Recently one of our readers forwarded some comments made by another site regarding our writers. Probably without intending to, he gave a false impression of COMBATSIM.COM. Here is the quote:

"Please keep this in mind. Our editorial staff includes folks with real life backgrounds in their respective areas...All of these people are trying to bring their real world experiences and background into the sim world... Can you think of any other site with this much actual experience? I can't."

The reader responded on our behalf in their forum:

"I can. Geez, it doesn't take that much checking around the net to discover that other major sites also collect real world military and civilian people with good credentials. I just checked the BIO page at combatsim.com.. I see Marines, Air Force, Navy and Armor experience listed there.... "

He was quite right. COMBATSIM.COM was a pioneer in the integrated coverage of simulations and the real world of the military, much as Jane's Combat Simulations pioneered the integration of a civilian intelligence agency and a simulation publishing firm. As such we take this role very seriously.

We want to recognize the contributions of our writers in a new way this year, by letting our readers decide who are the best of the best. We'll let you choose who wrote the best sim review, the best hardware review, and the best tactical article. The voting will occur in a few weeks from now. SO.. who writes this stuff?

You can visit our CREDITS page anytime, but I have excerpted some of our contributors for you here. Their full bios can be found HERE.

Maurice Fitzgerald. Contributing Editor: Shooters and Strategy. Maurice, 30, is from New Jersey. He served in the US Marine Corps from 1985-1989 as a tanker with 1st Tank Battalion. 1st Marine Div.

Maurice has been playing sims since Battalion Commander on the old Apple IIe. He's not much of a virtual pilot (except helos), but loves being buttoned up in a cyber tank and being a ground pounder and playing all sorts of strategy games.

Dennis "Shadow" Greene. Dennis J. Greene is a 36 year writer who has been gaming both on and off of computers for 26 years. His love of planes found him in the airforce from 1980-1988, where he served first with the 23 TFW (Flying Tigers) and then the 355 TFW tactical training wing. His first sim was a home brew sim on a TRS80 that modeled true physics but crude, crude graphics. From there he has tried to sample as many sims as possible, waiting for the industry to catch up to his dreams.

Dennis has experience in private aircraft amounting to 200+ hours, 80 hours in Military grade simulations (A-7 and A-10), as well as a smattering of experience in F-4's, A-7's, A-10's and KC-130's. When it comes to PC grade simulations the hours cannot be counted, amounting to many thousands.

Tim "Flyboy" Henderson. Tim was a member of the Canadian Navy for seven years and then went back to his old habits: stereos, cameras and hiking. He is married with two young children and would like to be independently wealthy.

Tim flies everything he can get his hands on, but WW2 Fighters and USAF are current favorites. A naval history devotee, he would kill to get his hands on Harpoon4, but he will settle for Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command.

Warren "Big Red" Hudson. Warren "Big Red" Hudson is a former USAF officer. During his 17 year career, he served as a fighter controller, instructor, evaluator, AWACS Mission Commander, and USAF Aggressor @ Nellis AFB.

Warren has over 200 hours of backseat fighter time in USAF/Canadian T-33, F-4, CF-18, F-15, F-5/AT-38, and F-16. Additionally, he has over 1000 hours as an E-3 AWACS Mission Commander and over 6,000 recorded tactical engagements as a fighter controller.

Bob "Groucho" Marks. Bob is the penultimate aerogeek, and has been since he was four or five. He soloed a Cessna 150 on his sixteenth birthday and has a hundred hours logged in his log book, but due to various reasons never finished training or received his private pilot license.

Because of his various aviation related jobs and experience as an airport bum, however, he has stick and throttle time in many varied aircraft, ranging from high performance homebuilts like the Rutan Long-Eze and Defiant, to big antique DC-3s, to Schweitzer sailplanes, to commuter aircraft like the Cessna 414, and to spam cans such as the Beech Duchess and Grumman Tiger.

Ron McMaster. Chief Master Sergeant (r) Ron McMasters, 45, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He enlisted in the Air Force in January, 1973. After intensive language and classified training, he became one of the most proficient and respected North Vietnamese linguists in his field. Specializing in communist force structure, air combat tactics and docrine, along with US and Soviet bloc aircraft and weapons systems, he was a premier expert in North Vietnamese air and air defense systems.

Ron amassed over 3,000 hours as aircrew trainer and mission evaluator in RC-135 Rivet Joint, P-3 Orion, and Special Operations MC-130 aircraft, flying 215 combat support and training missions. He has also flown the F-4G, F-15C, and P-3. While stationed at Clark Air Base, Philippines between 1982 - 1985, he was a key figure during the return of MIA remains from Hanoi, Vietnam and helped pioneer new airborne communications jamming equipment for use during special operations.

Col. Jack Morgan, ret. Jack is a member of the Confederate Air Force and is a veteran P47 pilot. He later flew the KC135 and was sent to Vietnam flying the AC-119 Gunship. His favorite aircraft were the KC135 and the T-33.

Ed Reddy: News Editor. Ed has a wide range of military and computer experience, having spent 10 years in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves as an Army Communications and Electronics Specialist. His tours of duty include a UN Tour based of Baghdad and Basra in Iraq in 1988 with UNIIMOG doing Border Patrols, and in Doha Qatar during the Persian Gulf war in 1990-1991 during Operation Desert Storm as a Communications/Satellite Operator.

He left the military for the civilian world in 1996 where he was hired by SHL Systemhouse as a Systems Engineer in Calgary Alberta, Canada. Ed has been a hard core military sim fan since his VIC-20 could load Tank Battle over 15 years ago. As a military enthusiast proficient in NATO/Warsaw strategies, and a flight simulator expert, he's been spending much of his time working with computer software companies beta testing their latest and greatest military sims. You can usually find Ed in the Flanker-O-Club.

Jim "Twitch" Tittle: Contributing Editor: Simulations. Jim is a life long enthusiast of air combat with WWII as his favorite era. Jim's father flew P-51s at the end of the war and Jim belongs to "Friends of American Fighter Aces." Through this association he has met scores of German, British and American aces and had the opportunity to discuss air combat first hand.

His sim experience began with Battlehawks 1942 and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, and Jim began hacking and modifying files. He has TONS of mods for Aces Over Europe and is now working on a new batch for European Air War. The jet sims are OK with Jim but he is partial to prop aircraft. He admits under threat of death that he once wrote an F-14 scenerio for the now defunct PC Combat Simulations magazine. Jim encourages E-mail to himself on any subject.