Thanksgiving Day, 1976

[Rick Myers]

I was stationed at the Galena Fighter Alert Complex in Alaska, also known as 'Top Cover for America.' Ir was actually mentioned by name in the movie 'Wargames,' but it shut down in 1993.

After the traditional Thanksgiving Turkey meal in the Chow Hall at about 4pm, we retired to the barracks to have some beers and play a wargame. I've been a wargamer since age 13. We played Seventh Fleet, and we simulated a US/British/French invasion of IRAN, via our FRIENDS, Saddam's Iraq!

It was over in about 6 months, game time, but the casualites on both sides were insane. Came very close to using tactical nukes. Maybe it was the beer, but both the Allied player (me) and the player acting as the Soviet Union refrained from the first shot. The guy playing Iran fought to the bitter end, and even with major Soviet tactical support, couldn't make a stand.

Just an ironic thought, on Thanksgiving 2005. Seems like we haven't learned a DAMN thing as a nation!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and may all our troops be home and safe as soon as possible...

Love y'all!!!

[Wetzelbill]

1. Nicely said

Happy Thanksgiving, Rick! Have a great day.

[mhr]

2. Both My Brothers Are Gamers And Stated Quite Clearly

Before the Bush invasion that we would need 500,000 US troops on the ground to occupy Iraq while maintaining peace and order.

Their insights were all based on what they learned playing war games.

[walldude]

3. 500,000..... Your name's not Shinseki is it?

I believe that was the number the General gave before he got fired.

[eridani]

4. A filker parody for wargamers

Wargame Huxter's Song
Words: Mark Keller, c. 1979
Music: "Modern Major General"

If reading SF epics tends to make you feel adventury
We've wargames from a thousand lands, from each and every century:
In alleyways of Lankhmar follow Fafh' and Mouser's lechery,
Or take a walk with Frodo, but beware of Gollum's treachery!

Become a Starship Trooper and you'll mash the Bugs quite properly,
Or mortgage half the universe while playing Space Monopoly;
Fight dragons that are green and brown and golden and vermilion
With heroes from the Conan books and from the Silmarillion.

From World War Two we have a game, the Yanks against the Germans where
The Fallschirmjaeger panzerfaust at unsuspecting Shermans there;
Or you can play Diplomacy, where double-crosses skewer ya,
Or stage a little World War Three and atom-bomb Manchuria!

BRIDGE: Or travel into paratime, the histories that might ha' been;
Have Cromwell fighting Romans, or Lord Kalvan leading Arrakeen
The Minutemen of Washington are meeting Omar's Saracens
And Rommel fights at Waterloo, and other weird comparisons.

If CRT is just a mass of puzzling cuneiform,
We have some model soldiers you can paint in gaudy uniform;
If you esteem the horse and hold the infantry in low regard,
We have the dashing cavalry of Stuart, Lee, and Beauregard.

That ancient king Sennacherbib's nine hundred iron chariots,
And here's a train of wagons from King Arthur's commisariat.
A Cossack with his saber raised to smite the proletariat,
And here's a Western cowboy chasing Indians with a lariat.

The armies of Napoleon, the mighty Guard Imperial,
With surgeons who treat cannon wounds or illnesses venereal;
And cataphracts and cuirasseurs and light dragoons and skirmishers,
And Bonaparte's own battle tent, with model Empire furniture.

BRIDGE: If naval wars you like to wage, then to this pile lend your eyes,
Of model ships of every age, from galleons to the Enterprise.
And little plastic fighter planes, a Sopwith or a Harrier;
Buy ninety model Phantom Jets and fly them from a carrier!

We've model planes and model trains and model knights like Galahad,
For D&D and S&S and PBI and Stalingrad;
We've models that are animal and vegetable and mineral,
And here's a little model of a modern Major General!