Hello there ladies & gentleman and welcome back to another issue of The GUN Insider. This time around we have a special issue, mainly one that ties in with our current Military Event. So for this event I thought it would be interesting to know more about one of our Army Veteran's namely @Hoppyhead


1. Tell us about yourself outside of gaming and the armed forces. Who is hoppyhead?

Well I am a husband and a father of a ten year old daughter.
I moved all around the world with my Dad and Mom and Brother because my Dad was a Marine and we moved a lot whenever he was stationed to a different place or country.
Our family is originally from Louisiana but currently I moved my family to Florida.
I started working retail after leaving the armed forces, currently I am a manager at PetSmart.
I am a cat person, I adopted 2 kittens who I named after Game of Thrones characters a male who I named Ramsay and a female who I named Khaleesi. I was wild when I was younger, but since getting married and having a daughter I have calmed way down and instead of going out and getting into trouble I enjoy gaming at home for fun.
I am a fan of Horror movies and a big fan of Zombies. I love all things Zombie! Big Walking Dead fan, but I also like fantasy like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.
I Grew up reading comic books so anything with Super Heroes I like. I wanted to be a Comic book writer when I was in 4th grade, and my user name Hoppyhead is actually the name of a character I created for one of my comics I used to write. He was a guy who had a Happy Face for a head because he got in a accident and didn't have insurance so the doctor performed cheap plastic surgery on his messed up face and just gave him a Happy Face. So, he went from calling himself Ha P. Head to Hoppy Head. But that was the mind of a 4th grader for you LOL. I use the user name out of nostalgia.
I was actually a Trekkie when I was a kid. I had actually joined a Star Trek fan club and been to a Star Trek convention. But I also am a big fan of Star Wars as well. So, I guess you can say that I am into a little bit of everything!
My taste of music is also a wide range since I grew up in the 80's my music spans from 80's music to Alternative, Rock, Metal, and Insane Clown Posse/Twiztid. I used to go to a Metal club in New Orleans called Zeppelins when I was younger and lived in Louisiana, I remember one day I was in the mosh pit in front of the stage. I got hit so hard by this one guy I actually got hit onto the stage and hit the singers microphone stand. I had the reflex to actually catch the microphone stand with one hand while I was trying to get back up. The singer was so impressed he gave me a free cd!

2. How did you get involved with gaming?

Well I was born in 1979 so my first console was the Atari 2600. My dad got it and I loved playing Pit Fall and there was a Spider Man game that I liked to play. Also, I played the ported Original Mario Bros game on the Atari. That was my first experience with console games. I also used to go to Arcades and play games there was a game in the Mall called CarnEvil it was a shooter game I loved that game because you were in a Haunted Carnival and had to shoot monsters and stuff. But I also played Computer games on my dad’s Apple computer. I played games like Leisure Suit Larry, Monkey Island, Loom, Doom, Wolfenstein, Zack McCraken and the Alien Mind Benders. I was a big fan of The Sims! I loved The Sims.
On a 80's computer I remember playing a word adventure game before they had graphics. It was like that game on Fallout that you can play at the Hubris Comics The Reign of Grelok. I remember playing this game and don't remember the title but I always remember I was playing it typing commands and a Pirate pops up to rob my character. I attempt to fight the Pirate so as not to be robbed but this was the funny part which is why I remember it. I type fight Pirate and the computer reads back What Pirate? I type stab Pirate and again the computer Reads What Pirate? I start yelling at the computer the Pirate robbing me!!!    

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork

My 2nd Console was the Nintendo Entertainment System. I remember I used to come home from school and after homework I would play Nintendo for hours. I skipped the Nintendo 64, although I had friends and cousins who had one so I did play games on it but never owned one. I then got a PlayStation and that is the system that got me into Silent Hill after playing the first Silent Hill on the PlayStation. I fell in love with that series. Once I got a PlayStation 2 my love of Survival Horror that started from the PlayStation 1 Silent Hill really took off as most of my PlayStation 2 games are Survival Horror games. I got a Xbox and then a Xbox 360. I remember getting the 360 because it was around the Holidays and I could not find one in stock anywhere. My wife was with me and we drove from one place to another looking. I had to drive a hour to Baton Rouge and they had a Halo Edition Xbox 360 that was green like Master Chiefs armor. It was more expensive than a regular 360 but after driving for hours I was like screw it give it to me. It lasted a good while until it died from the dreaded red ring of death. I was so pissed about that, I was able to replace it much easier than first getting one. I skipped the PlayStation 3 but currently I just got a PlayStation 4. You can say I have been around for the evolution of gaming.

3. What are your favorite games?

My favorite games are the Fallout series of course, Silent Hill series, Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, Dead Rising Series, Star Wars Knights of The old Republic 1 and 2, Grand Theft Auto, The Force Unleashed 1 and 2. The Last of Us, Tell Tales The Walking Dead seasons 1 - 3. Batman The Arkham Series
I am really into Survival Horror Games but I also like The Sims and other simulation games. I like Crusader Kings 2 and there is a Political Simulation game I really enjoy called Geo Political Simulator 4 Power and Revolution. So mainly I do survival horror and political simulation. I am not a big fan of first person shooter.

4. Tell us a little about the armed forces in your country and your decision to join them.

I was in the Louisiana Army National Guard. I was a part of Det. 1 Company B 205th Engineer Battalion. My MOS (Which is what we call our job classification) Was 62 Echo Heavy Equipment operator. We were the ones who built things. Need a trench built? You call us to dig, need a road made? We were the ones to call. My squad was the Earth movers, we specialized with moving dirt and such. I drove dump trucks, bull dozers, back hoes, anything big that moved dirt.
I joined in 2000 because I was dealing with a nasty case of depression from a bunch of bad relationships. I was working construction at the time building scaffolds and fire proofing chemical plants. I was working on the night shift and a lot of stuff was going through my mind about how unhappy I was and how things sucked at the time. Just broke up with the girl I was dating, I really thought about just driving head on into a tree to kill myself some times.
My dad was a Marine and I thought hey why not join the military and get away from it all for a while? First I thought about joining the Marines since I grew up around Marines most my life and my dad was one. But that didn't happen I set up a time to fill out paper work at the recruiter’s office, but I was late getting there because I was visiting with a friend girl of mine. The recruiter I guess was pissed because I was late and wouldn't help me with any of the paper work or questions I had he just pretty much ignored me. So I got mad and walked out. Went over to the Army guys and was going to join them but when I told my dad what I was up to he said one of my cousins was a recruiter for the Army National Guard and I should talk to him. So I did and signed up with my cousin.
Needless to say once I got to Boot Camp my Depression was cured and I was now focused on completing my training and graduating. Going through Boot Camp is 90% Mental and 10% Physical. You need to have a strong will to endure the training. The learning to shoot and combat stuff is not that hard. It's the mental stuff that causes people to break. My mother always told me I was hard headed and stubborn, and that helped get me through training.
I was focused on getting through this and graduating to get back to my unit and my family. Once you get through Boot Camp you go to your job and it is much easier after that. Because it is like a job you work your hours and then go home. Unless of course in a war situation then you do what, you were trained for. Boot Camp is called Basic Training, because you learn the basics of combat and defense. Unless you join the infantry, then combat is your second job. After Basic Training, you go to AIT which is the school you learn your job skills. Once I graduated Basic I learned how to drive Heavy machines. So yeah, I was cured of depression and finished my training.    
I was in from 2000 to 2006. In October 2001 after 9/11 I was activated with the Army National Guard to do guard duty in Baton Rouge in the power plants there. I was tasked to patrol and guard the plant and the levee's outside the plant for any terrorist or criminal activities. I did on foot patrols as well as drove a Humvee.
I was deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom from 2003 to 2004. We were tasked at building a Airport runway in Kandahar and building improvements to the base like roads, drainage for when it rains. We had the occasional RPG's shot at us in the base. I always jokingly said I wished they would shoot at us during the day so we could get out of work for a few hours instead of them shooting at us at night when we were trying to sleep and still had to get up in the morning.
In 2005 I was deployed to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. We handed out food and water, cleared debris from roads, provided security, and worked on filling giant sand bags with bobcat's and air lifting them to fill holes in the levee.
When people ask me what was worse Afghanistan or New Orleans after Katrina they are always surprised when I say New Orleans was worse.
At least in Afghanistan you know you can't go home, but in New Orleans I was only a hour away from my home. A lot of us had to worry how our families were doing during the storm or if we had houses to go back home to. Not to mention the looters and rioters we had to deal with were our own citizens of our country. And funny story but I am not scared easily, I mean not hardly at all. The whole time in Afghanistan when I could have been killed I was not scared at all from the 20hr flight there to the year I spent there, to the RPG's being shot at the base while we tried to sleep, not scared one day. But this one time during Katrina I was scared for my life. Myself and a fellow soldier from my unit was sent to guard a truck filled with Ice and water that was parked by a jail. It was meant to go to a retirement home for the old folks who were stuck there. The power was out and it was hot. People didn't have food or water. It was like the Walking Dead minus the Zombies to put it in perspective. So, some genius sent me and another guy out to watch this truck. Didn't give us our rifle or any way to defend ourselves if something went wrong. Just go there and keep a eye on the truck. So a sheriff is about to leave and he decides to open the truck and grab himself some water before leaving, well of course the people on the street see this and once the sheriff drives off leaving us defenseless the people start to gather and the crowed gets bigger and bigger. It starts looking like walking dead with zombies at this point because the people want the ice and water and they are looking at me and my partner. I get scared at this point. I tell my partner I am not stopping anyone from breaking in that truck, they can have that water and I am not doing anything to prevent them from getting it. We get on the radio and call base to let them know what is going on. They radio the police to come back. A sheriff pulls up and grabs a riot shot gun out of his trunk. The base radios the parish president and they send a car from the old folks home to drive up and load up what they can fit in their car and take back, then we were told to hand out the rest of what was left to the crowed. Once I got back to base I was pissed, I told them I'm never going out with out a way to defend myself again!  
Once my contract was up I decided to get out. I had met my wife and we decided to get married and once I was out of the military we decided to have a child.

5. What was it like being in the armed forces as a gamer? Did you ever have a chance to take a load off and play?

Most times yes you have time off to play games. It's normally like having a regular job, you do your hours and then when you get off you do what ever you want. You can play games, or what ever. We had a few guys who brought their gaming consoles with them and we took turns playing games. In Afghanistan there was a designated place to hang out, they had gaming and a place to dance. So us gamers were able to get our gaming on. One of my buddies brought his PlayStation 2 to Belize when we went there to build a gym for the Belize Defense Force. He had a Dragon Ball Z game we played a lot. As a gamer in the armed forces I can say there are a lot of gamers in the Military.

6. As a veteran, how do you relate to military based games? Are there any that you find very realistic or very misleading?

Well a lot of people think since I was in the military I would love first person shooting games like Call of Duty, but the truth is personally I don't like those games. I always tell them I did it in real life and don't need to play it in a game. But on the flip side having been in the Military I always seem to relate more to a military character and more gravitate to the military side. I used to play a MMORPG game called Urban Dead which is a Zombie game where you must survive in a quarantined city, I chose the military class. In Fallout New Vegas I relate more to the NCR guys. I can say those call of duty shooter games are misleading in the fact that if you join the military expecting top of the line futuristic gear to go out fighting with you will be sadly mistaken. Unless you are a Special Forces, Seal Team 6 type unit you are not getting anything but BDU's a M16 and a Kevlar Helmet with a vest to wear that you can still be shot through if they hit you from the side. You will not be the guy from the video game. This might put things to perspective. If you ever watched the first Iron Man movie, the scene with Tony Stark riding in the Humvee with the army guy listening to music on his portable CD player? That is very true to how things are. I did the same thing in Afghanistan we all had our radios with us to play CD's on. And the only thing that we had to hopefully not die if we ran over a land mine? Sand Bags on the floor of our Humvees. Only the black ops teams get the best equipment because we can't afford to supply everyone in the military with grade A tech. And unless you go into the special forces training which only the best of the best top people actually pass the hard core training, you will just be a regular infantry man. Not a lot of guys pass the training for special forces.  

7. What was the biggest thing you learned joining the armed forces that may have been different from what you were lead to believe from games growing up?

That the military is not how it seems on games unless you play Fallout New Vegas and look at the NCR.
But really when you play most military games you are shooting and fighting. It's either Vietnam Era fighting, Call Of Duty Modern Warfare, World War 2, or in the future with some big conflict. Not many people realize that unless you join the infantry or there is a lot of fighting going on like the conflicts in the Middle East you are not going to be like in a game. I joined the engineer MOS because I wanted to take something away from my experience with the military I could possibly use in the civilian world. My brother joined the Army and became a mortar man in the infantry, he can't use that in the civilian world since he got out. Also just to point out in the real world Ammo runs out you get 30 rounds to a magazine, you don't have a infinite supply. You can have extra magazines but unlike it most games the more gear you carry the heavier it gets. Most rucksacks weigh 80lbs(36.29Kg) or more with all the gear you need. Add what ever amount of Magazines they give you (I think I got maybe 3 Magazines so 90 rounds average) After that you are out of ammo. And then there are the real world consequences of death. As a player of video games you don't have a connection to the NPC's who get killed in the video games or the people you are killing. But people lost their lives in Afghanistan, thank god none of my unit lost their lives but other people did American's and allies from other countries. A guy from my unit went out on a convoy with some Romanian allies of ours. He was the only American to go with them, they were ambushed by the Taliban. Their convoy came under fire and was stopped. There is a training procedure we had to learn called a 9-line med-evac. If you were under attack and had to call base for support you used this procedure. 3 Romanians lost their lives in that ambush. They guy from my unit called in the 9 lines while the Romanians popped smoke to signal their location while the enemy fired on them. The base sent Apache Helicopters to wipe out the enemy attacking them. The guy from my unit said when the Apache Helicopters came it rained bullets from the sky and all the enemy was wiped out. For the part, he played in calling for air support he got a medal from the Romanian government.  It is a hard-hitting emotional tragedy that does not register on a game. Because games are meant to be entertaining and fun. I thank God I never had to take someone’s life during the time I was in the military, but not everyone can say that. That is the biggest difference from real world and the game world.
But then there is the down time when you are not having a exciting adventure, like when I did guard duty. You are by yourself some times and hours drag by and it is boring. You are trying not to fall asleep on duty, can you imagine that being in a game?  

8. There is a lot of controversy in the area of parenting with regard to violent games. From your perspective as a gamer and a veteran, how do you think violent games affects young gamers?

I don't believe violent video games affects kids at all. I grew up playing the first Mortal Kombat and played Man Hunt 1 and 2. I played GTA 3 and Vice City as a kid. I watched violent Horror Movies and listened to Slipknot and ICP and Twiztid. I grew up fine, I am a Manager in retail and not off murdering people.
I play games with my daughter. We play Left 4 dead 1 and 2 together a lot, and I let her play Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
What I do believe is it is how you raise your children that affects them as adults. You should teach them morals, teach them the difference between reality and fantasy. Entertainment and the Real world. Teach them that actions have consequences. She knows if she would kill someone in real life she would go to prison, that harming someone is not a good thing and she should only defend herself not cause harm to anyone. You have to teach your kids and give them love and attention. Give them affection and make sure they know right from wrong. Games are just that games. People have been killing each other for centuries, nations been waging war since the dawn of time. A video game has nothing to do with violence that people have not been capable of since the dawn of man.

9. Did your time in the military affect your ability to suspend disbelief at all while gaming? For example, is it hard to equip a character with heavy weaponry or hot clothes and not think about it while playing?

LOL oh yeah this is true. It is really hard not to think about it. I know how heavy gear feels and how it would not be possible for a character to be running around like the hundreds of pounds he is carrying is like a feather. Not to mention how hot his uniform would be.
In the military, we have summer and winter BDU's and even wearing the summer BDU's in the desert it is 300 degrees and sweat is pouring off you. I remember landing in Kandahar and we are in formation and the sweat running down my leg. I'm thinking damn it is hot! I can relate to the NCR guys saying it almost makes you wish for a Nuclear Winter.    

10. Is there anything else you'd like to share or tell your fellow GUNners?

Well for one it is a honor to do one of your famous Interviews! Thank you for considering me :happyrun:
I enjoy being a part of this GUNner family, even when work is hectic (Not easy to be a manager) I still try to make some time to drop in and see what is going on in the forum. I have so much love and gratitude to our super awesome Modder’s Thank you guys and girls for what you do! You are what keeps Fallout so replayable with the different stories, worlds, and items.  Thanks for having this forum and to those who run it
And to whoever reads this interview from start to finish thank you for learning a little bit about me and my time in the service. I wish everyone the beat and have fun gaming!


Well there you have it folks another example of, how many unique people we have here in our beloved community. I would like to thank: @Hoppyhead for the doing the interview with me, @dragbody for helping me out with the questions and  @keatit71 for the spell checking once again. Hope you guys enjoyed the interview and hope you stay tuned for the next issue of The GUN Insider.

I have never been interviewed by anyone before so it was a fun and new experience! I want to thank William Lionheart and dragbody as well as keatit71 for all their work in putting the interview together.
I hope everyone who takes time to read it enjoys learning a little bit about me. And I know I look forward to the next issue of The Gun Insider!
Happy Gaming everyone!

@William Lionheart
@Hoppyhead

That was a good interview and some interesting insights. Sometimes you can't get Veterans to open up about what they went through in the Military. It's hard for civilians to relate or understand. It's very eye opening though, especially the part about Hurricane Katrina. At the end of the day, they just want to go home to their families like everybody else.

Thank you for your service Hoppyhead, one question I didn't see asked and would like to add. Did you feel you made a difference over there?

Very insteresting to see this interview with somebody I have seen around but not knew so well , very cool to learn more about all those militaristic aspects of gaming.

Congrats on the interview, nice to see our site is caring for our troops.

@hoppyhead Thanks for taking the time to give us the perspective of someone in the armed forces

I hope others enjoy reading this interview as much as I did.

I find it very interesting that the NCR in NV has some similarity to real life on the job.

@Hoppyhead An absolutely great read mate, and what a wise and humble gentleman

This read is a serious eye opener for goings on in the military world, thanks a lot for sharing man - I appreciate it

Hey behind the avatar with the head of rabbit .... there is a military ?!
It is through interviews that we learn the details.

Really interesting, it reads quickly and is never long enough.

Thanks for the work @William Lionheart.

@Hoppyhead Thank you for your time and confidences, it is always a pleasure to learn to know the members.

Ps: Very judicious the choice to take a specialty, transposable in a civilian profession.

Evmeister wrote:

@William Lionheart
@Hoppyhead

That was a good interview and some interesting insights. Sometimes you can't get Veterans to open up about what they went through in the Military. It's hard for civilians to relate or understand. It's very eye opening though, especially the part about Hurricane Katrina. At the end of the day, they just want to go home to their families like everybody else.

Thank you for your service Hoppyhead, one question I didn't see asked and would like to add. Did you feel you made a difference over there?

Personally I feel that we did. One main goal is to win over the peoples hearts and minds, let them know we are with them. I befriended a young Afghani kid probably around the age of 13 or so when I was at the quarry to get the rocks we were using to make roads with. I gave him some fruit from the mess hall and even gave him a pair of my shades. He seemed to really appreciate it because from that time on every time I pulled up in my dump truck to get another load he would pop up to say hi. So I feel I made a difference in that boys life on how we were perceived. I often treated any local I worked with with kindness. Giving them water or fruit just to show them some kindness in their life. Some locals we were working with wanted to learn to read English, and communicate better. One man pointed to his foot and handed me some paper and a pen so I could write the English word for foot down. When I did he wrote next to it in his language what it was. Small things like that to me make a big difference, so short answer yes, I believe so.

Very interesting interview. Lot's of respect for people in the military, thanks for taking the time to talk about yourself @Hoppyhead

This was a really interesting read. Truly gives you a unique perspective on the games we all play.

Thanks @Hoppyhead @William Lionheart for giving such a great interview. Both of you should be very proud.