In the Beginning...
The Virtual VF-17 was started on DOS Air Warrior in the Spring of 1993 by Bboop (CO) and Boozer (XO). In the words of Lt Jedi, scribe of the famous Book of Dweeb, "It was originally a squadron for newbies who were not interested in the somewhat 'frat-like' recruiting policies of most of the established Air Warrior (DOS) squads. In general, there was no requirement other than wanting to have fun, although most missions were fighter-bomber sorties, so a liking for the high-speed iron was desirable. I joined about 4 months after the squad's inception...Spinny joined about a year after I did, I believe, and quickly became perhaps the most frequent flyer in the squad. At its height on Genie, the squad had 16 members, and at one point a 'sub-squad' was created to accept about 8 others.
"Official Squad Nite was Monday night, and one of the guys made the mistake of posting this on the BBS. In the true spirit of flight-sim fair play, some of the more senior squads showed up for a vulch-fest of the newbies. While this was mildly successful, it also served to accelerate our learning curve, and get us thinking more deviously ourselves. From that point on, each week normally featured a fairly complex mission which often centered around using AW's strat features to deprive a particular enemy of some resource (fuel, Spitfires, maintenance) and then CAP the field we thought he would come up at.
"After a couple of months, the squad was well able to hold its own against pretty much anyone, although the Angels of Destruction and the Damned were well-stocked with veteran pilots, and generally could only be contained with a numbers advantage.
"In the Spring of 1995, the Great Exodus began. As many of the Air Warrior stalwarts such as Pyro, HiTech, and DoK GoNzO branched off to create "Confirmed Kill," the Air Warrior "brain trust" (and I use the term loosely) decided that the time was ripe to make the move to Windows. Simultaneously, the decision was made to create a new host separate from the Genie/Cris/Delphi host, and to provide access through AOL and CompuServe. While this made economic sense, the effect on the Full Realism community in Air Warrior was devastating.
"Although the FR crowd numbered around 400 or so, there were always 150 or so online at normal hours. The great split splintered this group and spread them out among 3 different services. DOS support dwindled to nothing, although the host may in fact still function to this day (a "DOS Reunion" was held about a year ago on Genie using the last DOS version, and was well attended). The end result was the virtual destruction of the Full Realism arenas, with rarely more than 20 people in the current FR arena at any one time, while perhaps 4-500 are in the "Relaxed Realism" arenas on Earthlink/Gamestorm, CompuServe and AOL ... I was transferred overseas, and my association with Air Warrior's VF-17 ended ... Happily, once I got Confirmed Kill (0.89 or so) up and running, one of the first guys I ran into was old squaddy Spinny, who informed me that reports of VF-17's demise had been greatly exaggerated.
"At this point, I must turn over the narrative to Spin, who knows much better than I the history of the "turbulent times" when Vigl ruled the skies in his Hog. Although I believe the Damned and the Musketeers still exist in some form on Air Warrior, it is certainly true that VF-17 is one of the oldest surviving virtual squadrons."
Yosef, Meercat, Jedi, Mantis and Spinny, founder of the WB VF-17, are those of the AW VF-17 who eventually made their way to the New Theater of Operations: Warbirds.
The Dawning of a New World
"I was in the JRs in AW; when I came to WBs (in the very first public beta), I decided to start VF-17 here. Little did I know all that time ago when I said to Redd that morning, "Hey buddy, wanna join a squadron?" that we'd form up into what we've become. You know, I do think that we're the oldest, continuous squadron in WBs, too. And if you count the fact that the WBs Jolly Rogers are a continuation of the AW Jolly Rogers, we may be the oldest continuously existing squadron in online air combat sims." (Lt. Cmdr Spinny, WB VF-17 Founder)
The squad was formed during the very first beta release, .81, with the slogan "The Bones shall Rise Tonight", but was changed fairly recently to echo the chorus of a song allegedly sung by the original Jolly Rogers: "We're the Jolly Rogers--who the hell are you?" Listen in on the VF-17 squad channel long enough, and you would be sure to see " 8X "s appearing in the buffer as congratulations for kills scored from squaddies--the emoticon equivalent to the Skull and Crossbones: the Jolly Roger.
Lt Cmdr Redd recollects that "we were purple when the squad was formed. -ss- was also a founding member and the first XO, followed quickly by Hippie, Yoss , Rags (Rigs), Wspr, Guts(Agro), Tm-t, Kapa. The first 3 purp squads I remember being formed were the Black Sheep, the Muskies and ourselves, probably the Flying Pigs were forming up around the same time."
Lt Rigs recalls those early days: "I joined in May 1995 at version .81. It was CK in its heyday, the terrain was a lovely patchwork of sloped fields broken by hills and river valleys and the hotspot of the arena was Red F15 on a plateau smack in the centre of the world. Initial members, roughly in order were spin, redd, -ss-, hipy, rigs, vmpr(wspr), yoss, tm-t, -rr-, imho, -yo- , mnts, guts(agro)".
Lt Meng (tm-t) continues: "I remember when I joined on the 26th Aug 95 VF-17 was purp. Then we moved to gold, on 20th Oct 1995 (I still have the PR release by Yoss on my web site : )" According to Meng's records, on Sep 16, 1996 Spin announced our move back to purp: "Well, boyz and girlz, the new terrain went into effect today...and VF-17 has gone to Purpland. One, it's warmer there, and two, the German squads, or most of them, went to Gold." A "trial period" move to green was announced on the 12th of March 1997, but as Meng recalls "we were supposed to vote on this after a few weeks but never got round to it : )"
Many Jolly Rogers remember v1.11 as hard and frustrating times for Hog pilots. Around this time, on the heels of an over-full roster requiring a split along US-ANZAC lines due to a lack of WB-roster space, came the resignation of a number of talented Rogers. Lt Rigs, too, remembers this period as a difficult time, but also a "a time of reconsolidation and strengthening of loyalty after the 'great departure'. The squad had recently been left somewhat in disarray with the mass exodus of many of the newer members to a new squad in the European theatre. With v1.11 things were getting tough but the tough got going. A new country, a new training regimen and a new found fervour soon had flights of 8, 12 or more Hogs delivering flaming death to all comers. I think the squad hit its absolute peak in organised fighter sweeps with excellent communication and wing/flight tactics. Rarely did a JR fail to return and rarely was an enema left in the sky. With this dominance some of us turned to our attention to the capture of fields and before long we were becoming major contributors to the expansion of our country's ground facilities."
Our official squad plane is and always has been the F4U-1D Corsair. When the rolling plane set is in place, F4F Wildcats will be the official ride for any applicable time periods not taken by the Hog; other time periods are to be decided.
VF-17 has always distinguished itself by proudly flying in its historical counterpart's plane, the Corsair, eschewing using other aircraft or mixes of aircraft that would make a mission "easier." Fighter sweeps, defensive CAPs, field captures--all are done by the VF-17 using their beloved Hogs, despite facing surrealistic situations and superior aircraft.
Lt Cmdr Yossarian notes that "we are the first historically-based squadron to be created in WarBirds. Our love of the F4U sets us apart from the heterogeneous squads; the plane challenges us to learn E-fighting to get kills and survive, and our opponents learn to fear the Blue Cloud which descends upon them Sunday mornings. We fly and fight as a team, in Big Blue.
"We acknowledge superior performance in scenarios with medals. We also give the Kepford Award, named after VF-17 ace Ira Kepford, to any member who can achieve a 16+ kill streak (without dying, bailing or ditching) in the F4U. Our squad record for the Kepford is held by Whisper (wspr), who reached 103 kills in 44 Hog sorties on November 29, 1996."
Our Secret Weapon and Squad Surgeon Whisper is acknowledged by those who have flown with him as our very best. Unfortunately, as an ER M.D. in real life, seeing Whisper is a rare, though celebrated, event.
Any "Top Gun" list would have to begin with those who have earned a coveted Kepford Award: Whisper (103!), Jonr (48 in 20 hops), Redd (41), Zook (25), zDom (19 in 8 hops), Yoss (19), Otus (17), Tzar (16); and although they have not yet achieved a Kepford, the VF-17 Top Gun list would not be complete without Spin and Xin.
Our current CO is zDom, preceded by Yossarian and Spinny, who both in turn resigned from the position due to Real Life constraints. Redd remains as ANZAC division CO.
Some of our other better known players are Jedi, author of the much-enjoyed "Book of Dweeb" and Lt. Rigs, who continues the VF-17 tradition of making life difficult on our enemies with ordinance by leading our weekly Sunday assault on the General Arena.
Many well-known Warbirders have served with the Jolly Rogers, including Vigilante (who won his first tour as a Jolly Roger), Doc Doom, AW Jug-vet Popeye, -bc-, and our PR man working undercover inside the LW: Kays (son of Kais). We also have had the pleasure of regular and frequent visits from pilots like -14-/pips, among others.
zDom
VF-17 CO
November 18, 1997
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After leaving RRP1 and moving to FR, we have lost almost the entire squad. They just could not make the transition to FR. I believe once anyone has experienced the thrill of participating in a scenario, they will not want to return to RR. We fly only Navy aircraft ( for the bomber we use the B-25 as in the Navy it was known as a PBJ and thats how we refer to it.) primary fighter is the F4U Corsair. We are learning to use it and will be glad to share knowledge and recieve knowledge with anyone. I would like the squad to remain relatively small no more than twelve pilots, we have three now so their is definate room for growth. I believe it keeps the squad tight for all pilots to know one another. I have seen things get out of hand in bigger squads.
- John 'BigHog' Felsted (AW3) ...
The "Jolly Rogers" were an AirWarrior squadron on Gamestorm (Air Warrior). The squadron was modeled after the historic VF-17 . It flew the F4U Corsair in defense of C-Land in Big Pac (FR). It was originally formed in February, 1998 by John "BigHog" Felsted.
SQUADRON ROSTER
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Lcdr. ArloG (Arlo/Guthrie - AHII) C.O. (last AW )
Cdr. BigHog (Founder and original C.O.)
Lcdr. WhoopA$$ (Original X.O.)
Lcdr. Lotel (Last AW XO)
Lt. NRAL
Lt. (j.g.) Narn
Lt. (j.g.) KIM
Ensign Streak
- Arlo
http://arlog.tripod.com/index-2.html
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VF-17 was founded in Ace's High on September 19th of 2002. Aces High 2 is our primary game although we have a presence in some many online games. Some of us play on the Targetware engine and the mod for it called Target: Rabaul along with Pacific Fighters and Wings over Vietnam. When playing Target:Rabaul we fly with the VF-17 squadron that moved there from Warbirds.
We have structured ourselves in the same way as the US Navy squadrons of WW2. The rankings and force structure mimic the same from the US Navy of that era. We are also looking to start an intra-squadron competition called "The Battle E Series" that will be a tournament type competition based on the US Air Force William Tell competition to allow squadrons to showcase their talents in every phase of the game.
If you would like to join VF-17 please check out our Recruiting page and while you are there drop over to our Roster page and have a look and give us a shout in Ace's High. Below are some links to parts of our site that have information we like to share with other players wishing to learn a bit more about flight operations and such for AH. We are small but tenacious right now (HAHA!). Thanks for taking the time to stop by and look us over.
(http://vf-17.tripod.com/ - original site for VF-17 when it was started.)
Cdr. Reschke (Retired VF-17 CO and TO)
Founder VF-17 "The Jolly Rogers"--Reschke 11:52, 14 November 2008 (CST)
~ Feb. 13 2003 (Email to the squad)
Gentlemen,
I want to introduce you to Arlo (aka Guthrie). Arlo has been helping me with images and online flight sim background for VF-17. From what I know Arlo was a member of VF-17 way back in the early days flying in Air Warrior. He then made his way over to Warbirds and was a member of VF-17 over there as well. After that he became a member of the Groverats and recently has asked for TAD assignment to VF-17 and it was approved. So with that short introduction I welcome Arlo into the group.
Welcome in Arlo and thanks for the help in the recent past. Arlo I will grab your plane off the HTC board later tonight and get it added to the website. and get you invited into the squadron as well. Just let me know which callsign you want to go by.
Welcome aboard VF-17!
Reschke
CO VF-17
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