I met Raven in October 2002 when I happened upon his squad recruiting.  His squad was new and I was among the first group of recruits.  I was new to on-line combat flight simming and was pretty nervous about what I’d find

I was introduced properly to Raven for the first time at the first meeting after I was accepted and given access to voice communications.  It was apparent almost immediately that this guy liked to talk (down the road, we would occasionally refer to him as “Col. Talky”.  A nickname he invented.)  He certainly had the “gift of gab”.  He had a very inviting personality and his enthusiasm for the game was apparent.  His open and amiable attitude put me at ease almost at once

Raven’s good nature and endearing personality helped him grow a brand new, unknown virtual fighter squad into a squad that had several active members.  A squad that participated in several cooperative events with other virtual squadrons.  And a squad that, while maybe not famous on the internet, was not at all obscure.

Under Raven’s leadership, his squad had a distinctly welcoming atmosphere almost completely devoid of strife and inter-squad politics.  Virtual pilots came together and formed good friendships.

Even in times when we didn’t really have much going on in terms of “official BM357 events”, we still showed up to fly with each other because Raven was fun to hang out with and he made it fun to hang out with each other.

Over the years that I flew with him, we became close friends.  We spent countless hours chatting on messenger about various things: real life issues, the pros and cons of this or that simulator, what we should do next with the squad and just about anything else.

As so often happens, real life interposed itself and he had to depart from the squad in January of 2005.  His squad continued on without him for a few more years under the leadership of others that stepped up.

I always hoped that eventually, we would be able to fly with each other again.  We kept in touch sporadically in the years since his departure from the BM357^th.  It came as a terrible shock when, trying to get in touch with him, I learned of his passing.

I will miss Raven immensely.  I can not express the sense of loss I feel, when I think that I will never be able to joke, laugh, discuss what we are going to do with the squad next or fly with my friend again.

S~ Raven, gg, and Good Night

BM357_TinMan