Phoenix Global Community

So I figure it has been quite a while since I played more than 20 rounds with you all in a single weekend and there are many new faces in the PGC community that may not have heard much history of the great bunch of folks that form the foundation of this outfit. Thus, I am taking it upon myself to relive found memories of the past because I have FOND memories...and although silly things can cause all of us to take a break now and again...in the end the fond memories bring us back. From the looks of it maybe 3 people even come in here anymore but it is worth a trip down memory lane. I am going to try to mix history and personality in here in order of those with whom I made an acquaintance, so sit back and relax and I will get you dang it! I start with Tracker.

I got my =EzCoy= tags a long time ago, in 2010 during BC2 days. After spending a lot of time on the dedicated Atacama Desert map I submitted my join request and got a formal invite from Shotgun[RCAF got added later] to join Mumble. The Mumble part was a disaster involving a lot of me hitting transmit once for a yes and twice for a no and then DogPound shouldering Shotgun out of the way and telling me the exact boxes to check in configuring my mike. Once those formalities were out of the way Shotgun did a breaker breaker one nine and introduced me to everyone as the newest official =EzCoy= member. That was actually pretty funny because me being a fine outstanding 24 year veteran of the US Armed forces...well I pointed out that the rules said the group had to vote. Of course he said that was BS and I had my tags

I think I was a level 20 or something infantile like that. Being an early riser I would hop in the Atacama map which was always insanely popular and most of the time I ended up following alongside Tracker as an assaulter giving him ammo to reload his rockets and hearing him say "Chopper Down" after he darted a helo and pumped a rocket up its butt. I probably ran 1000 miles around that map with him. Tracker has heard me tell this story before and instantly denies it but it is the truth.

BC2 was my first foray into talking to people on a headset in a multiplayer FPS and when you have a maxed out level 50 who treats you like one of the boys it is like sitting in the front row at training camp and having Jerry Rice stroll over to talk about the weather or asking you what your favorite ice cream flavor is. He was my first facebook friend from gaming land and I know more about the Canadian Maritime than I should. He is the only guy I know that was not in the military when he got to see his first Gustav rocket in real life. You can be a complete jerk to him and he will tell you he hopes you have a better day. Honestly, if it was not for him I would have probably been running with Shotgun and ended up looking for a game of checkers in the park instead of this crazy online community stuff.

So thank you my Canadian friend and don't stop being the guy who will leave the game to go for a bike ride when the weather is nice! Salute!

Thanks for the nice remarks, buddy.(As he he wipes away a tear.) I think I'm going to send in your name for an Honorary Canadian citizenship. I'd type more but it's 70 degrees and sunny out there. I can here my Kawie out in the garage revving up as we chat. Have a great day,lol.

Well I appreciate the honorary Canadian thought, and I would really like a certificate if they do that kind of thing.

The captain of HMCS Terra Nova made me an honorary Canadian back in 1986 when we were playing at war games in Hawaii. Their coat of arms had a penguin in it so they had a presentation case in the mess room with a nice taxidermist stuffed penguin in the case along with a stuffed toy penguin and a bunch or items from the penguin's "exploits."

When they came over to Hawaii the penguin was Lieutenant Percival Q. Penguin. The skipper decided to pass the toy penguin around to the crazy yanks to see if the penguin could get some time flying in airplanes. We had LT Penguin on the ship for 20 days and my squadron got it for 3 or 4 of them. We went kind of crazy. We made an official flight logbook with a leather cover and leather name tag with his rank and the squadron numbers for all of the aircraft on the ship. We even sewed up a little flight suit and put the penguin in it. All of the squadrons flew that danged penguin for hundreds of hours of flight time and logged it in the logbook.

We gave them back the penguin in his flight suit with pilot wings and the log book. They were so appreciative that they decided to promote LT Penguin to Lieutenant Commander Penguin. It is tradition in the Royal Navy and US Navy to have a "Wetting Down" party when an officer gets promoted to the next rank. So they invited our air wing to the party. The air wing commander decided each squadron should select a "volunteer" to attend. I was not impressed or excited about it when I got picked but that all changed when I got onto the ship and found out Canada had not abandoned the Royal Navy tradition of serving alcohol in the mess. I drank enough Labatts and ate enough Salmon for the entire air wing that day. Most everyone who came over from my ship left after they pinned on the new rank insignia for the penguin but I was having fun so I stayed. I got a complete tour of the ship and made a bunch of new friends and before I left (or they escorted me off) they made me an honorary Canadian. I am sure there is no such thing but I thought it was pretty cool, made me kneel and tapped my shoulders with a saber and everything.


Leaving the ship was interesting because it was nested five deep out into the harbor so I had to cross between the other four ships on narrow gang planks, salute each ships flag, request permission to board and depart, all without puking or falling into the water. The last three ships were all Australian which was kind of ironic since that is the only other country that made me an unofficial honorary anything.

I put up a picture of HMCS Terra Nova that Wikipedia has on file which is from the exact time frame.

So your already there. Cool...