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The Haze as a squad is being deactivated due to low numbers. This post in a lot of ways is not Haze-like in that it’s putting it all out there to the public. Typical Haze fashion would have been to just fade away unannounced. But, I wanted to document the history somewhere for reference. I now present you with that history as written and approved by the current members.
In the spring of 1997, a group of flight sim enthusiasts who were tired of paying large sums of money in long distance modem to modem calls found a cheaper and more exciting way to play. It was called Warbirds. Btjo was a player on the CompuServe Falcon Ladder who convinced many of the players there to join him in creating the Haze. 'btjo' would later become Vert++ who most older players of the game remember.
The Haze started in version 1.1, but quickly moved over to 2.0 when it was available. This was difficult for the Mac users of the Haze since 2.0 did not support them. The squad was split for some time with Vertigo and -Snap- running the show in 2.0 and Trig (Trigr=) running the show in 1.1 . The Bueler brothers, 2 of them who shared the same ID, were the first to establish mission standard protocols revolving around the use of buffs that were used for years. We were very much a field capture squad in the Main Arena back in the day.
Players took turns being XO for the night, but as the Haze grew, it became too much for just any casual member of the squad to fill the role. The executives were then officially assigned with Vertigo as CO and Snap as XO and fighter lead. Phenix was made official bomber flight lead due his near perfect navigation skills. He would fly with a protractor in his hand to get every turn exactly right such that it was not uncommon to have the target appear out of the mist in your Nordon’s cross hairs. Yentl- became leader of Black Ops, who were in charge of radar destruction and other sneaky tactics. Stoker would eventually lead our Troop Corps when it became necessary to drop troops to capture fields. Other players included Kier, Puma (worked child kidnap cases for the FBI), Pofo, Grizly, Ferrab (from Brazil), Firebl (=Fire=), Goshwk, Jgandy (pro gun AND pro Democrat), -Jeem-, and Spectr.
The Haze continued to grow and were soon resetting the arena for Purple every Saturday night. When the JPC (Joint Purple Command) was created, the Haze was there (among so many other squads you have heard of). Running shared ops among squads was and still is about as cool as Warbirds can be. This eventually led to the Haze joining the S3 in its 6th event under the urging of Jamjo+ (who is still listed in the S6 Top Tens). We took on the role as a strike group in both bombers and fighters. Other members would now include the likes of Cherub (Boston cop), Etexas (100% Native American), Helix-, Jollyg, Kapsyl (from Sweden), Salomo (from Finland), -Sese- and -Mutz- (both worked in airport towers in Switzerland), Mmmkkk and Stevee (from Canada), Smash-, -Thog-(RIP), -Wrag-, -Xwar-, Zonker (a chemist, and the squad's moral gauge), and our youngest member at age 12, Dennis.
Starting in 2000, the Haze would see tremendous success in the Warbirds game and community. This started when Vertigo ran all Allied operations for the New Guinea Scenario. This was during the mass exodus of Warbirds employees that occurred when the company operating the game moved the business from Texas to North Carolina. They were looking for anyone who could step in and run the show. -Baxl- from Pale Riders (and eventually a Haze member) was in charge of the Japanese and both he and Vertigo leaned on their squads to fill leadership roles. After the event Vertigo would go on to run the popular Target For Tonight in the Historical Arena and earn his plus signs. Besides Vertigo, other members were very prominent in the community during this period. Phenix made some of the first Warbirds III movies, and offered game add-ons from gun sights to custom effects to Java Guncam. He would eventually start a stats website for the S3's, picking up where others had left off. His Mac equivalent was the high scoring killer Helix (=Helx=) who serviced the Apple community with much the same work. Later, Cherub would also make several WB movies which ultimately led to him becoming a photographer. Trainers included =Helx=, Trigr=, =Fire=, and ==Fd==. A lot of Haze members were members of the Beta Team and PDC (Player Development Corp). The Haze won a squad competition in their favorite rides, the P-38. We took on more members including Sgtron (Army background and became the official leader of ground missions), Tracer (our S3 CO goto guy), Frmboy (RIP), Crommm and Pepdav (from Canada), Mmmlll, Chapel, Texmax, Gflyer, Undone, Bigpig, Clules, -Rock- (from 303), among many many others. Several members attended the 2006 Warbirds Convention in Dayton and sported their own squad T-shirt.
In 2006 and 2007, the Haze had several frames in S3 events where they were the largest squad in attendance with 20+ members. We were now flying as a pure fighter squad and squad nights in the Main Arena were more of a practice for the real event, the S3's. It got so serious that to fly in Naval S3’s, you had to be certified on CV landings and we ran our own GCI classes for the guy in the tower (always had one). Testing of planes was detailed and tediously performed during Trig's training nights. The Haze sought out battles with the likes of the 31st and 352nd. There wasn't any mission we couldn't handle and we took the challenge of successfully flying any plane. Today we have over 60+ unique planes where the Haze logged more than 10 pilot frames in.
The Haze numbers started falling in 2008 due to several influences. The first was the market crash that year. Some players eventually left due to money issues after becoming unemployed. Others left because the crash kept them overly busy. This was the case for Vertigo who took time off as a bonds lawyer to sort out some of the mess his industry was in. Ultimately while not playing Warbirds, he rediscovered Real Life and never returned. A lot of other players left for the competition including Aces High and WW2 Online. Both had Haze squads in them at one point. The Haze kind of just went through the motions for awhile. Some players took the chance to try other squads out. Phenix eventually became CO with Trigger as the XO. By the end of 2009, they were left with a squad of about 6 core members including a new guy, Timos-, who would take up their S3 CO duties. Our last member to join would be Raven=.
Flying in the S3's as a small squad was an extreme shift from the 20+. Being a squad where survival came first limited us quite a bit. We did not engage unless we were higher, and then we kept that advantage. This changed us from a squad who could kill their way to victory to one which would go for a more tactical victory while picking up the kills we could. It was a no-no to even engage anyone from the 31st or 352nd due to their multi layered tactics that ground up smaller squads. Other large squads like the 4th or Jg51 would also become squads to move around due to their numbers. At times we officially joined up with squads like TF17 or American Eagles. Other times we just followed whatever big squad was on our side and ate their scraps.
Although we have officially held a squad night for every week since the start in 1997, recruiting in the Main Arena had all but stopped. This was primarily due to the fact several members became S3 only members. We recently lost Trigger to Real Life via the old Warbirds Burnout. Another member chose to explore other squads. This left us with 4 core members and even then it's not uncommon for 1 or 2 not be able to make a frame. While we could continue the squad, it has become quite hard to fly S3's with that low of a number without tailing along with another squad. Without the ability to impact a frame by ourselves, I did not see a reason to stick together anymore when we could be flying in a cohesive squad with larger numbers.
The squad may again become active if the situation warranted, but for now we're standing down. You will still see the last active members in other S3 squads, we're not going anywhere.
Phenix
CO, the Haze 100th FBG
-Rock-
XO, the Haze 100th FBG
Kapsyl
Bf110 Experten
Crommm,
Official Dragger
Other members not mentioned above, but who served: --bd--, -beem-, -cage-, -cajun, -doom-, -gast-, -jcmas, -medic, -trap-, -zank-, augerd, awolfa, blubyu, boobrd, braker, commie, crunch, dogman, druid-, dspapp, endo--, fezzen, glfyer, lanced, makko-, -manos, mjkong, mp-ten, negent, ninja-, nolpic, rizzo-, sanfra, slip--, swarfy, -vapr-, -wojos (and some I am sure I missed)
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phenix
