The hobby of wargaming never ceases to surprise me. One of the most interesting aspects of the hobby are the people who enjoy it. I've discovered that doctors, attorneys, accountants, businessmen, artists, professors, engineers and computer specialists, just to name a few, all are advocates of this unique hobby. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting one such advocate whose name has almost become a household word. That person is former hostage Richard Queen. Queen is a serene man who has not let his recent harrowing experience as a hostage, or his being thrust into the limelight, alter his charming and natural personality. Best of all he is a wargamer, who keeps his hobby in its proper perspective. Richard Queen graciously consented to this interview even though he was under the pressures of a very hectic schedule of TV appearances and other interviews. THE COURIER and I would like to extend our thanks to Queen for taking the time to support our hobby! I would also like to extend a special thank you to Mr. Glenn Kidd, President of Ral Partha Miniatures, Inc.; to Mr. Chris Wagner, President of S.P.I.- and to Mike and Danny Kilbert of the Compleat Strategist. These people very generously supplied a great deal of games and miniature figures to replace those confiscated from Queen during his ordeal in Teheran. They took the time to recognize a fellow hobbyist and say thank you. Just as they constantly strive to support the hobby, I hope wargamers will continue to support their yery reputable companies. The Courier Where are you from, Richard? Mr. Queen Washington, D.C., I live here now and was actually born in the Washington area. But my parents moved when I was two to New York, state, actually Westchester and I grew up there. I went to Edgemont High School which is across the railway tracks from Scarsdale and then to Scarboro on the Hudson, near Ossining, beautiful country up there. While I was a hostage in Teheran, my parents moved to Maine, and now I list my residence as Maine. The Courier What are Your hobbies, you're likes, dislikes? Mr. Queen MY hobbies? I like to play wargames, although since I've been back I haven't had time. I have played a few and I have painted a few model soldiers and of course they're all sitting in Teheran now, I didn't have too many, but they were Napoleonics, I had the Austrian army. The Courier How did you first become interested in gaming? Mr. Queen Oh, way back, way, way, back, when there was just Avalon Hill and I had the early Gettysburg and Tactics II and I put little numbers on the bottom, of the counters, that goes way back when. I was about thirteen or fourteen. The Courier How did you get interested in miniatures? Mr. Queen I started fairlY recently, I used to make models but miniatures I started doing when I was at the University of Michigan. I went to Hamilton College, I graduated there in 1973 with a Bachelor's Degree in History and then I worked for a Year at SPI as a shipping clerk and then I went to the University of Michigan and graduated from a Doctoral program in history and I got a Masters, I was working on a Doctorate in Modern European History when the Foreign Service called and said "You've been accepted", I passed the exams, so l started my Foreign Service training in October of 1978. The Courier What did you do for them? Mr. Queen Well, my first post was Teheran, I was there three, three and a half months. I was a Third Secretary Vice Counsul, Counsul of Operations and I interviewed Iranians. I had . . . well we had before we left, while we were in Washington, we were given 24 weeks of Farsi training, Persian, so I could speak it and understand it, . . so I interviewed Iranians on tourist related matters, that was my job. The Courier Getting back to the hobby, Richard, what part of it interested you the most? Mr. Queen I just enjoy playing the games and collecting the figures. I also collect stamps, the prices are getting astronomical but it's a nice way of keeping up with inflation. I find gaming a very enjoyable pastime. it's usually relaxing every so often. I'm not one that plays for blood. Sometimes when you're losing, you get angry, so I take it as a game the way it should be taken. There are some people unfortunately who take it as more than a game. The Courier How did the other staff members view your interest in the hobby? Mr. Queen They didn't know what to make of it either. I did play a game based on the ring trilogy with Dan Cook. Then a friend of mine from Washington sent me THE CREATURE THAT ATE SHEBOYGAN (by SPI) and I played it with my roomate, Joe Hall, quite a few times. It was sort of a code word after I was released. The guards didn't tell anybody that I was released, Joe and I had already worked out a code, in case one of us were released, and I was referred to as "that person from Sheboygan", in his wife's letters and he referred back. So the other hostages knew I had been released. The Courier Why did you bring these games with you? Mr. Queen Because they were very enjoyable and in Teheran we were pretty much tied to the Embassy compound itself. There was shooting at night and we didn't like going out too often. First of all there was no place to go -- we would go to a restaurant and that'd be it or maYbe some small parties at other Embassies. There was no alcohol, it was very difficult to come by, although our embassy had a lot left over before the takeover. So there was a lot of time. you were pretty well cooped up there and the 27 acres of the embassy compound was pretty much where the activities were, you had to make the best of what you had. We had a lot of spare time, I played tennis and softball during the day and at night we'd play some of the games, there was a lot of time on our hands with not much to do. The Courier Did you feel wargaming helped you during this crisis? Mr. Queen Yes, yes, it was a way of passing the time. I read a lot - I set myself a course schedule but there was a time when I wanted to down the books awhile and I'd fool around with THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES that I had set up, it was a permanent fixture in the room. Though I only got past 1863 once or twice, I would win periodically and start all over again. During the firing squad incident, the Iranians tore the room apart and the game and counters were all over the place. The next time they tore up the room, they didn't mess up the game, they avoided it! In any case gaming passed the time and that was the real problem - boredom, it was a way of beating boredom. It was just something I liked to do and there was certainly a lot of time on my hands. The Courier Did you feel very differently playing there than when you played here? Mr. Queen When I became involved in gaming, I was concentrating on the games which was very important because I wasn't dwelling on my situation. Sometimes they would look over my shoulder, watching what I was doing, I felt a little uneasy about that. In the beginning when they let us have games but they wouldn't let us have any dice. The reason they gave was "it's un-Islamic". The actual reason goes back to when they had originally given us a Monopoly game, this was in February or January. Four people would play - that was the most they would allow, no, three people, and we couldn't communicate, we weren't allowed to talk at this time, so we would kind of flash the cards. They became very suspicious and they said "you can't play this anymore, you can't use dice, its un-Islamic," so they took the game away. Later, I asked them for my dice- I really didn't want to ask them, but the reason was so I could play solitaire- I got them back. Evidently you can be un-Islamic if solo! The Courier When did you start playing the games? Mr. Queen Well, fairly early on, if I could get a game. The students ransacked most of the apartments but mine was a little out of the way, about two blocks, the other apartments that were right next to the compound were torn apart. I asked a couple of times for my games and at first they said no, but then I met this one person, he was the best one there, the most considerate and was soft-spoken. I think all who were in contact with him would aBree that he was the best one there He said "Okay, I'll see what I can do" and I brought him a list of several games and I remember thinking "probably nothing will ever come of it." I also asked for my pipes, so one day I was walking by going to my room, (I shared a small room with Joe Hall) and I noticed a couple of pipes and my game - I couldn't believe it. It was fantastic! The soft-spoken guard had just left them there by the guard and asked if I could have them. I got WAR BETWEEN THE STATES and a few others. The Courier Did they feed and clothe you adequately while you were there? Mr. Queen For me while I was there, food was not a problem. Once the others were moved, food did become a problem. Clothing was hard to come by and after a while I did get a few things from my apartment. They came by with shirts they had taken from the commissary store. Every day I washed my clothes in the sink in the hall. The Courier Did they give you blankets? Mr. Queen Yeah, they did give us blankets. The Courier Did they allow you to bathe? Mr. Queen Irregularly. In the beginning it was quite irregular. Later on it was about every three days. The Courier Did gaming heighten or lessen the realities of the situation? Mr. Queen I was just absorbed in the game while I was playing it, so it was a way of regrouping myself. The Courier Did you ever use the word WARgaming when you were explaining your hobby? Mr. Queen No! No I did not. I got close to it early on. For one thing, I couldn't figure out how to say it in Farsi. I knew how to say war and I knew the word for gaming but I wasn't quite sure how those two together would sound to them, so I described it as a game about the American Civil War, and finally I just descibed it as a complicated game of chess. I always said that it took place over a hundred years ago, so they wouldn't be suspicious about that. The Courier When they saw that you had the ability to keep yourself occupied, did they ever take your gaming materials away? Mr. Queen No. The Courier Did they ever think you were planning some strategy against them? Mr. Queen Oh I don't know, they were suspicious of about just everything. The Courier While you were concentrating on gaming did you feel less susceptible to the harassments they were imposing on you? Mr. Queen Yes, I would just be concentrating. It wasn't as though they were just out there shouting at you all the time, just by absorbing myself in the game, I was concentrating on trying to formulate a strategy I wrote some rules for it and I wrote an article on the best strategy to employ but then I figured, my God, I was going to try to mail THAT out! So I said to myself "forget it". The Courier Do you feel a little less defensive about your hobby since this experience? Mr. Queen I don't really feel that defensive. I don't go around announcing I'm a wargamer but, it's something that I do in my spare time I like to play with friends but it's not an end-all to life, it's a hobby. It's something for my leisure time and I enjoy it. The Courier How did you feel when the embassy was being sieged? Mr. Queen My feelings? Excited, somewhat scared, angry. I was more excited than anything else. The Courier Thank you Richard, for granting THE COURIER this interview in spite of your busy schedule. Mr. Queen My pleasure! Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. 2 #5 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1981 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com