[Spartan198]

My story isn't much different from YNH's. When I was little, my dad had a couple of .22 LR rifles. I shot one of them on one or two occasions, but never again after that. At some point my dad sold them and that was it.

I started getting into military weaponry at 15 or 16 when I finally became intent on determining the identity of the "M16 grenade launcher" that Arnold used in Predator. At first I thought the rifle by itself was the M16A1 and the rifle/launcher combo was the M16A2. Then I found out the M16A2 was the rifle by itself, so I started thinking the rifle/grenade launcher was the M16A3... I eventually got the game Conflict: Desert Storm, where one of the squad members had an M16A2 with an M203 and then I finally learned that the rifle and launcher had separate designations. This was all pre-Internet, of course.

I basically started researching and learning through books (and eventually Internet) to the point where I could give a person step-by-step instructions on how to tear an AR-15 apart and put it back together without ever having touched one. Studying weapons lead to studying tactical gear, that lead to tactics and strategy, then that led to studying warfare of multiple eras between now and the Bronze Age.