I’ve always been interested in military history and aviation. I grew up in a military family and spent my childhood flying with my dad or at the airport working on his planes with him. I went on to become a Navy “spook” and served aboard a Nimitz-class carrier during the end of the Cold War and Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

I live in Fort Walton Beach, Florida (near Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field) with my fiance, our parrot Porkchop, and our two Wirehair Dachshunds Ham and Sprocket.

Military Sims

I’ve been flying PC flight sims for as long as they’ve been making them. I remember playing Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat, and Aces of the Pacific, to name just a few ancient titles. That said, I’m not a hardcore sim’r. I have a pretty nice rig, but it’s not a dedicated gaming machine, and I don’t have a boutique Russian HOTAS (yet). My favorite sims are IL-2 BoS and Rise of Flight. I really enjoy DCS but the time investment it requires is ridiculous. Most of my flying is single player because I just don’t want to commit the time needed to fly with a squadron or friends. I will probably make an exception for Steel Beasts though, as I don’t think one can truly enjoy that sim without MP.

Scale Modeling

Like many others my age, I built models as a kid. I’ve dipped in and out of the hobby throughout adulthood with the usual things getting in the way: college, girls, career, etc. Now, I build when I can. Mostly I buy, but I try to build too. My interests are broad and cover all military genres from World War One to the present day. Some favorite niches are WWI aircraft, WWII Japanese Navy subjects, and modern Russian aircraft.

About the Name

Porkchop is the name of my African Grey parrot. He tends to make up his own words and “Porkchopper” is a combination of his name and another pet’s name “Scooter”. He’s been calling himself “Porkchopper” for longer than I can remember. On a whim, I googled it one day to see if it actually means anything (apparently it does) and I registered it as a domain name. I’ve owned the domain for a very long time and one day decided to put it to use.

Ship_Rek

Ship_Rek is my callsign on multiplayer servers, Twitch, and Discord. It’s a sarcastic inside joke in the same vein as the Army’s “battle buddy” or the way your vet friends tell you, with a teary eye, “Thanks for your service”. In the Navy, shipmate is what people call you aboard ship when they don’t know your name. “Hey Shipmate”. When you hear this, it’s usually some chicken shit CPO who’s trying to get your attention so he can tell you that there’s something wrong with your uniform, your haircut, etc. It’s never good news and you just try to pretend you don’t hear him and keep moving. Shipmate devolved into shipwreck, denoting a sailor who isn’t “squared away”.