Monthly Archives: October 2017
The Airborne & Special Operations Museum
Downtown Fayetteville showcases the history of these twin elements of the US Army ~
Mike Orwick, 21 October 2017
click images to enlarge, and read the plaques
Last week I was in Fayetteville, NC. Fayetteville is the home of Ft Bragg, where the Army’s 82nd Airborne division and the Army’s Special Operations command are home based. Located in downtown Fayetteville is the Army’s Airborne and Special Operations Museum. This museum tells the story of the evolution and history of these two arms of the Army. On the last day there, a co-worker and myself had an opportunity to visit the museum.
Before going to the museum, we walked to the opposite side of the parking lot, and visited the North Carolina Veterans Memorial. There are pillars there with each of the county names on them, with molds of hands. The hands represent the raised hand while taking the oath when joining the military. The two most interesting items at the memorial was a chandelier make of over 33,000 dog tags and a table setup for a member of each branch of the military for those that are POW or MIA.
Gaming Nostalgia – Universe, the RPG
#TBT at GrogHeads!
Assuming you made it through character creation by the end the weekend, you could have plenty of fun, until ship-to-ship combat came into play. The it was death-by-a-thousand-modifiers.
click images to enlarge
Sound off below, or pop into our forums for a chat >>
Old School Tactical II – First Look!
From north of the border comes an advance look at what’s in the box ~
Vance Strickland, 18 October 2017
Here is everything that arrived today in my KickStarter Old School Tactical Vol. II package!
Everything packed, really well, into the shipping box. OST Vol. II, Airborne Expansion, Pocket Battles Scenarios and maps, neoprene admin mats, and the new Strategy Guide.
What’s Gus Playing? Episode 3
The pint-sized playa’ gets witchy on ya ~
Lloyd Sabin, 16 October 2017
The Witcher 3
Hearts of Stone
The Witcher 3 is still my go to game for almost any mood. Feeling like some creepy scares? Witcher 3. Want some eastern European-flavored dungeon spelunking? The Witcher 3. Scantily-clad fantasy women of all shapes and sizes? Again, Witcher 3.
So it was with some sadness that I completed the main quest a few months ago and shelved it for a few months. Enderal filed the gap for a while but then October hit (despite the 80-degree temps and hair-ruining humidity) and here I am again, needing a Witcher fix. I know there is a kind and loving gaming god because there are the DLC expansion packs Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. Blood and Wine is the equivalent of almost an entire other Witcher game, so I saved that and jumped in to Hearts of Stone earlier this week. And all those feelings came rushing back.
GrogHeads Reviews War in the Wind: The Battle for Attu Island, May 1943
The obscure WWII PTO shootout gets the GrogHeads once-over ~
Michael Eckenfels, 14 October 2017
In June of 1942, as part of the Midway attack plan, Japanese troops landed on the Alaskan islands of Attu and Kiska. These two inhospitable, mountainous islands were home to little but cold weather and leg-breaking slopes. The Japanese thought it prudent to occupy for…well, the reasons depend on what source you read. Some think they thought occupying part of a U.S. State would cause a tremendous morale drop among Americans; others thought it was meant to help ‘shield’ their northern flank, because both islands were closer to Japan than Alaska. Regardless of the reasons, the Japanese arrived, found little resistance, and after bombing Dutch Harbor to the east a few times, settled in for a long occupation.
American troops didn’t arrive until May 11, 1943, and were woefully unprepared for it.
That occupation lasted nearly a year. American troops didn’t arrive until May 11, 1943, and were woefully unprepared for it. The troops earmarked for the invasion were training in southern California for operations in the south Pacific – not for operations in near-Arctic mountainous conditions. The powers-that-be thought the attack would be brief, only lasting a few days, whereas when all was said and done, it took nearly three weeks. It might have taken longer had the Japanese not executed one of the biggest banzai charges of the war, costing them half their casualties. The number of troops they lost came close to 2400, with only 28 prisoners taken. The Americans suffered about 550 killed, 1200 wounded, and another 1800 or so wounded due to exposure, frostbite, trenchfoot, gangrene, and a number of other nasty, debilitating conditions. It was by no means a cake walk, though the result was inevitable.
