RMPBS News
A U.S. Army veteran’s relationship with wargaming
2/14/2025 | 2m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
A disabled war veteran-turned wargaming educator sees the light in replaying history on a tabletop
After 26 years in the U.S. Army, Ed Rossman turned to his love of historical wargaming – board games inspired by real military events – to share the history, heroism and tragedy of war.
RMPBS News is a local public television program presented by RMPBS
RMPBS News
A U.S. Army veteran’s relationship with wargaming
2/14/2025 | 2m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
After 26 years in the U.S. Army, Ed Rossman turned to his love of historical wargaming – board games inspired by real military events – to share the history, heroism and tragedy of war.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[piano music] Oh yea, flamethrowers are really good in They're nasty just like they were in WWII.
I'm gonna go ahead and put some Americans out there.
War is the worst thing man ever invented.
And I pray to God that my children and my grandchildren never have to see the things that I had to see.
But that's not what the game is These were real people.
This is real history.
And I really want to cover and make people understand what these soldiers had to face in that battle.
Here's their commander, which is a replica of Lee Marvins character in “The Dirty Dozen.” Wargaming, I've been doing it for over 40 y From a young kid, I loved military history And that's what it looked like.
It looked like therse grand batt that you would see in a, in a war movie.
And I was like, “Whoa, this is... this is everything I That's what attracted me to the I did 26 years in the military.
I was looking at making sergeant but I got hurt in Iraq, so I had to retire.
And now I make the armies, and I show people how to paint and show them how to play.
When I put on historical battles I really try to get it right as possible because most of the time, they don't know anything about the history of the battle.
he needs fours to hit him.
The game that were playing is Bolt Action, which is a WWII game.
when I'm teaching the game, I use that opportunity to teach a lot of the historic aspects, and the sacrifices that those me in the battle.
The light machine gun is within 36 inches.
Every once in a while, somebody will come up and ask me, you know, “Isn't this glorifying war?” We're not glorifying the war par We're not glorifying what that nation may have been representing.
We're just trying to understand the history.
Some of those soldiers on several sides, were made to fight.
And they had families.
So when you're learning these different armies, and you're learning their histor you learn how they trained, and where they came from, and there is a human side.
So I think it's very important to understand that part too, because war is not a good thing.
[piano music]
RMPBS News is a local public television program presented by RMPBS