User:USMA



  

Background
Well everyone, welcome to my Wikipedia page. My name is. I was born in Bergen, Norway in 1987. Given dual citizenship given that my father is an American citizen and my mother (was) a Norwegian citizen. Moved to the United States in the mid-1990s, and became exclusivly an American citizen eight years later. Unfortunately, I retain hardly any knowledge of Norsk or German, but I can get a vague idea of what people are saying when they speak those languages. I participated in high school and club level competitive swimming and water polo, specifically in the 200m, 100m, and 50m freestyle events in swimming, and as a left wing in polo. Naturally, being of Norwegian hertiage, I have been skiing for almost my entire life. Despite living in the flat lands of the American Midwest, very frequent vacations to Norway, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah have made me an excellent downhill skiier. In 2004 I was awarded a nomination to the United States Military Academy at West Point from congressman Mark Kirk of Illinois. I opted for deferred enrollment, and spent the year between his high school graduation and college enrollment as a lifeguard and swim team coach. I will being attending West Point in the late summer of 2006, graduating in 2010. He currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.

I'm highly active in the FileFront commuinty, specifically in the FileFront forums and as a fileposter for the Halo series and Operation Flashpoint.

I have one brother, Adam, who is entering his junior year of high school. He is currently studying ANcient Egyptian History at the University of Chicago. We own two Shelties, named Eddy and Jimmy. They are both very unique dogs. Eddy chases everything, airliners, cars, birds (especially swallows hunting for bugs). Jimmy on the other hand prefers to lay around on air conditioning vents, scavange for food around the kitchen, and generally attract attention from everyone he can. Both dogs have seen more than their share of tragedies. When he was three years old, Eddy was hit in the right rear leg with a golf ball at close range, destroying his knee. After a complicated surgery and a long recover time, he has regained full use of that leg (including running at full speed), but he does hold it in a rather odd manner. When Jimmy was two years old, he broke his leg jumping off a two foot wall while chasing a car. Since then, he isn't able to run nearly as fast as it could before. One year later, he was diagnosed with lupis. Thankfully, it is in full remission and he is quite healthy. Both dogs are now six years old, and yes they are brothers.

Flying
I have the extreme good fortune of being a private pilot. I obtained my license at age 17 at Culver Military Academy, during their summer program. I learned on a variety of aircraft, including a vintage 1950s Piper Tri-Pacer, a Cessna 172H (which was a total hunk of junk, if I do say so myself), and a Piper Warrior II. I currently fly a Piper Arrow Turbo V, and man that thing is a blast!

During the fourth and final year at West Point, the first classmen (seniors), select which branch they will serve in after graduation. It is my hope that I will be able to branch into aviation, as either an attack helicopter pilot or cavalry pilot.

Politics
I am a rather strong conservative, and a proud supporter of the US Republican Party. As such, I regularly go shooting with my family, specifically trap shooting. In the past I have done some volunteer work on various political campaigns, and do regular volunteer work at the O'Hare International Airport office of the United Service Organizations.

Wikipedia
Mostly in the areas of military history and military hardware. I generally only edit material when I see something that is either totally or partially false. Only in major cases do I actually post completely new information. I'm still getting used to how to pose stuff around here, so bear with me for a while. I am also a member of the Counter Vandalism Unit, the Military History WikiProject, the World War II Taskforce, the Military Aviation Taskforce, and the Weaponry Taskforce.

My current, and first, project is improving the article Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier, and articles closely related to it. Any help would be much appreciated!

I'd like to emphasize that I am very new to the actual editing process of Wikipedia, so if anything I write seems strange, out of format, or otherwise a bit off, feel free to change it (after all, that's why it's all open to editing) and leave a message on my talk page!

Computer Games I Play
What a long list this is going to be... I will stick with the main ones.


 * I'm a Full Lieutenant in the British Expeditionary Force in the MMOFPS World War II Online, a graduate of the Allied High Command's OCS program, and am currently awaiting assingment to a brigade as an executive officer. Though, through this wait, I am taking a nice long leave.


 * For the past three or so years I have been playing the mod Forgotten Hope for Battlefield 1942, as a member of the 130th Panzer Lehr Division and 11 Panzer Grenadier Division clans. The mod, if you are wondering, adds a few dozen new high quality maps and a few hundred (!) new vehicles to the original game. Really demanding on your computer though, even if it's a real kick ass rig.


 * Being a private pilot, I play a lot of flight simulator, from legacy classics like Jane's F/A-18 and Razorworks RAH-66 Comanche v. Ka-52 Hokum to modern sims such as Lock On: Modern Air Combat and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.

Go Army!


I come from a family with a long history of service in the United States Army. One uncle of mine is currently serving in the 132nd Infantry Brigade in Iraq. My father is a 1973 graduate of the United States Military Academy, a former field artillery officer. His father was a captain in the US Army in World War II, the commander of an M36 Jackson platoon in the 4th Armored Division, and fought in the Battle of the Bulge under Patton, and was awarded the Silver Star for valor in that campaign. His father was a cavalry major in World War I in the British Army. The farthest back we can trace is to a colonel who served with the British under Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars.

My mother's side is a bit more sketchy. I do know that two of her uncles and her father fought first in the Royal Norwegian Army in 1940. One of those uncles and my grandfather went on to fight in the Norwegian Resistance, and the other in a Norwegian unit in the British Army.

With such a strong history in the army, my family has always been a large supporter of our armed forces. I am certaintly no exception. In order to keep those who view this page reminded of the sacrifices made by our nation's finest every day, I will have new images (taken from Army.mil) each day.

As of 21st June, 2006, I will be at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.



Technology
I'm using a MacBook Pro, 15".
 * 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processor
 * 2048 MB of DDR-SDRAM
 * 100 GB 7,200 RPM hard drive
 * ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory.

And yes, that is what I play games on. No, Mac's don't suck. Yes, after two hours of CS:Source or Battlefield 2 it does get hot enough to fry eggs and bacon on!

Contact Me
Look for USMA2010 - (Insert Smartass Comment Here)