Traveling Overwatch

I remember the day Jack Morrison died. It was the day the world lost a hero.

Like other members of the so-called "Overwatch Generation, " I spent my childhood looking up to Morrison. He taught me that heroes were real. He made me believe that even I could be one. When he died under mysterious circumstances six years ago, I felt as if a part of my childhood died with him.

The details about his death have always remained few and far between, a strange fact, given that he was such a public figure. Maybe that's why after all this time, I find myself looking back at Morrison's life and asking the big question: what really happened to the man who defined my generation?

Traveling through rural Indiana, I find it easy to forget that a monumental figure like Jack Morrison came from such a tranquil, time-lost place. A sea of green and gold cornstalks stretches from horizon to horizon. There is no wind, no sound save the buzz of a few lonely insects. On the rare occasions when I cross paths with other living souls, they describe young Morrison in different ways. He was a rambunctious youth. A humble, salt-of-the-earth farmer's son. But these people all agree on one thing: Morrison was never destined to live out his days in the land of rolling plains and deep blue skies.

At eighteen, Morrison packed his bags and joined the military. He had planned to serve a brief stint in the armed forces and then return home to the family farm, but his work ethic and courage caught the eye of the military brass. Before long, he earned a coveted position in the government's controversial and still-classified (but widely acknowledged) "soldier enhancement program." Military scientists shaped Morrison and other inductees into the perfect soldiers, blessed with superhuman speed, strength, and agility.

Morrison and his fellow augmented soldiers would soon put their abilities to use with the advent of the Omnic Crisis. Across the globe, the omniums went rogue and churned out legions of militarized robots. The world reeled at the appearance of this new enemy. The omniums and their robot populations had originally been built to bolster manufacturing and create economic equality worldwide. Now, these marvels of modern science sought to overthrow the human race, posing one of the greatest threats to the survival of our species since the Cold War of the 20th century.

"Even I had my doubts about whether Overwatch would succeed, but Morrison never gave up hope. He didn't just meet our expectations for what Overwatch and its agents could achieve; he shattered them."