From Stealth Bombers to Slaying Dragons: A Milestone Conversation with James R. Hannibal

Having reached 100 episodes on this journey of “faith and folly,” and for this landmark installment of the Struggling for Purpose, I sat down with a man whose life story reads like a high-octane thriller: James R. Hannibal.

James isn’t just an author; he’s a former A-10 Warthog and B-2 Spirit stealth pilot, a synesthete, and the man tasked with carrying forward the legacy of one of the most unique Christian discipleship tools ever created: Dragon Raid.

The Evolution of a Legacy: From Dragon Raid to Light RaidersIn the 1980s, Dick Wolf created Dragon Raid, a tabletop role-playing game (RPG) designed to teach scripture memory and Christian character. For James, a pastor’s kid growing up in Colorado Springs, the game was a formative experience. Decades later, when James sought out the game for his own children, he ended up connecting with Dick Wolf himself.

Before his passing, Wolf asked James to expand the world. This birthed the Light Raider Academy novels and a completely redesigned gaming system.

“We wanted to change the sci-fi fantasy mashup and make it pure fantasy,” James explains. “We spent months creating cultures and the world before even writing. We took the map on the back of the original box and ‘zoomed in,’ fleshing out the towns and the people.”The result is a streamlined, elegant mechanic that turns role-playing into a deep discipleship experience. By playing characters with specific “virtue ratings,” players learn to navigate moral dilemmas using scripture—all within a low-threat, imaginative environment.

Seeing Sound and Flying Stealth: Life with SynesthesiaOne of the most fascinating segments of the interview touched on James’s synesthesia—a neurological condition where the senses intersect. For James, a flash of light might trigger a “clack” sound, or an engine noise might manifest as a “brown fog” that physically presses in on him.

Surprisingly, this helped him in the cockpit. While he had to “learn to deal” with sensory overload, his color graphemia (associating numbers and concepts with colors) made him an elite forward air controller. He could track multiple fighters, airspaces, and weapon loads with a mental organization that others struggled to match.

The “Write What You Know” Phase and the Leap to FaithAfter a 10-year career in the Air Force—including time on the think tank for the B-21 Raider—James transitioned to writing. He started with military techno-thrillers like Wraith, but eventually found himself at a crossroads.

While wri