You might have noticed a few discussions on the mailing list. First we had some ruckus over the awarding of the Commendations of Loyalty which were recommended three months ago. Frankly, we were a different TC then.... Unfortunately this led to our top gun in the multiplayer field, MAJ Cruise, catching a shuttle for the M/FRG Phoenix. Always sad to see someone go who grew up under my command... Next up, people were taliking about the COM participating in the Hammer on Patrol competition. Although there's nothing wrong with it in my book, as agreed upon by the TC COM, COM Woody decided to stop his participation in this competition. His choice, can't argue with it, but what surprises me the most is that all the "negative" comments were made by people who don't actually bother participating themselves.... Dafuq? It's not like he's winning medals that could have been yours....

Fortunately, there's also plenty of good news this week.... COL Amasy and MAJ Krennel have stepped up to take the empty CMDR slots in Alpha and Beta, which ends CPT Nutrientman's interim commandership of beta, and he's been returned to Delta after a short stop on the Warrior to steal their booze for us. Good going, Captain!

Lastly - there's a big Pazaak tournament starting up soon. I won't be playing, I don't see myself learning the rules overnight... Looks way too complicated.

The end of the month is near, and so several monthly competitions have ended: Ace of the TC has come by and will probably see a victory for COM Woody, as he leads 2nd place by 36 sorties with less than 12 hours to go. My third place is pretty much locked up. Also, I dare say the Ace of the Year title can't escape me anymore... COM Woody is also almost assured a victory in the MP Ace competition, leading his only competition by over 150 victories! Good showing for you, sir!

This week also saw a moment I have been looking forward to for years. Slide by me I mean. Finally, the entire mission compendium flown, only to be thwarted by a piece of crap battle (which I could fix seeing as I'm TAC), and the very very last battle I needed to complete, XW IW 7, which then crashed the game upon loading the very last mission I needed to fly. On both my computers, so it's definitely the mission. Not a clue why, I might have to rebuild the darn thing from scratch!

Actually, that's a lie.... I didn't complete the SWGB or the JA missions (which don't count for me as they're not flying missions). Also, somehow in all my years of flying through the compendium I seem to have skipped TIE free 42 every time around. That is an easy fix. A less easy fix is a stupid action by one of my predecessors. I filled the gap that was TIE TC 43, but apparantly someone pulled the same stunt on BoP TC 10. Now I gotta make a BoP battle to patch up that hole. Targets for this year :)

Ship wise, the Hammer on Patrol, Hammer on Recon, and Hammer Training Exercise #1 have all been wrapped up. With the level of participation in these competitions at a dramatic low, I had no trouble at all swiping up almost all the first place medals in the weekly rounds, and so the overall victories are once again mine. Special mention for MAJ Clark who was a solid participant as well! Wish there were more... (but I said that already, didn't I?) The only downside is I really wanted to see if I could have beaten MAJ Cruise with 16 assisted kills in the HTE competition, but he didn't submit an entry this week....

Also - let's not forget about those Commendations of Loyalty! Congrats to all who have received one! The FC promised to not let the next round sit on his desk for this long, we'll hold him to that! I only wonder why only 4 of the 14 ended up on the Hammer. We'll have to do better than that next round!

Last for the week: nope, I failed, TIE Golf still did not end. After COM Frodo picked a mission that ended in a tie, I picked one I thought wouldn't do the same, but alas, again both HA Frodo and MAJ Plif submitted the exact same score. In the end, I decided to create a free mission especially to break the TIE.... Let's hope it does!
 

Delta squadron competitions

FLIGHT I: The Razor's Edge - Novaculum mortalis