The Ferrets have continued to promote the WW2 arena by advertising our Monday and Thursday squad night "gorilla wars" and keeping a rough-and-ready score by tracking the number of fields captured. So far this year, the Axis forces narrowly lead the Allies 11 matches to 9, and are tied for tour-of-duty victories at two apiece, with one drawn match. Overall, the Ferrets outscored the enemy forces 19 matches to 4, and won the ToD title 4-zip, with one drawn ToD. Thanks again to all those who rise to the challenge. Our plan at this point is to discontinue the "gorilla wars" after number 100, which should happen sometime in June. We'll continue to advertise our squad nights in the WW2 arena, but we'll be giving the scorekeeping hooplah a bit of a rest. Meanwhile, Doones' ragwing nights continue to draw good numbers to the Dawn of Aces arena - great fun, and great practice for general ACM tactics.

This winter saw the return of our old comrades Troy, Mattke, and Gunsgt, as well as the addition of new pudd'n's Pennsy, Iwlf, Raybee, and Holes to our roster. Aggie, York, and Elltee were notably absent owing to real-life responsibilities, but Aggie's back now, and we expect to see the others again soon.

The Ferrets made some new friends over the winter, as York's old squadmates, the Avengers, left the now-totally-defunct WarBirds v2.77 for the Big City and the Modern Era. Avengers CO Lutrel is next in line for our Legion of Ferret award, for service above and beyond the call of duty. The Ferrets also extend special thanks to Tjwile and Frankc for all the time they've spent on our six: whether you're clearing it on S3 Sunday, or shooting it off in the WW2 arena, we appreciate it. Here's a salute to the Avengers, and to many more adventures together in the unfriendly skies!

Five Ferrets marked important milestones this winter: hearty thanks and a sack of cocoa butter to Ferret stalwart Capt. Wallyg for his three years of dedimacation to The Business; thanks and great billowing clouds of steam to Lt. Invstr for his two years of service, and to Aggie for his one-year star and promotion to the rank of Captain. Aggie now takes his place in the sun on the Thursday night operations roster. Last but not least, thanks and congrats to FNG Pennsy for slogging through ten squad meets, thus earning his Warrant Ossifer's commission and a permanent spot on the Ferrets' roster.

As the New Year came and went, the coveted Bushy Tail Awards were handed out to the keenest of the keen among Ferretkind: those with an 80% or better squad night attendance rating. The 2005 winners were: Col. Hcrana, Lt.Col. Humble, Lt.Col. Doones, Lt. Invstr, and 2ndLt. (now Capt.) Lytnin. My particular thanks to you guys, the die-hard regulars. See y'all in divorce court!
In score-whoring news, Capt. Lytnin continues his rampage in the WW2 arena, earning himself another pair of Fighter Ace Awards over the winter. The redoubtable Capt. Aggie, despite his hectic RL schedule, managed to garner yet another Master Bombardier Award for his top-scoring bomber tour.

In Squad Select Series action, the Ferrets concluded The Forgotten Battlefield series, but as with the recent Five Days in July event, we earned no medals, owing again to the dangers inherent in low-level anti-shipping ops. The series was, however, ruled an Allied victory, and we did manage to sink two enemy flattops with our motley assortment of torpedo bombers - always gratifying. To further salve our wounds, the compiled results from the last set of three S3 series have been analyzed, and the player cups and squad badges awarded. The Ferrets, through hard work, perseverance, and not getting killed, won the Gold Prometheus Medal for the Peacetime Warriors, Schweinfurt Ball-Breakers, and Fleet Action: Coral Sea events. Great flying, gents!
Meanwhile, the Ferrets have torn up the heart of the Reich in our VVS Bravo Hotels in four consecutive frames of the latest S3, Total Victory. Here's hoping we can manage to stay alive and ferret out a few of those elusive Red gongs, comrades!

Owing to some unexpected travel, and the generally hectic pace of my real-life schedule lately, the Ferrets didn't host their usual air-race this quarter. We'll be doubling up in the Spring or Summer to make up for it: look for the 11th running of the Ferrets' Challenge air-race in April!

In other news, our own Lt. Troy has somehow managed to reproduce himself, in the person of his new son Nicholas Michael. Ferrety congrats to Troy and Heather for having been very naughty indeed!
In the Practice and Duelling arena, the Ferrets have run through a dozen or so one-vs-one duels, working out the potential setup for our proposed 3-vs-3 duelling challenge, which we'll run sometime this summer if all goes well. Initial interest has been strong, so finding contestants shouldn't be too hard. Our plan is to work out the details over the next month or so, and post an official signup thread in the WB's BBS soon thereafter.

Finally, yours truly, along with Legionnaire Elltee, have been appointed to the Player Idea Evaluation (aka "PIE") committee. We're tasked with collecting, sorting, evaluating, and testing worthy ideas from the player community. This should lead to some interesting changes to our WW2 arena, and with any luck, to more kids in our sandbox.

Col. H.C. Rana
Over and Out