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Welcome to the home of the 352nd Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, United States Army Air Force (Simulated). As the founder of this hackneyed operation, I was asked to write a little introduction; which, unfortunately, means I've pretty much violated "plausible deniability." This whole thing got started in the summer of 1997, when I suddenly developed a case of terminal fascination with the 487th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group. Actually, I suppose it began some twenty years before that, when I first saw a P-51, but let's try to narrow things down a bit. The 487th FS initially attracted me because I liked the big blue nose. No kidding, nothing more than that. When I discovered their impressive war record, read more of the squadron's history, and, above all, began to learn about some of the real personalities that flew and fought in this unit, I was hooked. One of the real highlights has been corresponding with Bob "Punchy" Powell, a great guy who flew with the 328th and is now the 352nd's official historian. He puts out a great Bluenoser newsletter that's a blast to read, and has been very nice about answering my dumb questions. It's amazing what learning a few nicknames of guys who flew does for your sense of their reality; these were real guys, young men, trapped in a hell of a time, who accomplished tremendous things, whether they did it with bravado, with mute courage, or with simple fear. I kind of get sidetracked when I talk about this stuff, so I'll cut it short and just say: Thanks. Back on the subject, my fascination with the 'Lil Bastards finally reached a head with the formation of a simulator based 487th on Halloween, 1997. The founding members were myself, Tanz, and Thog. Before too long, we picked up Eadg, and things went downhill from there. We started a regular training regimen, which has pretty much become the calling card of the squadron, and eventually picked up a full load of pilots. Eventually, we got so many pilots we decided to expand and cover the whole 352nd FG; to be honest, this was my intention all along, but I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew. We do our best to fly well, train well, and win, and we're good at it. But none of that really matters too much; mostly we try to imagine what it was like to really be there, and try to have a good time doing it. With the bunch of lunatics we've accumulated so far, we pretty much have a blast. So, I hope you enjoy our website, and I hope if you're a half-crazed pony jockey like us that we get a chance to fly with you some time. Blue skies, |