Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Gamers in the Military

I must confess, putting these words on paper just a few years ago could have ended my military career. With the new political landscape and changing policies, one of my former “partners” thought I should come out of the closet, so here goes:

I was a gamer in the Military!

There, I said it. The burden has been lifted. I’m sure my dad won’t understand and my brother might never talk to me, but the truth had to come out. I’ve held onto this dark secret too long! I served in the military before geek became chic, during the dark days when being a gamer was still “shameful.” With the return of nerd supremacy, it is time to discuss my experiences as a gamer in the military.

For the record I’m not talking about video games here, I’m talking about good ole’ tabletop, dice rolling RPGs. I played RPGs when I was young (D&D, Boot hill, Top Secret, Star frontiers, Blah, Blah, Blah.). I took a break during middle school and high school, (Ok, there were a few games of Twilight 2000 and Shadowrun) then I joined the Army. My first two years were devoid of oddly shaped dice and the even odder shaped people who tend to roll them. However, as a carless dire barracks rat, I was reintroduced into the hobby and realized how much I missed it. Who knew spending long nights battling the horrors of the elder gods could be so fun?

As soon as we had a good gaming group established I was reassigned to serve overseas in Germany. I had just gotten married and my first child was on the way. I only had room in my life for diaper bags, not dice bags! I would have completely forgotten about gaming goodness if it hadn’t been for a deployment to the Balkans. While we were there, they gave out free copies of the Magic: The Gathering starter set. Some of my buddies got into it, but I decided to be a voyeur. As I watched these “collectable card gamers,” I realized how much I missed the hobby. Sadly I would not roll dice again until my tour in Germany was finished and I was attending a military school in Arizona.

Right outside of the front gate of the post in Sierra Vista was a FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store). I found myself stopping in there more and more often just to look around; I guess the owner sensed my deep seated desire to embrace my repressed geek-self, and he invited me to join him and a few other guys in a game called Tribe 8. This was when I realized that I had a life-long love of RPGs. Our group met on Saturday nights, and while my military friends were touring southern Arizona, I was huddled around an old card table in the back of a game shop rolling dice and saving an alternate world.

Emboldened by my new RPG revelation, I started watching for “Gamer signs” from my classmates. Within a few days I heard one of my classmates quoting Monty Python, and I know he was a candidate. Being that I was a recent born-again gamer, I held off for a few more days before I dropped a few gaming references in our conversations to test the waters. It turns out that not only was he a gamer but we were both headed to the same follow-on assignment. The gaming gods had smiled upon me once more!

The next two years followed the usual gaming patterns. A new edition of D&D released, some games were amazing, others not so much. People joined and left the group; the couple that was in the group fought in game and out of game and had make-up sex the same way (go figure). Then, as fate would have it, I received orders for my next assignment. The good news was that I was scheduled to return to Arizona for another school before my assignment to Florida.

The FLGS in Arizona was still there, and they welcomed me back with open arms, God bless gamers. The games were great and not only did it save me money but it made the time away from my wonderful wife and my two amazing girls go quite a bit quicker. Once again as the school came to a close I packed my bags and said my goodbyes. Are you seeing a pattern here? Little did I know, it would be almost six months before I would get to hear the magical tumbling of polyhedrons again.

So here I was, living blocks away from the southern-most point in America, enjoying the “real world” and longing for geeks to game with. For those who have never been to Key West Florida, it has almost everything a person could want. Beautiful beaches, beautiful people, wonderful food, and sunsets that are the stuff of legend. After I got my family settled in, I started exploring — and to my amazement, I found a hobby shop. The shop had a small assortment of RPG books and hosted Mage Knight tournaments on weekends. I had found the closest thing to a FLGS in Key West.

Over the next few months, I met a few people thru the store and they introduced me to a few others — and before you know it, I had a new gaming group. The store closed, and we thought all was lost until we started interacting with a gamer who worked at the local book store. Thus began what I like to call the “golden days” of my gaming life. D&D 3.5 had just released, we had a stable place to game, and a group that loved to game; sure, we had our share of people we wished wouldn’t have come back — and as always people came and went — but I had the chance to game twice a week if I choose to. Key West turned out to be my last assignment in the Army and I can honestly say that leaving Key West was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

Now, here I am almost seven years later, reflecting on my gaming life, my military life and how much they interacted. I would like to take this chance to thank the readers for following my- self indulgent trip down memory lane and promise that in my next installment I will discuss some of the issues with being a gamer in the military and how life has changed for gamers in the military. I would also ask that you take a few minutes to remember that we are a country at war and that while we throw dice there are brave men and women who throw grenades to protect our rights to be geeks!

About Cape Rust

Cape Rust is an international man of thespionage. Born and raised in San Antonio Texas, he joined the U.S. Army where he served 12 years six as a Military Policeman and six as an all source Military Intelligence Analyst. Being a fat, bald version of James Bond, his geek interests are wide (like his belly) and varied. His collection of gadgets (electronic and travel related) are only rivaled by the amount of pockets found on most items of clothing he wears.

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