Walt Schmidt

$$ \sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty $$MOTD: “If I am not for myself, who is for me, and if I am only for myself, what am I, and if not now, when?” - Hillel

In Gaming, he is The F.O.G. of Any War ; the F'ng Old Guy; a 1965 Hicksville New York USA High School grad; you can do the math. He is Walt Schmidt Speaker of The Dorsai, sometimes referred to as Nemo Speaker of The Dorsai. Nemo's 'buddy' is known as Alter ; in gaming-reality Alter is Nemo's alter-ego.

In Real Life, he spent 30+ years as a CPA in public accountancy where his name became synonymous with computers, the Internet, and technology. And while today he and a computer are still never too far apart, he now is the head of the Town of Oyster Bay's Veteran Services Division (36 communities in Eastern Nassau County, Long Island, NY) and a VA accredited Veteran Service Officer. His own “still a work-in-progress” journey through the VA health system (a result of his three tours in Vietnam -- Oct '67 to Dec '69 as a “Mekong Delta, Brown Water Navy River Rat”) and contact with Agent Orange, over twenty-five years later finds him a VA classified “Service-Connected” “Catastrophically Disabled” tetraplegic with only partial use of his right arm and hand. Nevertheless, he works a full five-days-a-week (from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm -- with more than a few weekends thrown in to boot) and when asked for the current “words of the day,” he quickly will tell you: “Let No Veteran Ever Stand Alone!”

In Real Life The Dorsai -- Dedicated to "The Childe Cycle"
The Childe Cycle. or as it is more commonly referred to The Dorsai books - Gordon R. Dickson's "future history" of humanity's physical and spiritual development. Set centuries in the future, we see the development of the three Splinter Cultures, and the Others.
 * The Friendlies - men and woman of enduring faith.
 * The Exotics - philosophers and scientists who seek to know all there is to know.
 * The Others - Dahno and Bleys Ahrens interstellar organization.
 * And, The Dorsai - incomparable professional solders.

In The Beginning...
During the 'Dark Age,' pre-1970, there were these things called 'Board Games' where opponents actually sat face-to-face in real-time making 'moves' using their own 'player-piece' or pieces; and the only 'electronics' might be a battery-run timer.

In 1971, Walt played his first game of Computer Space, Nutting Associates clone of DEC PDP-1's Spacewar! It was hard-wired by the Doctoral candidates at New York Brooklyn Poly's Melville campus so no quarters were needed. Hours... hours....

In 1978, Walt played GEIS's version of 'Star Wars' called Nemo! (One of two reason Walt has used Nemo as a player-ID since then). The GEIS system (yes, somewhat redundant as GEIS stands for the General Electric Information System) was accessed using a Texas Instrument Silent 700 Series portal thermal-paper terminal and its built-in 300 baud acoustical modem.

The Dorsai
"Not just soldiers, Men of War..."

&mdash; Dorsai Creed I
“If you didn't take the time to plan, you don't deserve the time to complain... about what those that did plan decided.”

&mdash; Dorsai Laws of Alliance -- A Foundation To Live By
The Three Laws of Alliance
 * 1 - Our Comrades - first and foremost!
 * 2 - Ourselves - a damn close second.
 * 3 - All Others - can go scratch...

The Zeroeth Law:
 * 0 - Death To All Traitors

&mdash; Dorsai Creed II
No Free Rides
 * In this "future history" the three Splinter Cultures achieve what they did... because, each in their own way understood there were “no free rides.”

“The Successes of Yesterday Must Always Be Followed By the Achievements of Today and the Accomplishments of Tomorrow”

Shai Dorsai!

p.s. - so what the h--l is Shai Dorsai? "Shai Dorsai!" It is a battle cry that encompasses:
 * Never Forget
 * Never Again
 * Ourselves Alone
 * Brothers to the End
 * Death before Defeat - Death before Dishonor!

Leadership
--Walt Schmidt 12:49, October 2, 2009 (UTC)