This is Tony's last issue as Editor Rex of Air Power and I am truly, truly saddened at his having to leave us. For the last three years Tony has been the backbone and muscle of the Journal, in fact, in very many ways, Tony is Air Power ! Without him the journal never would have been and the enjoyment passed on in these pages to all of you would still be wishful imagination in my own clogged up and extremely overused brain cells.
Air Power was my idea, born out of the fustration of being unable to expand upon the game system due to the lack of resources available at GDW and their poor management of the game's production. My success in getting articles published in gaming magazines was sparodic and inconsistant at best. So I dreamed up doing a newsletter. Unfortunately, I neither had the time nor the appropriate tools to do the job. This is where Tony came in.
I met Tony at Origins 88 in Milwaukee and he proved to be a fun and entertaining sort of guy. It was there, while playtesting a Vietnam era scenario that Tony performed his now infamous F-4 dive into the ground while dodging an SA-2 missile, that I was controlling. Although we kid him alot about that, I should mention that he had already evaded four before that and was also maneuvering with two MiG-21s when he made his error. Well that event led to some laughter and ribbing and ultimately a friendship forged over two litres of Milwaukee's finest and some Rueben sandwiches in an after tourney gettogether. Tony expressed a desire to be involved in 2d edition rules development and as a PHD in Physics teaching in La Grange, GA, he was well qualified. His above average enthusiasm and efforts as a playtester quicly got my attention, and one day on the phone I broached the idea of a newsletter. He liked the concept and accepted the challenge of being the editor. The rest is history as they say.
Although unrecognized as such, I think Air Power has grown to become the finest gaming newsletter in the hobby! It has been a struggle getting and keeping it going, but Tony has been a one man army. He not only edited, but he typeset, cut and pasted, handled all the finances, licked mailing lables, and personaly hand stuffed hundreds of envelopes of each issue of the newsletters to be mailed to you! In effect he did everyting. All this without any form of compensation except for once when I sent him a check to go out and have dinner with his wife.
He has spent literally hundreds of hours of his free time devoting himself to this publication. All this while going through a job change and major move from GA, to AL. Yes, Tony is, or more correctly, was Air Power. I for one cannot thank him enough. I hate to see him go, but it's exactly that same drive and determination he displayed with this journal that he displays in his new job and his success in his professional field has landed him work in a classified defense project. Because of that, he will be forced to step down. Tony is a tiger, and he'll help out for a few more months, and maybe in the future hell be back as editor rex, but for now he's gone.
Tony, what can we say? You've been great! All of us appreciate your efforts and it is impossible to convey how much gratitude I have for you getting us here. The newsletter is on solid ground (crhonically late at times but we do understand), and we intend to carry it on with the same standards of excellence that you have set for it. When you are in my neck of the woods, the beer's on me bud! I wish you the greatest of success in your future endeavors and we'll see you at the Cons man!
For those of you planning to attend Origins in 1992, there will be a casual dinner outing and farewell roast for Tony tentatively set for Saturday night, be there, everyone is invited and it's pay your own way except Tony gets to eat free!
Godspeed! and Check Six Tony!! See ya, J.D.
Current Events 1991
Back to Table of Contents -- Air Power # 18
Back to Air Power List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 1991 by J.D. Webster
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com