as well. And you cannot forget the great Nicknaming Convention of '06 in Florida.
That also was due to an undetermined amount of adult beverages. If you walked by the door that night, you got a nickname after you were dragged in.
Bob, I believe at one dinner you were in the trunk of my then new Camry. At the Denver NATS in Pearce's room when the tornado passed over, that was a slightly loud event.
I've only been in one trunk. I thought it was Charlies, maybe he was just in the car and it was your car...
The Denver weather was memorable. Sunday night we got a call right after dinner that our tents had blown into the pond. Several of us went over there to clean up. Steve D, Peter, Ty(?) and others jumped into the 10'+ water to pull out the tents and look for missing poles. On Friday Steve got his dive gear on and with Leroy & his buddy found all the parts. Monday night a big storm came through. Andy & I were on the back side of the hotel and watched the lightning and hail while we had a beer. On the front side Ron was leaning up against the door to keep it shut. After the storm passed Ron got in his truck and went to the pond to see if the tents were gone again. They were fine. As he left he drove over the roof of the hotel that was now in the parking lot. You could not see it as there was 1"-2" of hail on the ground. There were so many holes in his tires the guy at the tire store showed us one in the test tank. It was like a glass of soda. The power was out most of the night. People on the front side of the hotel didn't have a roof. Water was pouring out of Gerald's first floor lights and smoke detector. The hotel guys closed the lobby up and would come out to help. Ron & Peter had to take Randy's room, one king bed. Randy went home to sleep. The pool was full of the roof and was closed the rest of the week. Battle Tuesday was delayed for let batteries charge. On the way to the tire store Ron & I saw some huge trees in a park that had been blown over. The RV dealership across the freeway had 2-3 RVs tipped over.
Polk radio, remember those?! At one nats on monday morning, my polk lost the connection to the ship and said ship starting to glitch off all the ammo as war was declared. I *think* that Bob got really excited for the first easy kill and drove into the middle of the fleet to get me before he realized that he was alone in there.
Lars took some good video of that. But I had to cut out some not for family TV lines. Lou has his VV on the right of all the ships. It starts glitching, firing guns, totally out of control. I'm way on the left of the battle, walk all the way over to the right, take my ship way out into the pond so I can get to Lou on the right. While I'm moving Lou is out of control five and trying to reset his radio. Lars said he was thinking of Star Trek II where Kahn is saying "The override, where's the override!" By the time I get there Lou has control back. I got in a few shots. Then the door slammed shut and Leif's VDT along with others was on me. I ran away. Sank latter on but not just from the chasing Lou damage. Remember the mud on the shore? By Friday is smelled so bad and was ankle deep. What was mushy grass was now a mud pie.
Yeah, H&H Ranch had fire ant problems a couple of times before we learned to go in with amdro on Saturday before Nats and put the kill on em ourselves. 30 Second Fire ant was a valid call as was stepping in ankle deep to try and get them off your feet. That's also where I learned that benadryl creme was a thing (and to bring it or benadryl spray to events)
How about the NATS in the cornfield where the B-2 were flying overhead. This was also the NATS where Jeff Lide had the microphone turned off during Karaoke due to his "personal" rendition of 'desperado".. I personally remember a few single members trying to flirt with the cheerleader moms that were at the hotel pool. Us + boats = good nerds which also equals no game with the ladies.
Nats: So I had been battling locally for about 3 years and when I graduated college I was laid off from my job and wouldn't start at my new employer until August. I had some money left over from classes and some money from a severance package and had about 2 months to kill. I had attempted to go to Nats in 2002 but the budget of a starving college student wouldn't allow that. So I decided I would drive to Florida for Nats. Now, I live in Reno, NV. It's about 3000 miles each way across deserts, mountains, swamps, plains, and coastlines. All to battle toy boats with people I had never ever met before. I arrived Sunday night, having no idea that sunday was ship testing day, with a brand new Fuso. I had run it around the local pond the morning I left for Nats. I also brought along the trusty Derfflinger, and I should have battled that but I wanted to go full on Jap. It was a great week. I had never met so many boat people. Everyone was welcoming and almost everyone was as weird as me! (Especially Clark). The battling was fun, although with a brand new ship I didn't personally do so well. There was a tropical storm. Bob almost threw up when he looked at my wiring. The most epic almost-nickname EVER happened. Lou's ship didn't catch on fire once! At the end of it all I had an awesome weeklong drive back across the country. I stopped at the Kennedy Space Center, USS Alabama, and Hoover Dam. I've made every nats since except 2008 when I was in the Academy. And Now my wiring doesn't make Bob want to vomit! Food: There is always Chinese buffet and it is always terrible. Heat lamps and noodles don't mix. But it's tradition and they always tempt with such delicious looking orange chicken. The seafood place in the parking lot of the hotel for the brouhaha is great. They do crawdads in a giant metal bowl with Cajun seasoning. The year that the hotel had a Sonic in the parking lot was great, too. I ate there almost once a day. This last year at Nats every night at dinner until Thursday I got my food dead last, despite whatever I ordered. It sucked the first day, but it was pretty funny the next couple. I think Bob went back to the kitchen and told them to hold my food. Tuesday or Wed we went to pizza and the waiter brought out a to-go pizza. I think he was trying to say the box was dented, but he said "demented" and for the rest of the week the laws of physics were violated by electrical and electronics glitches. I blamed the demented pizza box. And Hudson. Pranks: I think it was 2013 at Wade's, Johnny was driving the Baden around and Jeff walks up and watches him for a minute, then tilts his head to the side and casually says "I think it's sitting just a bit too low in the stern." Johnny franticly adjusted the boat to try and get it "level" until Jeff pointed out that he was just messing with him. Classic. Also the Johnny "Where is E4!? East? But it's reversed if you start at the bottom of the map! WHERE!?!?!" banter from World of Tanks. Funny Moments: 2011 Brouhaha, I am running Jeff's Fuso and he has this awesome new pump he's testing. So he asks hey tell me how long that thing runs, I'm concerned that it might drain the batteries too fast. Well I get shot up pretty late in the first sortie so I start pumping constantly and after about 2:30 the pump shuts off and I sink. My response is "about that long!" Now, the pump and batteries were actually fine. The pump was drawing so much current that it melted the heavy duty switch down to plastic goo, which is bad for connectivity. But it sure looked cool. I was at a battle in CA, 2012 I think, running the Derfflinger. One of the local captains there also had a Derf. He was on my team and about half way through the battle he unloaded into me with a sidemount. Ship recognition, am I right!? Still, had to laugh because when he started shooting I shot back a few times before I figured it out too.
At least I have a waterline. Brian Williams doesn't have a waterline on his ship. SIG Polar Grey, best paint of all time.
