The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/12/2008
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.
 Hyosub Shin/AJC | |||
| Inside the Virtual Army Experience at Six Flags Over Georgia, subject matter expert Carlos Rivera explains the technology to (second from left) Josi Solin, Joan Adebowale and Tiffany Cadogan. | |||
 Hyosub Shin/AJC | |||
| Young participants in the Virtual Army Experience fire from a replica Humvee at targets in a simulated urban battlefield. Six Flags Over Georgia is hosting the Virtual Army Experience, which is sponsored by the U.S. Army. | |||
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MOST POPULARStrapping 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.
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Comments
By The Sexinator
Apr 27, 2008 7:07 AM | Link to this
This is the best idea ever. I hope they have a nightmare omde with enemies that respawn if you don't gib them!
By Peter
Apr 21, 2008 5:01 AM | Link to this
READERS WRITE
For the Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/21/08
Six Flags war game
Responses to "At Six Flags, the war is a virtual reality experience," Metro, April 12
This recruitment tool is repugnant
Six Flags, in conjunction with the U.S. Army, has a new attraction this year, a virtual reality war game to entertain kids, complete with traveling "Real Heroes" depicted in a short film. Action figures are available. As a parting gift, kids are handed CD versions of the game.
A description of the game states the "bad guys" fall bloodlessly and disappear when killed. The idea of a family theme park exploiting war as entertainment with the secondary aim of aiding recruitment is repugnant. Did no one at Six Flags question the morality of this "attraction"? It isn't just in poor taste or horrific. It's despicable. I can't fathom an appropriate adjective to describe soliciting children to be real-world IED fodder by presenting this kind of virtual unreality.
ELLEN WILSON
Bowdon
So we're reduced to brainwashing kids?
The article indicates a pitiable state of affairs in our country. With so many opposed to the Iraq war and polls still showing the war is vastly unpopular, the military has stooped to inventing a theme park "attraction" to imprint youth with a military mind-set. No doubt the goal is future recruitment, since enlistment in the armed forces is down.
But how real is the Virtual Army Experience played out at Six Flags? Does it show the blood and gore of ambushes and car bombings in Iraq? Do they have any flag-draped coffins on display in this theme park "amusement"? Is Six Flags paying the tab, or are taxpayer dollars funding this shameless ploy to brainwash impressionable youth?
CAROL CONEY
Atlanta
By janet
Apr 18, 2008 3:14 PM | Link to this
You have to really love Chris's comments. If he supports the war and the troops then why does he have time to write a response. He shoudl be on the next plane to the land of no weapons of mass destruction. I will personally give him a ride to the Army recruiters office. Just name the date and time. Your use of such derogatory comments only reconfirms my original observations that the Southern mentality equates manhood and its size with the guns they tote.But here's a newsflash for you- they are inversely proportional.
By Peter
Apr 17, 2008 5:17 AM | Link to this
Chris,
As a four year active duty veteran I support the troops not the mission.
The exposure to Depleted Uranium always seems to get overlooked (like Agent Orange of my generation). I'm advocating a war crimes tribunal for the Bush/Cheney cabal.
By Chris
Apr 17, 2008 4:00 AM | Link to this
Suck my balls you freaking faggots! These soldiers are keeping you safe. So shut your traps you ungrateful wastes of space.
By Peter
Apr 16, 2008 5:20 PM | Link to this
I'd suggest HBO "Alive Day" and Frontline "Bush's War" for reality checks.
By Teri DiCicco
Apr 16, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this
I'm surprised these kids didn't exit the tent wearing brown shirts.
War is a game for sure--a neocon game for power and profit. There ought to be a "Scared Straight" counterpart that depicts the true horrors of war and it's irreversible consequence. Perhaps Phil Donohue's "Body of War" will fit that need. Let's hope it gets some coverage.
By Peter
Apr 16, 2008 5:01 AM | Link to this
The article is a public service announcement. PARENTS BEWARE!
My boys won't be going to Six Flags.
If we can get enough kids to volunteer for military service the government will not have to re-institute the selective service (DRAFT).
By janet
Apr 15, 2008 10:52 PM | Link to this
Why does this surprise or horrify me? It shouldn't. We have a state legislature that has approved concealed weapons just about everywhere in Georgia. All while many states are limiting the use of personal guns. For the Southern mentality, the connection between manhood and guns is part of their chromosome pool. It surely has replaced one of the other chromosomes : the one for sensitivity and respect for fellow human beings. The South may be "new" but the message is still the same. That is why the Army has chosen Georgia as a stop on their "hit" parade. But real men don't need guns
only the mentality of the South hasn't evolved to that advanced state of logic.
By Just A Grunt
Apr 15, 2008 10:55 AM | Link to this
In reading the few comments here I am supposed to believe that our youth have never watched the news, picked up a newspaper or magazine or surfed the web. I mean how else can they be called unsuspecting, or somehow unaware that the military is involved in the ultimate battle for the survival of western civilization. They surely know the deadly consequences of our actions in the GWOT since the media can't wait to trumpet the next grim milestone in the headlines.
Yup, you are right. 5 years into a war and none of our teenagers have a clue what it is all about.
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