[Sailor Steve]

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12

PAINTBALL WARS

We got up and headed for the paintball place. Some of us had already left for home, but there were still enough left for a good dust-up. I rode with Mookie-Mookie this time, and had yet another good talk. I'm too old and creaky to run around and crouch down, so I talked with FAdmiral and StdDev and we took pictures of the rest having fun. The first fights were held in what looked like a bombed-out village, with partial structures and sandbags everywhere, and some trees. James played mean marine and ran around like a madman, and ran right into Dan who shot him out of the game. Neal was stealthy, as was Valerie, while Natasha commanded the rear. On the other team Dan seemed to be doing the best, and I think he won, but I'm not sure.

The second battle had James being a lot more stealthy, and shooting from cover. When he managed to get revenge on Dan, Valerie stepped right into the same building and started shooting at him. I told him later how it had happened, and he said "Yeah, I remember thinking 'I thought I just killed that guy'!" At the end James ran up on somebody who was lying prone behind some sandbags (I think it was Mookie, but who can tell when they all have cammies and masks?), and shouted "Surrender!" He did, but I think James shot him anyway.

There was a third battle there, but the fourth and last took place in an open ground filled with large pipes of some sort. This is the one that's in the pictures that have been posted. Everybody went out fairly quickly. I had a good shot of Dan and James dukeing it out at close range. James managed to hit the pipes and catch Dan with ricochets. Then James and NikiMcBee managed to stalk each other very effectively, which ended with McBee dodging around the other side of a pipe and right into James's line of fire. McBee took one square in the chest and the battle ended. All-in-all everybody had a good time.

THE BARBECUE

We got back to the house and the barbecue began. Neal's dad and mom made an amazing meal of pork ribs, roast beef, Texas-style beans and other good stuff, and also had cake and banana-cream pudding. I actually managed not to overeat, so I had something to be proud of. Our missing GWX guys finally showed up (sure, they made it for the food!), and I got to talk to Todd (Kpt. Lehmann) and Jeff (Privateer) at long last. Great guys to talk to, just like the rest.

I then got to show Dan and Jeff the project I've been working on, which is collecting ship names and putting them in the proper categories for SH3 Commander and the Next Big Sub Sim, however that turns out. It sounds small, but the idea is to have the game award a name that actually fits the model of the sunken merchant, and maybe even the exact tonnage that goes with that name. That way if you sink 'SS David Crockett' you would be awared exactly 7176 tons, not some random number centered around the generic 7170 that goes with the Liberty Ship in the ID book.

Chad showed us a cool video of his own sub sim project, and then Neal entertained people by showing them Aces Of The Deep, and how far we've come since then. I was surprised at the number of people who had never seen it.

After everybody went back to their hotels, McBee put The Cruel Sea on Neal's big screen TV, and I saw it for the first time. I read the book last year, and was surprised at how close the book stuck to it. James and Neal missed it, deciding that since they had to get up at 0400 so James could make his flight, it might be a good idea to go to bed a little early.

And that was our last full day.