Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
April 12, 2008 By John Kessler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The teenagers crowding Six Flags Over Georgia during this week's spring break have an alternative to the endless lines for the Georgia Scorcher: a virtual combat zone set up by the U.S. Army to thrill these kids, entertain them and maybe even recruit them.
The Virtual Army Experience--a noisy world of genocidal killers, Humvees and improvised explosive devices--looms under a tent at the edge of the park. The show, which launched at the Daytona 500 in early 2007, travels the country and already has had 60,000 visitors.
Strapping Army officers in battle fatigues greet the youths, take down their contact information and give them official-looking tags to wear on lanyards around their necks.
Next, the teens enter the tent for a welcome blast of air conditioning and a taste of things to come. They first assemble by a bank of XBox 360 consoles and learn to play "America's Army True Soldier"--a first-person shooter that costs $50 and handles just like the popular Halo series.
"This is awesome!" says Harrison Bentley, 14, who was visiting Six Flags with students from A. Crawford Mosley High School in Lynn Haven, Fla. "I was going to buy a Mario game, but now I'm totally going to get this one."
Next, the couple of dozen kids herd into a briefing room and break into combat units--Charlie, Delta and so forth--indicated by squares on a carpet.
"Listen up, soldiers!" shouts Josh Hernandez, a Green Beret with a shaven head, square jaw and T-shirt that defines every muscle rippling beneath it. "Your mission is to deliver supplies to a humanitarian aid force inside hostile territory. But a genocidal indigenous force will try to stop you!
"Now who here knows what an IED is? Anyone?" continues Hernandez. One hand tentatively goes up.
Hernandez leads the youths onto a gaming floor with six full-size Humvees and two overwatch stations, each positioned in front of a panoramic bank of floor-to-ceiling video screens. The participants were issued replicas of M-4 carbine assault rifles with pneumatic recoil so they feel like real guns when fired.
The Humvees, though stationary, seem to approach in convoys through a cartoonlike projection of dusty streets and cruddy storefronts. One store has a fading billboard of a man holding up a bottle of soda pop. "Taste!" it reads.
The bad guys emerge from the building. Bam! The teenage sharpshooters kill them with lasers.
A bag of garbage on the side of the road? An IED? Pow! followed by a flash of light.
When the bad guys die, they fall bloodlessly and disappear. They keep coming--standing atop silos, pouring from buildings.
The scream of a female voice rises above the cacophony. This is not a game effect but a young girl manning the turret gunner in one of the Humvees. The lights of the IED simulation startles her. Hers is the only scream.
Eventually the animation leads across a bridge to a place that looks like a bombed-out hospital where healers attend the sick.
"Mission Accomplished" read all the monitors. Game over.
Hernandez then brings the teens together to watch a video about Sgt. Jason Mike, a Silver Star recipient who provided medical services and cover fire for his unit after it was ambushed on patrol south of Baghdad.
As a special surprise, Mike, himself--one of eight "Real Heroes" traveling with the show--runs out from behind a door to address the group. He tells them the ambush was like the game, but it took 45 minutes and it was, well, real. But now he has his own action figure that the kids can buy.
So, does anyone want to join the Army?
"I'm somewhat interested," says Sam Marlow, 17. "It looks like such an adrenaline rush while you're there, and then there's the teamwork. It seems kind of cool."
Bentley also said the Virtual Army Experience gave him a good impression of combat. "After seeing this, I really do think I could join the Army one year. I think I'd be good at it. But I'm good at astronomy, too, and that seems a little safer."
If he wants to practice before making that decision, the Army has a parting gift: a CD with a version of the game to play on his computer.
April 12, 2008 By John Kessler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The teenagers crowding Six Flags Over Georgia during this week's spring break have an alternative to the endless lines for the Georgia Scorcher: a virtual combat zone set up by the U.S. Army to thrill these kids, entertain them and maybe even recruit them.
The Virtual Army Experience--a noisy world of genocidal killers, Humvees and improvised explosive devices--looms under a tent at the edge of the park. The show, which launched at the Daytona 500 in early 2007, travels the country and already has had 60,000 visitors.
Strapping Army officers in battle fatigues greet the youths, take down their contact information and give them official-looking tags to wear on lanyards around their necks.
Next, the teens enter the tent for a welcome blast of air conditioning and a taste of things to come. They first assemble by a bank of XBox 360 consoles and learn to play "America's Army True Soldier"--a first-person shooter that costs $50 and handles just like the popular Halo series.
"This is awesome!" says Harrison Bentley, 14, who was visiting Six Flags with students from A. Crawford Mosley High School in Lynn Haven, Fla. "I was going to buy a Mario game, but now I'm totally going to get this one."
Next, the couple of dozen kids herd into a briefing room and break into combat units--Charlie, Delta and so forth--indicated by squares on a carpet.
"Listen up, soldiers!" shouts Josh Hernandez, a Green Beret with a shaven head, square jaw and T-shirt that defines every muscle rippling beneath it. "Your mission is to deliver supplies to a humanitarian aid force inside hostile territory. But a genocidal indigenous force will try to stop you!
"Now who here knows what an IED is? Anyone?" continues Hernandez. One hand tentatively goes up.
Hernandez leads the youths onto a gaming floor with six full-size Humvees and two overwatch stations, each positioned in front of a panoramic bank of floor-to-ceiling video screens. The participants were issued replicas of M-4 carbine assault rifles with pneumatic recoil so they feel like real guns when fired.
The Humvees, though stationary, seem to approach in convoys through a cartoonlike projection of dusty streets and cruddy storefronts. One store has a fading billboard of a man holding up a bottle of soda pop. "Taste!" it reads.
The bad guys emerge from the building. Bam! The teenage sharpshooters kill them with lasers.
A bag of garbage on the side of the road? An IED? Pow! followed by a flash of light.
When the bad guys die, they fall bloodlessly and disappear. They keep coming--standing atop silos, pouring from buildings.
The scream of a female voice rises above the cacophony. This is not a game effect but a young girl manning the turret gunner in one of the Humvees. The lights of the IED simulation startles her. Hers is the only scream.
Eventually the animation leads across a bridge to a place that looks like a bombed-out hospital where healers attend the sick.
"Mission Accomplished" read all the monitors. Game over.
Hernandez then brings the teens together to watch a video about Sgt. Jason Mike, a Silver Star recipient who provided medical services and cover fire for his unit after it was ambushed on patrol south of Baghdad.
As a special surprise, Mike, himself--one of eight "Real Heroes" traveling with the show--runs out from behind a door to address the group. He tells them the ambush was like the game, but it took 45 minutes and it was, well, real. But now he has his own action figure that the kids can buy.
So, does anyone want to join the Army?
"I'm somewhat interested," says Sam Marlow, 17. "It looks like such an adrenaline rush while you're there, and then there's the teamwork. It seems kind of cool."
Bentley also said the Virtual Army Experience gave him a good impression of combat. "After seeing this, I really do think I could join the Army one year. I think I'd be good at it. But I'm good at astronomy, too, and that seems a little safer."
If he wants to practice before making that decision, the Army has a parting gift: a CD with a version of the game to play on his computer.