At Six Flags, The War Is A Virtual Reality Experience

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.