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The Nomination E-mail
“I am addicted to Xbox Live and especially to Rainbow Six 3. I fought in Iraq, so I don’t take video game ‘wars’ too seriously, since I have done it for real—something I must remind my competitors of constantly when they complain about their stats. I am also a dual major in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Buffalo. Number fifty ought to be memorable; I will be.”
USMC BEANS
50th Gamer Spotlight:
USMC BEANS
USMC BEANS and his prizes.
Here he is: The 50th Gamer Spotlight, USMC BEANS. He’s also known as Sgt. Adam Bienas from Lockport, New York. Adam won a limited-edition TriXie Xbox Live™controller and a T-shirt signed by TriXie, Major Nelson, and Xbox® Vice President J Allard.
TriXie: I had hundreds of amazing gamers send in nominations for themselves or their friends. Some were meticulously detailed, some were funny, and a few were just weird. The vast majority of them had correct spelling—thanks! You all had great stories and great reasons I should choose you. Check out some of the standouts. Unfortunately, in the end, I could only pick one. I chose USMC BEANS because he’s a longtime gamer, he’s addicted to Xbox Live, he’s smart as a whip, and he’s done some amazing things. I spent about 90 minutes on the phone with him, and he’s a real good guy. I know you’ll agree that he was a great choice for the 50th Gamer Spotlight.
TriXie: So tell me how you ended up in Iraq. Were you an active duty Marine?
USMC BEANS: No, I was in the reserves. I went to boot camp at Paris Island, then Camp Lejeune for Marine Combat Training, and then Fort Knox for tank school. I was actually on a drill weekend when we were activated. We spent two weeks at Camp Lejeune getting integrated with the rest of 2nd Tank Battalion before we left for Kuwait.
TriXie: Honestly, when you found out you were going, did you freak out?
USMC BEANS: No, we were like, “Hell yeah, bring it on.” It was the chance to finally prove what we were worth.
TriXie: How long were you in Kuwait?
USMC BEANS: We were there from February 1st until March 20th. President Bush issued the 48-hour ultimatum on March 18th. We woke up at two in the morning and moved to a staging area 20 miles from the border.
TriXie: Was it scary?
USMC BEANS: When the Iraqis were shooting rockets at us it was kinda surreal. It was nerve-wracking because you didn’t know if there were chemical weapons in there. But we were more angry than scared. When you’re there, you’re not thinking about politics, you’re thinking about yourself and your friends … and someone’s trying to hurt your friends. The first time we took machine gun fire it was weird. It was just bouncing off the tank. How stupid, a machine gun isn’t going to do anything to a tank.
TriXie: What did you do on the tank?
USMC BEANS: I was a gunner. I fired the big cannon. Actually, the controls for the original Star Wars arcade game are identical to the controls for the turret.
TriXie: I wonder if they planned it that way? So tell me about what you wrote on your tank … I LOVE this picture!
Sgt. Adam “Beans” Bienas, LCpl Gamez, and SSgt Woodley.
USMC BEANS: I was in Iraq and my girlfriend sent me a copy of OXM. I saw the MechAssault™ ad with the Mech just stomping on everything, so we decided to write ‘Gave peace a chance’ on the tank. We did it with chalk and it took forever to fill in the letters.
TriXie: What’d you do after you left Kuwait?
USMC BEANS: We crossed the border into Basra and we did a hammer and anvil thing with the 1st Tank Battalion out of California. We were blocking them, and the 1st Battalion was driving the Iraqis towards us, so we could pinch the Iraqis between us.
TriXie: So you were the anvil. Then what?
USMC BEANS: We were in sporadic firefights, we took Baghdad University and some air defense bases. We were just down the street when they pulled down the statue of Saddam. Then we detached and headed north into Samawah.
TriXie: Did you have much contact with Iraqi civilians?
USMC BEANS: We saw civilians all the time. We were expecting them to resent us, but they’d come out and cheer us on, blowing us kisses and saying ‘God bless the U.S.’ We gave them food and candy. They are very educated people over there. Almost every Iraqi spoke some English and some spoke it very well.
TriXie: When did you come home?
USMC BEANS: We came back to Camp Lejeune on June 1st.
TriXie: Was it weird adjusting to your ‘real life’?
USMC BEANS: Over there you have the adrenaline pumping from the time you wake up until you pass out 20 hours later. It’s a combination of fear and excitement. It’s hard to come down off of that.
TriXie: So you work and go to school?
USMC BEANS: Yeah, I’m doing a double major in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Buffalo, and I work in a lab doing research and development for steel companies.
TriXie: What are you going to do when you’re done with school?
USMC BEANS: I’d like to work for the Defense Department designing fighter planes or new weapons or tanks. I’d love to work for a company called Ideo in Palo Alto. They’re really laid back.
TriXie: What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
USMC BEANS: A stock boy in a grocery store in the slums of Lockport.
TriXie: How long have you been on XboxLive?
USMC BEANS: Since launch day. I also got my Xbox® on launch day. I remember I had just taken a thermodynamics exam and I went with a friend to Best Buy. It was an impulse buy. A lady was telling the guy to get an Xbox out of the back room for her and I said, “Yeah, get me one too.”
