01/13/10 1759 hours
We would like to congratulate our tied winners of Legionnaire of the Year for 2009: Nick “Hammer” Lowery and Nathan “HoChiMan” Wright. These two fellows gave outstanding effort and support during the 2009 season and we would like to take the opportunity to recognize them for their performances as well as reward them both with gift certificates to Gander Mountain. Now, for some background history and the recognition…
First things first
Nick "Hammer" Lowery
Nick has been with the 42nd Legion from the very start, which is the best place to begin. When I first met Nick Lowery in 2007 he had recently joined paintball and was the squad heavy gunner for the 42nd Highlanders. Right off the bat I noted his energy, enthusiasm and a nearly maniacal desire to increase his paintball payload capacity. All necessary attributes for a heavy gunner, heh. At that point I knew he could easily hideaway at least a case of paint on his person and was dubbed our on-field “Wal-mart” and offered to be a mobile paintball refill station during firefights. Nick was the first member of the Highlanders to accompany me to an away game before our founding as the 42nd Legion. It was our first trip to Painted Forest in Lynchburg and in addition to being our heavy gunner Red Spider realized he made a good mobile bunker as well. Between the two of them the suppressing fire was such that the referees had to re-balance the teams in favor of the speedballers.
Forging the Hammer
It was November 2007, the newly formed 42nd Legion was attending it’s first ever scenario game – Fulda Gap. There were only a handful of us attending and we had no idea what to expect. We had the essentials of a fireteam and had been practicing and drilling for months but there was nothing that could prepare us for what was in store. One of the most standout memories of that event were of us as the 82nd Airborne entering Firebase Rex. Nick had been keeping track of a Warsaw tank that had recently been eliminated and was returning to the field under a white flag. As the rest of NATO had our backs to the tank Nick screamed out “HEY GUYS! THE TANK IS ACTIVE!!” As a few of us lept into nearby trenches for cover, I turned to see Nick standing to and raining paint onto the tank as it was dropping its flag to get the jump on us. Though he was met with a returning rain of pain I know that without his keen eye and will to dominate a tank (from where we were entrenched it sounded like two tanks battling it out with each other) we all would have been mowed down from behind. To this day he is still proud of the gogging he received by that tank.
Hammer Time
After this event the 42nd Legion had a solid heavy gunner that spent the following year revising, modifying and improving his kit to a point that, in my belief, he was ready to go toe to toe with any tank that crossed his path in the next Fulda Gap. His experience by Fulda Gap 2008 had earned him rank as the assistant squad leader of the Highlanders Squad. Early 2009 had some significant roster changes and Nick had become the de facto squad leader of his squad. His assistance in recruiting, preparations and plans for our team practices, away events and build-ups for our big events was invaluable. It was at Fulda Gap 2009 that I had the pleasure of announcing his promotion to the 42nd Legion’s First Sergeant. During this event he played a pivotal role as the Czech’s Radio Traffic Officer while also monitoring key areas of the field from a remote observation post. He was relaying messages for me to players on multiple other frequencies and models of radios. He said afterwards that he felt like a telephone operator/call router. I had to agree with him but it was that level of coordination that helped our side win the Four-peat and for the 42nd Legion to take Most Valuable Team honors.
Thank you Nick “Hammer” Lowery for your support, dedication and loyalty to the 42nd Legion!
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