Putting your relatives in harm's way

[SpitfireIX]

Hi, everyone--

I have a question about an issue that has come up for me in playing the game, and I wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience. My great uncle was a bombardier in the 43rd BG, and every time I order the unit on a mission, I feel just a little bid odd, maybe 1% of the hesitancy I'd feel if I had to put one of my relatives in harm's way IRL. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Anyone else have any relatives who actually fought in any of the units in the game?

[rogueusmc]

I try to play the game in a manner as if there were real men on real decks.

[SpitfireIX]

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc

I try to play the game in a manner as if there were real men on real decks.

I always try to do that in every game I play (unlike some of my friends, whose overriding goal seems to be to prove their intellectual superiority by winning the game at all costs). But it still feels different ordering Uncle Bill into combat.

[Nomad]

Yep, my dad was in the Navy during the war. I get a bit shaky when I have to send LSTs into danger.

[mogami]

ORIGINAL: SpitfireIX

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc

I try to play the game in a manner as if there were real men on real decks.

I always try to do that in every game I play (unlike some of my friends, whose overriding goal seems to be to prove their intellectual superiority by winning the game at all costs). But it still feels different ordering Uncle Bill into combat.

Mr Hands: OK men prepare to hit the beach
Mr Bill: Oh no
Mr Hands: Sgt Sluggo take your platoon up and knock out that mg
Mr Bill: Oh no


Oh wait you said Uncle Bill not Mr Bill.......never mind

[rogueusmc]

ORIGINAL: Mogami


Mr Hands: OK men prepare to hit the beach
Mr Bill: Oh no
Mr Hands: Sgt Sluggo take your platoon up and knock out that mg
Mr Bill: Oh no


Oh wait you said Uncle Bill not Mr Bill.......never mind

That sound like MY family...[:D]

[Tankerace]

Well, my grandad was a gun captain in the battleship Mississippi. I find myself gring at some points putting her in harms way, but on the flipside of the coin when she has off days in gunnery I yell "Come on gramps, you can shoot better than that!"

[mogami]

Mr. Hands: Hi kids! It's time for the Mr. Bill Show!
Mr. Bill: Yay!
Mr. Hands: Say Mr. Bill, I see you've bought War in the Pacific.
Mr. Bill: Yes, I'm gonna play by email and have lots of fun!
Mr. Hands: Hey Mr. Bill, PBEM opponent Sluggo is here to set up game.
Mr. Bill: Ohh, he's gonna be mean to me!
Mr. Hands: Come now, Mr. Bill. Your PBEM opponent Sluggo is your FRIEND. First, he's going to set the house rules.
Mr. Bill: Ohhhhhh no!
Mr. Hands: Say Mr. Bill, Look who's here. It's your dog Spot
Mr. Bill: Yeah Hi Spot
Mr. Hands: Sluggo says he will put your disk in the drive. (closes drive door on Spot squashing him)
Mr. Bill: I don't think you're a friend Mr. Hands all you do is let Sluggo be mean to me.
Mr. Hands: Oh you better watch out for enemy ASW .
Mr. Bill: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh noooooo!
Mr. Hands: Your carrier TF has been spotted by Sluggo's patrol planes and guess what? you forgot to take your airgroups off of training.
Mr. Bill: OHHHHhhhhhhhNNNOoooooo!!
Mr. Hands: Hey look your supply lines are cut.
Mr. Bill: Ohhhhhhhh nnooooo!
Mr. Hands: Sluggo says he's made auto victory.
Mr. Bill: Ohhhhh! you are all being mean to me.
Mr. Hands: Come now, Mr. Bill. Your PBEM opponent Sluggo is just trying to have fun and play historicly.
Mr. Bill: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NNNOOOOOOOo!
Mr. Hands: Well kids, that's all for now. See ya next week, when Mr. Bill plays Scenario 15!



(Actually this is a preview of the upcoming AAR between me (sluggo) and Mr (Bill) Frag

[LittleJoe]

Advancing up Burma with the Japanese is wierd.

When i captured a load of brit troops at rangoon i almost said "Sorry grandad"

Seems like most of the players of this have relatives who fought in the Pacific, be interesting to have a thread about it.

[Twotribes]

I dont have any direct relative that was in WW2, My Grandad was to skinny to join ( LOL he tried sneaking in with lead weights but got caught) and My dad ( the oldest of the family) was to young ( born in 1933). On my Moms side my Grandad was to old and none of the boys were old enough either, he had 10 kids but 7 were girls.

I have never checked my family history, I am sure some of the extended family served, but I never knew them so.....

[SpitfireIX]

ORIGINAL: Mogami

ORIGINAL: SpitfireIX

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc

I try to play the game in a manner as if there were real men on real decks.

I always try to do that in every game I play (unlike some of my friends, whose overriding goal seems to be to prove their intellectual superiority by winning the game at all costs). But it still feels different ordering Uncle Bill into combat.

Mr Hands: OK men prepare to hit the beach
Mr Bill: Oh no
Mr Hands: Sgt Sluggo take your platoon up and knock out that mg
Mr Bill: Oh no


Oh wait you said Uncle Bill not Mr Bill.......never mind

Oh, come on, Mogami--that was really lame. I know you can come up with better jokes than that. [:'(]

[Titanwarrior89]

Same here. My father was on a AP from 43 on. And i try to keep his ship save. Was looking for his ship in one game and noticed that a AP was hit with two torpedo's and went down. So i try to save my daddy's butt.[:D]

[hithere]

One Grand father was a tank commander in Alaska and the other was a boiler guy in several ships. mostly DD. I know that one got sunk but I can not remember what the name was. an interesting note is the he also was trained to dive with a aqua-lung. he has several pictures with it on him. he said they used to do stuff like blow up coral reefs.

on a side note, i know alot of people here are of the "advanced age" [:)] but if your grandparents are alive, i would suggest taping them on a cam corder or something. they both had lots of stories that were very interesting (if not exaggerated alittle) that are now lost except what we can remember of them. there is acually a organization that goes and video tapes veterens of wars to presurve their stories. I think the excellent show "band of brothers" has some clips, but it may have been for the show itself.

[LittleJoe]

I would of liked to, but my Grandad didnt talk much about the war, he always changed the subject.

Must of seen some awful things in the Burmese Jungle.

[tc464]

ORIGINAL: Twotribes

I dont have any direct relative that was in WW2, My Grandad was to skinny to join ( LOL he tried sneaking in with lead weights but got caught) and My dad ( the oldest of the family) was to young ( born in 1933). On my Moms side my Grandad was to old and none of the boys were old enough either, he had 10 kids but 7 were girls.

I have never checked my family history, I am sure some of the extended family served, but I never knew them so.....

My family specializes in near misses too. A grandfather too young for WW 1, too old for WW 2. My Dad went in the Navy 3 months before Korea ended. He always told me as a kid that once the North Koreans heard he came in, they threw in the towel. [:D] I got discharged 1 day before Iraq invaded Kuwait. I often told my boys that once Saddam heard I got out, he went after Kuwait. [:D]

Did get to see firsthand a couple conflicts as an innocent bystander; Dubai during the India/Pakistan War, Iran just before the hostage taking, and the Communist takeover of South Africa from 78-84.

[cyberwop36]

My Dad was in the invasion of the Phillipines and Owk.

He didn't talk too much about it. Only a few times after many drinks. Mostly about the massacre of Filipino civilians in Manila and he was with the 1st troops to liberate the Bataan death march survivors at the American Univercity [?].

All I really know is that he hated the Japanese till the day he died. He refused to buy anything that said made in japan on it.

History tells us that Japanese troops rarely surrendered. Dad told me we didn't really want to take any alive. They caught up to them, they killed them. Very ugly, brutal war. [As if any aren't]

Thank God for the A-Bomb or he probably would have been in the invasion of Japan.

[LittleJoe]

ORIGINAL: cyberwop36


All I really know is that he hated the Japanese till the day he died. He refused to buy anything that said made in japan on it.

Just like my grandad

[SpitfireIX]

ORIGINAL: SpitfireIX

Hi, everyone--

I have a question about an issue that has come up for me in playing the game, and I wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience. My great uncle was a bombardier in the 43rd BG, and every time I order the unit on a mission, I feel just a little bit odd, maybe 1% of the hesitancy I'd feel if I had to put one of my relatives in harm's way IRL. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Anyone else have any relatives who actually fought in any of the units in the game?

Glad to know I'm not the only one who's experienced this phenomenon. I had another great uncle who was a medic in New Guinea; I'm not sure what unit. I'll have to dig out the old scrap books; there's an article from the hometown paper about how Uncle Bill had a pass and went to visit Uncle Bob, titled something like "Mt. Carmel Brothers-in-Law Meet Halfway Around the World."

My grandfather Rigg (Uncle Bob was his brother) was a combat engineer officer in Europe; his unit was on a ship on the way to the Pacific when Japan surrendered, so the convoy was diverted to Norfolk, and he was one of the first GIs to come home from Europe. [:)] I've often wondered, if we hadn't dropped the bomb, if he would have been in Olympic or Coronet (I suspect not, as his unit was the 1313 Engineer General Service Regiment, which was not a front-line unit; they mostly built things in the rear, like POW camps, except during the Ardennes Offensive, when they were ordered to form a last-ditch defense line in front of Antwerp at the Meuse River--luckily the Germans didn't make it that far.)

My Grandfather Lambert was in the Army in WWI; IIRC the war ended before he was sent to Europe, though. He passed away in 1937; he would have been 43 when Pearl Harbor was attacked; maybe he would have become a "retread" had he lived.

I had some other relatives who were in WWII, but only Uncle Bill and Uncle Bob were anywhere near combat (Grandpa said the closest he ever got to combat was when a bomb landed a block away from him and blew up a street lamp).

Grandpa Rigg's (later) next-door neighbor was on the Whipple in 1941; I remember his talking about the retreat from the Philippines and the fighting in the NEI when I was a kid. For that reason, I also try to be careful with the Whipple, but that's pretty tough if you're also trying to play historically and not have the Asiatic Fleet just run away and hide.

[Oliver Heindorf]

being german I give a $*** about it. [:'(]

I put my relative in harms way when I am the skipper of a motorboat or sailing boat in hamburg harbor and have them abord [:D]

[bradfordkay]

A question for those younger than 60...

If your dad was aboard a ship that gets sunk in the game, will you cease to exist?