A Proper Sendoff for a Hero (August 25, 2011)

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Origin veteran Sheri Graner Ray has written a great blog entry about some of her experiences at Origin... including a great story about a GI Joe involved in the making of Wing Commander:
"My first office at Origin was a "fishbowl." It was on the second floor in an interior office with big windows into the hall. My desk was pushed up against one of those windows so it was a bit like sitting in the hallway. (Coincidentally the office directly across from me had a window into the hall too... and was occupied by Steve Beeman!) On about the third or fourth day at my new job, I heard the sound of Kazoos. Then down the hall came a HUGE bunch of helium balloons (obscuring the person carryingi them) and a parade of people all playing Taps on their kazoos. Of course I had to join the parade and see what in the world was up. We made our way through the building to the smokers' porch. There the person with the balloons stood up and gave a speech commemorating the valient work of G.I. Joe and his contribution (as the rotoscope subject) to the Wing Commander project. They went on to talk about how they were now sending him on to his next assignment. And sure enough there was a GI Joe tied to the bunch of balloons. He had a note tied to him, telling whoever found him to report his location back to Origin and we'd send them a copy of Wing Commander. Then with applause and laughter the balloons were released and GI Joe was lifted high in to the sky. And.. actually about six weeks later we did get a call. He'd been found in an oil field outside of Houston Texas!"

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Original update published on August 25, 2011
 
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I wonder who it was that found our Hero. Would be fun if it was someone of the ative WC community.

BTW: You know what was my first thought? A guy from Texas named 'Ben' called that he found the figure and this started a lifelong dedication to the game. Now THAT would have been a story...
 
Heh--yeah that'd have been great. I'm not from Texas, though! I went to college there, but I'm from Maryland (on the east coast, right outside Washington DC).. and when I first played Wing Commander in 1990 I was living in France!
 
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