B-17: After Action Report 04.19.2017

B-17 Flying Fortress “Facebook”

Crew (taken from my FB friends list about a year ago):

  • Pilot: Captain Chris S.
  • Co-Pilot: Lieut. Bob F.
  • Navigator: Lieut. Kalu E.
  • Bombadier: Lieut. Lando G.
  • Engineer: Mst. Sgt. Jen V.
  • Radio Operator: Sgt. Eleathia L.
  • Ball Turret: Sgt. Timothy N.
  • Port Waist Gunner: Sgt. Robert S.
  • Starboard Waist Gunner: Sgt. Maria S.
  • Tail Gunner: Sgt. Alicia P.

2 missions completed.

Mission 1: Rail yard at Amiens – Bomb Run percentage: 5% – no damage to bomber, no enemy planes shot down, no crew casualties.  This mission was flown about a year ago, I just now logged the data to the composite mission record sheet.

Mission 2: Airfield at Abbeville – Bomb Run: 40% – hit on starboard waist gunner’s heat system, tail gunner shot down ME 110, no crew casualties.

Of course, these early missions are usually a cakewalk.

Can the Facebook get to 25 missions?  We’ll see.  The most missions I’ve completed with the same bomber (Thunder Head, circa 1989?) was 17, when it was rendered irreparable after that 17th mission.

The No Comment was destroyed on her second mission, by a shell or flak hit to the bomb bay, killing the crew.

The Golden Gate suffered a fuel tank fire on her 7th mission, the crew bailed and all but one were either captured or killed.  The engineer served aboard the Thunder Head until he was killed on the bomber’s 10th mission.

The Gang Buster completed 4 (of 30 total) missions before I shelved the game indefinitely.

More to come soon.

Star Wars Figures

At lunch today I dropped by GameStop, where I saw the 40th Anniversary Star Wars Black Series 6″ figures for the first time.  They look great, in vintage packaging, but I don’t think I’ll be picking them up.

I didn’t see R2-D2 at GameStop…

The Han Solo figure was basically the same one I bought a couple of years back, complete with Stormtrooper utility belt and E-11 blaster rifle.

Luke, Leia and Obi-Wan all look great too, with cloth robes/tunics, but I find myself running out of display space, and putting more and more stuff in storage containers.

That has to stop.  I can’t collect for the sake of collecting.  Even my friends who collected a particular thing of a thing over the years stopped doing that, and I need to be more selective, too.

All Things Jyn may be the last theme that I do, collecting wise.  Not sure how much stuff from The Last Jedi I’ll pick up, beyond a Rose figure.  Most of what I see picking up from this franchise will be Han Solo or Boba Fett related, going forward, with the occasional trooper variant.