Roster
Representing some of the finest pilots and aviators in the DCS community, our members come from across the US and as far as Japan. Please take a moment to meet our team, and apply today to get your name added to our roster, as well as all the benefits that come with your commissioned/warrant officer status.
"Razor"
CAG
I spent 6 years in the Navy and 4 years in the Army. This gives me a real advantage every year during the Army-Navy football game allowing me to root for whichever team that appears to be winning. My Navy experience taught me to sew, make a bed and take an attack of tear gas. In the Army I learned how to put a very high, glossy shine on a pair of combat boots and eventually, how to hover a helicopter. After leaving the warm bosom of a military way of life, I struck out on my own to make it as a commercial pilot flying helicopters. Finding that life style not nearly exciting enough, I took up the fascinating hobby of combat flight simulation with my first computer, an Amiga 500. I went through just about every title available on the Amiga platform, which sadly, were not that many. I graduated to my first "IBM" desktop with a screaming 286 and a half meg of memory! I progressed through a whole other world of titles made for the IBM platforms and I was off to the races. Around 1989ish I graduated to online MMPOL(sp?) with WarBirds and from there IL-2 and finally ED's DCS World. It was in WarBirds that I joined a squad called The Volunteers and met up with a guy with an interesting call sign, ThudSluf that we decided to shorten to simply Thud. He and I moved to IL-2 together and joined a Luftwaffe group called IV JG-51. Eventually IL-2 came out with a Pacific theater and a large number of us migrated over to a new squad called Air Group 51. We were fairly evenly split between natural born killers and mud movers. We flew Hellcats and Avengers off of the light Carrier USS San Jacinto, CVL-30. In Air Group 51, we picked up another "old timer, Sabot. These two gentlemen are still with us. When DCS World came out, the graphics were off the chain and there appears to be no end in sight to their dedication to simulating the world of combat aviation from WWII, Korea, Vietnam to present day. After 40 years as a professional pilot, I have retired and thanks to DCS World and my squad mates in Composite Air Group 51, I have not missed it one bit!
"Goose"
CO
My first computer was a Commodore 64 back in about 1984. Where I lived on Vancouver Island. In 1988 I moved back to Alberta to live with my dad and I got into RC flying for a few years. In 1990 I moved back to Vancouver Island. In 1994 I was able to get an IBM 386 DX2,66 with 8MB ram and a 30 MB hard drive, sound blaster sound card, I think it was the 8-bit one. Back then 1MB of ram was $40.00. So this computer cost me about $1600.00. In fact, I still have this computer. In 1996 I went to Sprott Shaw Community College where I took a course in computers and at that time it was still DOS and Windows 3.1. I was hoping to get into the computer industry but that did not pan out. By this time most of my spare money was going to games and computers. These were cheaper than RC flying. In 1998 I got into flying online in a game called Microsoft combat flight simulator 2 and I have used the call sign Goose in every flight sim that I have played since then. When they brought out Combat flight simulator 3 it was a big flop that also ended the online flying of Combat Flight Simulator 2. So I started to fly IL2 and started to get into Third person shooter games. In 2014 I moved back to Alberta and got a job working for the highway department. This is when I got into DCS again. In 2017 I joined AG51 which has turned out to be one hell of a ride. I started off by flying the Huey, then the Harrier, then the F-18 (which is what I fly most of the time) as while as the A-4E, Mi-8, and other aircraft. AG51 guys have been awesome with teaching how to fly planes as well as helping get your computer working right or better and there is always someone willing to help you out even on off nights.
In the past 30 years, I have collected over 300 games for the IBM. 30 plus of which are flight simulators.
""
"Soldier"
Operations Officer
Ok, this is me. 60 years old. Never been in the military but I play one on TV and have stayed at a Holiday Inn a few times. Worked as an Arson detective for 22 years and currently still do fire investigations. I also was a paramedic for 5 years prior with some firefighter time thrown in there also.
Grew up in California, but moved to the land of bourbon and horses. Spend my time as a kid competitively shooting and even tried out for the 84 Olympics (didn’t make it).
Got into flying sims when the A10 came out years ago before DCS was DCS. All I flew until finding the A10 was now upgraded and all shiny in the new DCS world. Was part of the Tomcat Mafia with Bluto and Sabot and currently fly whatever I need to. My hobbies other than DCS are re-enacting WW2 and getting occasionally robbed by a mouse (Disneyworld).
"Skeet"
Public Affairs Officer
Skeet has no real world military experience like so many of the other squadron members have, although his mother did teach him how to make his bed. Um, that is about the extent of it.
Skeet hadn’t any Flight Sim experience prior to the Spring of 2020; the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. After watching a bunch of neat-o videos on YouTube he thought to himself, ‘What else are you going to do with the little bit of money you have! You could save it for something smart like retirement, or ….’
From that day, over the next six to eight months, Skeet never worked so hard at trying to empty that bank account; the ‘back order’ and ‘out of stock’ messages were plentiful, but actually receiving hardware components, not so much!
After perhaps two months of single player experience, AG-51 took Skeet in and taught him everything he knows! Be careful that he doesn’t crash into you.
In addition to his DCS addiction, Skeet travels around the Country with his shotgun, shooting in dozens of tournaments coast to coast, and north to south. There is an old saying around the gun club, ‘Only one way to make a million dollars shooting skeet. Start with Two Million!”
"Mac"
I was born in Saint John, NB, in the Canadian Maritimes back in 1952 which makes me almost as old as Razor. My father, (whom I’ve never met), was a 49-year-old bush pilot in New Brunswick when I was born but my mother was a 16-year-old schoolgirl (whom I did meet once when she visited Toronto, where I currently live). I guess I take after my birth father because school just wasn’t my thing. My adoptive family lives in the Deep South of the U.S.
I was U.S. Navy in the early 1970s doing a tour in Iceland (NAS Keflavik, P-3 Orion) and a brief (Carrier Quals) tour on the CVA-59 Forrestal (VF-74, F-4J). After my (short) Navy experiences, I reveled in civilian life employed as a… fill in the blank here because I’ve done just about everything legal… and a few that were “speed limit illegal” so to speak.) I’ve been married three times but all my girls could put up with me for about 10 years at a go. I’m currently separated from my loving Chinese wife.
I’ve sailed Lake Ontario in various sloops for the past 20 years but Covid… uh … you know… put an end to my hobby. I’ve taken up woodworking as a hobby now so I cut up 2x4s into strange shapes and throw away the mess when it fails to look like a chair or kitchen cutting board. I’ve not cut off any fingers yet, but I’m sure I will soon.
I’ve flown DCS ever since LoMAC was on DVD. I started out in the F-15 flying with a squadron out of Australia and moved on to some stateside squadrons. I finally found AG-51 who has yet to get tired of me. I’ve been with them for about… I forget. Razor, how long have I been here? No, I mean, with AG-51! I already know I’ve been on Earth for 70 years; I’ve been counting those.
"Boogie"
Maverick and Goose made an impression on this digital aviator, and so got involved into flight sims in the 90's with Janes and Falcon 3.0/4.0 during the infancy of the co-operative flight sim. Took a couple decades off from flying for career and kids and a dog, until recently returning to flight with DCS.
Combining his love of short runways and being saddled with a short-attention span, Boogie flies the F/A-18c Hornet exclusively, rebuking all others. Resides in Southern California with a wife and two cats - yes, named Maverick and Goose.
""
"Butter Face"
"Tomato"
Tomato can’t quite remember when he caught the Aviation Itch™, but airplanes of all types have been more or less a part of his life for as long as he can remember. A real-life 737 pilot by trade these days, his first logbook entry came several decades ago at the ripe old age of 12. Since then he’s flown several types of aircraft and holds type ratings In essentially every regional jet and the B737.
All that, though, means nothing when it comes to becoming a better virtual fighter pilot here at CAG-51. The skills needed to nail a to-minimums ILS approach into some crappy airport in the middle of nowhere at night and the skills needed to put an AIM-120 onto several targets at the edge of BVR range aren’t exactly congruent. An avid student, Tomato is always reading and researching ways to be more effective in the virtual cockpit. …not that his research is always effective. He currently spends about as much time AS a flaming ball of wreckage as he does making other things into flaming balls of wreckage. The hope is that will change in his favor. Someday.
While he is not a member of the armed forces in real life, his wife is, and he couldn’t be prouder of her. Also, you’d better believe he exercises the hell out of that dependent ID card to get tax-free booze whenever he can.
"Dank"
Coming Soon
"FlyGuy"
Department Head - Aggressor Squadron
Coming Soon
"Bash"
####
Coming Soon
"Ajax"
Communications Officer
20 Year Army Retiree with more SQIs and ASIs than most people care about. If I'm not on the golf course, I'm probably on DCS in some fashion (doesn't explain why he crashes so much still). - "I drink and I know things."
"Ranger"
Maintenance Officer
I grew up all over the world (Libya, Saudi Arabia, Alaska, California and Indonesia) since my Dad was in the oilfield. Currently I am a semi retired, semi unemployed Petroleum Engineer, 2nd generation Oilfield Trash.
I currently live in Colorado and am a fielded member of the Douglas County Search and Rescue team. We do a lot of missions in the foothills southwest of Denver rescuing fallen rock climbers, dirt bikers and people who get REALLY lost and REALLY hurt. We also do missions in the suburban part of the county looking for at risk youth and adults who go wandering off. We follow the SAR motto, “That Others May Live.”
As for DCS, I started flying the A10C in 2016 on a 15” laptop with a really crappy joystick, no separate throttle, no Trackir and no pedals. I then saw the light and bought a good HOTAS, pedals and a Reverb G2 headset. Of course I had to upgrade my PC and was spending cash like I was actually rich! I found out that flying alone was really boring so I joined AG-51 3 years ago and haven’t looked back. I am the group’s Maintenance Officer so if I can’t fix it, it ain’t broke. I love flying the F-18 but have transitioned to the AH-64 since I find the helos very challenging and chasing bad guys 10 ft off the ground is a hoot. I currently fly with Ajax (AKA Alex) in Chaos flight and our motto is, “You can run but you will just die tired”.
Join Our Mailing List
Be the First to Hear All the Latest CAG-51 News