My husband is retired military. They don’t see this as a game. That is for starters. They see it as a very serious matter when errors cost people their lives. As to the best army in the world, here is a hint, all militaries do that. It’s part of psyching up your force. However, people who serve in units who train along side other units, let’s say NATO, know better.

But we are also gamers. We have hosted games at a game store when that guy shows up. They are sometimes military, but most of the time not. I know this may be a surprise to you. That guy has been the center of discussion for the industry since at least the 80s. They are a problem, not just from a PR perspective.

One more color detail, which matches Texeira, when they are military, they tend to serve in units as far from an actual line unit as you can get. In the military they are also seen as loud mouths, and there is an acronym that describes these types very well, but keeping this family friendly. I suspect you have no idea of the difference, line is a combat unit, the others are support. But yup, the loud mouth is inversely proportional to how far they find themselves from an actual front line, or potential front line.

Remember the DND scare? You know when kids were accused of reenacting for real whatever they were doing around the table rolling dice? It repeated with Vampire the Masquerade. How about Columbine? Those two were also gamers, but they were fixed on guns and the rest before games. The industry dodge a bullet, metaphorically speaking, with that one.

This guy had a few red flags that should have ringed bells for the background people. He carried a thick volume of guns to high school. That is like a huge flag. But it’s a classic of the gun bunny. He wore an AR 15 TShirt a day after a mass shooting. He had racist and antisemitic views that made his class mates nervous. That had nothing to do with the AF, though the AF should likely said no. But some in the family worked at the same base.

However, the armed forces, for multiple reasons are having issues making recruitment quotas, whether active or guard component. That will be part of the investigation, whether he was given an exception. And if he was, let’s just say his recruiter is likely answering a few questions right about now.