0182 - For the Duration

I am a fan of the game since its first publishing. I am a Cold War kid, born in 1968 and growing up near a Strategic Air Command base, nuclear-armed B-52s flying overhead were a fact of life growing up. Son of a WWII veteran, I, like my brothers, joined the military and served in Europe at the tail end of the Warsaw Pact time and into the early 90s.

I have lived in Europe for over 30 years, traveling a lot of it and meeting many of its people and I am more concerned than I have ever been. The main reason is probably the fact that I have gotten older. I have a wife, a family, and a life that I have built up painstakingly over the last 30 years. The bravado of youth has passed and I realize that this is all too real. My oldest is of military age and I realize this may not be my war but his.

What breaks my heart is that I know that there are literally millions of parents like me in the same situation. We can talk the talk all we want but in reality, many lives will be cut short. That is the bottom line.

I love the game but the reality of the current situation means that I would have to be a ghoul to continue playing while the world deals with a war in Europe after 70 years of peace. People are dying every day and there is currently no end in sight.

I will suspend my game until sometime after the war has ended but I do not know when that will be. To the young soldiers out there fighting in a war that they did not start and to the millions of civilians caught in the crossfire, may you be kept safe and the end of the war come sooner rather than later.