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WHO THE HECK IS THIS GUY!
A Brief History of Rusty
In 1986, a buddy and I purchased two Splatmasters. From then on Paintball became one of the Joys of my life. From the Splatmaster I progressed to a Nelspot W/ a pump and a barrel extension (go ahead and laugh, it was Hi-tech). My friends and I formed our first paintball team "LCFRT" (LowCountry Fast Recon Team, though thanks to hooked on phonics we had to reconsider the name!). We were really bad, but we had fun.
In 1988 I began my tenure at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. I joined the team "Shadowcav" and played for two years. A wild hair kicked in and I took a one year siesta during which I purchased a Bud Orr Sniper II, a KP-3, a Tippmann SMG 68, and two more splatmasters. Now that I had an arsenel (and the rumors that I left school to buy paintball guns is NOT true), and my wild hairs were back in line, I returned to The Citadel to become the team First Sergeant. We published the "Standard Tactics and Doctrine of The Citadel Paintball Team" in 1990 and I still refer to it in the notes of several other teams I have been a part of.
In 1991 I took Command of the Citadel Team (renamed Grey Storm). We played well, but were restricted by the military requirements of school, and we were always broke. We trained with the local police on several occasions including one on the USS Savannah at the USS Yorktown Monument. Our crowning moment was an Alamo style defense of a POW Camp at Combat USA in Columbia SC. One difference, we won. Somewhere in here I picked up a Tippmann Pro-am.
After graduation I joined Commanding Force where Six of Six's airsmith shop (WWW.Airsmith.com) and I became fast friends. If you think our ideas are great now, you should have seen us then when we were together. (I highly recommend that you wanna be airsmiths check out six's site immediately!)
Going from command of a 25 or 30 man recreation team to a semi pro tournament team kind of got old. I got out of the paintball circuit and tried Civil War Reenacting for three years. It was great. Served as everything from private to Colonel. Sitting around a campfire one night I jhad an idea and one of my dreams became integrating the organization of reenacting with like minded paintball teams from all over the country (see the Paintball Light Infantry page).
Tired of dealing with rednecks (the South will not rise again), I rejoined the ranks of the paintball world and started a Police team at my department.
Not longer after I was accepted into the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent (where I got to play paintball at the famous Hogan's Alley! AWESOME- Your tax dollars were appreciated!!). Alas, I blew out my leg. Not wanting to spend my career behind a desk, I left the Bureau and went into Financial Services. I still do reserve Police stuff and work with the Training office at my local department and its paintball team(it has been said I am the best trained reserve Cop in America).
I found the world's greatest paintball gun, a credit card, and bought me an AT85. It has cemented paintball into my life forever. I started playing every other weekend and recball. Not satisfied with just an awesome F/A gun, I ordered an M72 Law from AltPaintball.
Not wanting to carry two weapons, I deformed and twisted the M72 into the Original AT203 (the only original part left was the valve). The M203 Airsoft shell came from Scotland 7 years ago. I have been unable to find any more. One day I sent out a few pics and got a great response. Valentines day wasn't going well so I did a web site. You can see the rest.
RPG is a lifelong dream. Committed to EXCELLENCE in design and only things that WORK. To say it started on a shoestring budget would be giving it 14" of extra string. I still have a full time job, but the truth is I would rather do paintball full time. Maybe one day! We'll see what the future holds!
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