By I have to wonder what this woman thought the Army was all about:
The Army Experience Center, located in the Franklin Mills Mall just north of Philadelphia, bills itself as a “state-of-the-art educational facility that uses interactive simulations and online learning programs to educate visitors about the many careers, training and educational opportunities available in the Army.”
Nonsense. The only thing they’re teaching here is how to blow shit up. If it’s state-of-the-art anything, it’s state-of-the-art adolescent boys’ wet dreams.
“Too slow! Do it again!” yells the voice in my earphones as a new sequence of armed figures in camouflage pop up in front of me. I — the player — am attached to the foreshortened barrel of an M-16 — and a little embarrassed by that. It’s not my thing, really. And I wasn’t expecting the game to involve having to tolerate some dickhead’s personal opinion about my marksmanship.
But I didn’t come here to get yelled at or to play games. I came because I was curious about the Army’s latest marketing strategy. For $12 million, this place has been dressed to kill: 15,000 square feet (about three basketball courts) done up in brushed steel, glass and low-light glam. But what this place is really about is the bling: strings of networked Xbox 360 pods and individual gaming stations. And the crown jewels: a UH-60 Black Hawk, an AH-64 Apache and a Humvee. Simulators. And it’s all entirely free.
“Potential recruits are afforded a unique opportunity to learn what it means to be the best-led, best-trained and best-equipped Army in the world by allowing them to virtually experience multiple aspects of the Army,” says Pete Geren, Secretary of the Army.
Sir, give me a break, sir! You mean the “Career Navigators,” those fancy touch-screen installations where you can see all the different jobs the Army can train you for? No one went near them all day. Most of these kids can’t reach them, anyway. It’s the shiny toys and virtual adrenaline rush that brings them in. [Penny Coleman - Alter.net]
For those that don’t know, the primary purpose of the Army is to fight and win wars which (gasp!) requires soldiers to shoot people and electronic simulators are being used more and more to train soldiers with. Did she think the Army should put out simulators that allow potential recruits to experience sweeping the motorpool or conducting POSH training for millionth time? Of course the recruiters are going to put out the various combat simulators for potential recruits to try out.
If this writer doesn’t like using this Army technology for recruiting, I can only imagine what she would think of the ROK Marines sending prospects through real military training? Or US soldiers allowing high school students to to experience real military equipment? The fact of the matter is that these kids see more violence on their TVs and Playstations then on these Army simulators.
I am willing to bet that if the Army did not meet its recruiting mission people like this writer, Penny Coleman would be the first people to jump on that news to bash the Army with, but when the Army does something to attract potential recruits to meet their recruiting mission she is quick to bash it.
11:31 pm on December 23rd, 2008 1
I play a lot of Red Orchestra:Ostfront and Mare Nostrum online, and it has actually improved my marksmanship and close-quarters combat skills, not to mention long-range vehicle identification.
12:36 pm on December 24th, 2008 2
With the Clintons back in the seat of power, we might as well get used to this type of crap.
9:46 pm on December 24th, 2008 3
My objection against this is the Army putting an arcade facade on a recruiting station in a mall. This trivializes the whole Army thing. Exposing potential recruits to actual Army equipment is one thing. Recruiters have been laying out static displays for their recruits for a hundred years. The CALFX that Fort Knox used to run for West Pointers was always open to the public. But equating the Army experience with a video game is a bunch of crap. By all means, it is OK to put recruiters in malls and schools where kids can have free access to them. My problem is with the "Hey, check out this XBox. This is what the Army is all about."
11:35 pm on December 24th, 2008 4
It's all about salesmanship. Any salesman is going to play up the positive or "fun" elements of his product, while completely ignoring the negative aspects.
Yes, it might be shady, but it makes sense from the Army standpoint of getting more recruits, because the old recruiting methods just don't work anymore.
If Obama draws down the military instead of sending more into Afghanistan like the British and Soviets did, then we'll have less need for such recruiting ploys or moral waivers.
11:32 pm on December 25th, 2008 5
The problem I have with Army recruiting is they pump all this sunshine up recruit's asses and when Joe finds out what the Army's really like, he becomes a disgruntled pain in the ass. Some guys know that the recruiters are feeding them B.S., but the ones that think it's just like playing Call of Duty have a rude awakeing coming.
12:06 am on December 26th, 2008 6
The problem I have with
Army recruitingWest Point and ROTC is they pump all this sunshine uprecruit’scadets' asses and whenJoeLT finds out what the Army’s really like, he becomes a disgruntled pain in the ass.12:36 am on December 26th, 2008 7
I don't know of any recruit that thought the Army would be like Call of Duty.
What many new guys are surprised about is having to do POSH, EO, CO2, New Horizons Day, etc. training for the millionth time. Or sweeping the motorpool, pulling gate guard and CQ, etc.
Now that isn't in Call of Duty or the recruiting station but a necessary part of being in the Army.
3:38 am on December 26th, 2008 8
Laugh all you want.
There is only a thin line of teenage boys between us and the zombie/alien/terrorist invasion.
Actually, I went to the The Army Experience Center. It sucked. In the back, they have the Real World Simulators. I tried one.
As I was moving my avatar down the hallway getting ready for a deployment to guard a chow hall in Iraq, the barracks ho came out of a room all drunk and accused me of raappe. I kept hitting the Deny Button but I wound up playing much of the rest of the game walking between a bunk and a stainless steel tooiilet in a tiny little room. I think I got carpel tunnel syndrome pressing the Break Rocks button until my in-game age was 42.
Despite my felony conviction, my jailhouse tattoos and my in-game weight of 275 pounds, I was able to restart the level due to a wavier and was reclassed as an MP where I spent the rest of the game getting points for chasing curfew violators and ignoring human trafficking.