Damn I love video games.

[Camaero]

This may sound strange, but video games are what have brought me to love history. I was just a punk kid in 5th grade when I first played Janes WWII fighters. Not only was the flying incredibly fun, but the game was packed full of video footage of the fighters in action, and of the real WWII aces being interviewed. It was such a cool thing to me at the time. That shot me off into a deep love of aviation. From there I started watching the history channel more and more often, I read aviation books, and I learned more history. That was the first game that really pointed me towards this direction. Later came games like LOMAC, B17II, and IL2. SHIII and DW is what got me into subs. Once I played those games I had to learn all I could by watching naval movies, reading books, and watching more of the history channel. If it wasn't for simulations, I, being 19 right now, would know nothing of history. They don't teach it in school at all. Once you get to the point of the cherry tree being chopped down, history is about over. My sister is in high school right now and she can barely tell me who Stalin is. She gets mostly all A's too. She doesn't care what happened in WWII, or what has happened even further back. I'm not knocking on her, because that’s how 95% of all youth today is. Why?

It may sound silly to some of you older gents who were raised in a different time, but without this stuff, I would have no way of truly appreciating the incredible importance of what some of our boys in uniform have done for us. Some of you grew up with Clark Gable manning the periscope in Run Silent, Run Deep, or maybe Carry Grant in Operation Petticoat or Destination Tokyo, or maybe it was Das Boot or some other movie you saw that got you interested. Think about my generation who has had nothing but shxt movies that are completely uninspiring. It is only now that I am older that I have discovered those old classics.

Pretty crazy post huh?