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Josh "Rider" Fitzsimmons

Rider's Story

 

Currently in Tucson, AZ

"Rider" is pretty self explanatory. I’ve been riding motorcycles since I was 8 years old. My latest and greatest ride is a 2008 Harley Davidson Night Train Softail. It was my gift to myself for retiring from the US Air Force after 21 years, 4 months, and 11 days.

I’ve been married for 21 years and have 2 daughters. One is 19 and going to the U of A. My youngest is 17. My last duty assignment was at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ. After I retired from the Air Force I took a job with Rain Bird working on golf course irrigations computers and interfaces.

I got started flying in Air Warrior III. It was Radd’s fault. We worked together at Moody AFB, GA and he was always talking about his flight sims. I couldn’t see getting a flight sim to simply see if I could fly from Valdosta, GA to Atlanta, woohoo, good times (no offense to those of you that enjoy that, just not for me). But he told me I could shoot people in Air Warrior so I gave it a try and was instantly hooked. My ride of choice in AWIII was the Ki-84. I quit AWIII when they were going offline and I never moved to another WWII sim until now. I recently got the itch and was searching for a decent WWII combat sim. I decided to google my old squad and what do you know, here it was. I was amazed at all the names I recognized from AWIII. When I’m online I even recognize a bad guy or two from Air Warrior (damn that kappa).

From the CO...

Talk about another blast from the past. There we were flying Sunday night Squad Ops and the text buffer displays... "Rider: Any SkyKnights on?" I immediately knew who it was. How many squad members wives have a accused me of potentially being an internet axe murderer prior to our first meeting?? Ok, ok ... well, Rider's wife was the first prior to our meeting in Valdosta. A guy just doesn't forget special moments like those. (the axe thing)

Rider has a love for that blasted Ki84. One of these days, I might see him in something which doesn't catch on fire if you sneeze on it but for now, we are just happy to see another SkyKnight has found his way home again.

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