You have probably heard by now that Dean, Dave Powell, and Chris Volny got badly clobbered in an air accident 25 February on a trip to Rod Miller's to play "the air game" face to face. The bad news initially was that many bones and a beautiful airplane were broken. The good news was that there was no fire, nobody died, and Dave's briefcase full of This Hallowed Ground came through intact.

As I write this, all three have left Chapel Hill for home. Dean and Dave will be fine once they heal up. Chris suffered a bruised spine and faces a longer and less certain road back to health and mobility with much rehab work. Keep him and Dean and Dave in your thoughts and prayers. I have been quite impressed by the courage and good spirits with which these guys are facing their injuries. Please join me in wishing them the best.

Better yet, join me in sending a donation to the Chris Volny fund. Long-term disability checks don't buy as many groceries as a full salary does. Insurance doesn't pay all the medical costs. The Volnys, a family with four, soon to be five, children, can really use your help getting through this financial bottleneck. Chris's brother is administering the trust fund. Please send your contributions to:

Will Volny
210 Royal Oaks CT
Monmouth Jct, NJ 08852

Thanks very much!

Rod and Ann Miller graciously turned their house into a command center as the guys' wives and family members arrived in Durham and Chapel Hill to visit at the hospital. By serving as local guides and providing a place to eat and crash (sorry, I mean sleep) and by visiting and maintaining contact with the guys, the Millers did everyone enormous service.

And what about the game production schedule? Dean figures that the time he lost getting busted up in a plane wreck might have cost him a week off of that game's release date. Back in 1990, losing both thumbs to a faulty mortar round caused a similarly trivial delay. By the time you read this, you should have noticed less delay with Seven Pines than is typical in our industry. As of right now, we do not expect any delay of This Hallowed Ground, scheduled for availability at Origins.

The automated order tracking system is still on schedule. Dean is hopeful this software will be in place in time for the front of fice to cope with the summer rush and make order fulfilLrnent a smoother process in general.

You should expect this year's errata and variant countersheet around Origins time. The sheet will contain the corrected counters for Semper Fi! and A Raging Storm. This is the 1998 sheet The Gamers would have sent out at the end of this year, so don't expect to get a second freebie sheet for Christmas.

Origins is upon us. If you haven't made plans to be there yet, get busy. Once again, the con is in Columbus, Ohio, 2-5 July. If you have not already sent your Charles S. Roberts award ballots to John Kranz, do so right now. Regular readers already know my policy against using the pages of Operations to tell you how to vote. 8ut I will go so far as to note -- with curiosity bordering on incredulity -- that neither Kevin Zucker nor Ed Wimble seems to have his Clausewitz Award yet.

Just as important an event in my book is HomerCon. Note: This year the retreat happens a bit earlier than usual, Z7-30 August. In case you haven't experienced it yet, The Gamers Retreat is a great chance to get together with a bunch of guys and just play wargames (from any publisher). The Red Roof Inn is offering special group rates you can take advantage of:

Red Roof Inn
1-800-843-7663
Block number B170000232
Call before 26 July
50 Double-bed rooms available
1 person= $45.49, 2 people= $51.04, 3 people= $56.59 (prices include tax)