Another summer gone by, alas for the Canadanians, Chicagonians and Nebraskaites. The Ferrets enlisted three new victims this season: Tonga- (aka Mike), Chxsix (aka Ron), and Gunsgt (aka Eric). Hot sticks I tellya. With the unpopular changes over at the competition, we may be growing the squad again soon, and I've reorganized a few things with that end in mind.

First, though, a review of Ferret stats, promotions and awards over the past three months is in order. Our average attendance at squad meets this summer was 10.1 pilots. The average WW2 arena population on squad nights was 82 pilots, and the average S3 arena population was 167 pilots. Our average squad fighter rank was 11th, average squad bomber rank 8th. Thanks again, Deft - we're making good use of your score pages.

Kavikk, Drdyer, and Invstr earned recognition for six months of service; Meteor for one year; Andrew and Warone for two years; and HC, Momo and Humble all passed the four-year mark. My, aren't we a shiny lot? Thanks for playing along, gents!

Four Ferrets earned promotions this summer under our new stricter rules. A snappy salute and an exploding cigar to Lieutenant Meteor, Second Lieutenant Drdyer, Warrant Ossifer Invstr, and Flight Sergeant Tonga.

In Squad Select Series action we only managed one complete campaign this summer owing to three false starts with the Pony Boys series. We won a whole passle of pretty awards for our B24 Liberator prowess: Doones, Gldnbb, Wallyg, and Meteor won Air Medals; Joystc snagged a DFC and 3rd place overall; and your iron-fisted CO somehow finagled the Legion of Merit and 2nd place overall. The series was ruled a draw: our Allied side had a slight edge in points, but not enough to be declared decisive.

Squad Badges and Player Cups were also awarded this summer for the preceding three S3 scenarios (North Sea Summer, On The Beaches, and Tit-For-Tat). We Ferrets won our first such Squad Badge - the Prometheus Medal in bronze for our third-most-fearsome death-avoidance skills. The current S3 campaign has us flying Focke-Wulfs in the brand-new Tunisia terrain.

The fifth Ferrets' Challenge air race was a success, particularly from the spectator's point-of-view: 35 pilots rolled and three finished. Not so much gruelling as frikkin' deadly. Exactly a year to the day since Gldnbb's first victory, Andrew brought back the honors to the Ferrets' den. Congratulations again to Maj. Andrew, also to Muzz-- of the 417 RCAF City of Windsor for second place, and to Juice- of the 352nd Fighter Group for his third place showing. Thanks to all who attended, and to the refs, and to iEN for coughing up a free month of WarBirds for the winner. Our next race in late November ought to be be slightly less deadly. Slightly.

The iEN guys cranked out a new WB's build in August, featuring new, smaller icons that look great, a new GUI, an He111 cockpit, and a new and improved Tunisia terrain. But, there's still no god-damned Allied transport, god damn it.

In other Ferret news, the first ever Chicago Ferret Mini-Con saw Momo, Doones, and Warone downing scotches and telling tales. On the admin side of things we changed a bunch of rules, including the rank system (tougher) and the wingman assignments (six groups of four) and the Brass now have scheduled squad night CO duties same as the senior ossifers. We've also added a scheduled practice session on alternate Mondays. The Order of The Stinkin Bodge, planned in celebration of the fourth anniversary of Ferretkind, is stalled due to lack of funding, but Meteor's kind gift of a TeamSpeak server provides me with an opportunity to justify demanding Ferret dues to the tune of twenty bucks per annum. This'll be used to defray costs and to purchase stinkin' bodges for the masses and powerful narcotics for the CO. Please contact Master-at-arms Momo for details. Pleas of poverty will be considered.

Col. H.C. Rana
Over and Out