Truth in Recruitment Project
From Milwaukee VFP:
From elsewhere- Army Experience Center Bows to Protest
- "America's Army" is a video game developed in part by the US Army to lure potential recruits.
Hans joins Army
by Frank Pauc
In our hallway we have a black and white photo of my father-in-law, Max Hanke. The picture shows Max as a young man. He is wearing a military uniform. In Max's case it is the uniform of an enlisted man in the Luftwaffe during World War II. My wife and I have a son, Hans, who is presently about the same age as Mas was when this photo was taken so many years ago. Hans bears a strong resemblance to grandfather. They are similar in many ways.
When I was eighteen I went to West Point. My father had served for a while in a Navy during the early 1950's and he encouraged me to join the military. I graduated in 1980 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. I went to flight school and I flew helicopters for five years in the Army. I was stationed in Germany, and there I met and married my wife, Karin. I spent many evenings with Karin's family, talking in German with her father and her uncle’s. As time went on, they told me stories about their youth. I heard a lot about their lives during the Second World War.
Max had been drafted into the German military when he turned eighteen in 1938. He went into Poland during the invasion of that country. He was stationed in Italy for a while and then he wound up on the Russian front, like most of the other German soldiers. He ended up back in Germany with half of his lung shot out. He never went home. He had no idea where his family members were for months. Karin's Uncle Kurt was kept in a French prisoner of war camp until 1948. Her Uncle Friedolin was a German anti-aircraft gunner who only by sheer luck escaped being caught up in the firebombing of Dresden. Karin's Aunt Aga fled with her parents from Silesia (now part of Poland) just before the arrival of the Soviet troops. All these people suffered tremendously, and they all rebuilt their shattered lives.
The time I spent with Karin's family made me question the morality of my chosen profession. Everybody I had met had at one time been our country's enemy. But every one of them was a kind and compassionate person. It made me wonder why we were trying so hard to kill good people. It made me understand that every person, whether our enemy at the time or not, is a human being, just like me. In 1986 I resigned from the Army. I was beginning my journey toward pacifism. In 1987 Hans was born.
Time went by, and our children started growing up. 9/11 happened and then the invasion of Afghanistan. In 2003 our country invaded Iraq. As these events unfolded, I became motivated to speak out against the wars. I was (and still am) active in working to end the wars. Admittedly, I have not been as dedicated and passionate about it as many other people have been, but I tried to do what I could. I was very determined that our children would not have participate in these wars. When Hans turned eighteen, I went with him to the Quaker Meeting House in Milwaukee to learn how he could become a conscientious objector if the draft started up again. I worked with Hans on building a paper trail to show that he was a pacifist.
Hans went to MATC to study carpentry. He decided that he didn't want to continue in school. He decided instead to move down to Texas, where we have family, and try to make it on his own down there. Hans struggled for a couple years to make ends meet. He couldn't find work in construction, and he wound up in a minimum wage job in the mailroom of a newspaper. The economy took a hit and his job became less than secure.
In October of last year Hans called my wife and told her that he joined the Army. It would be a gross understatement to say that we were surprised by his announcement. “Shock and awe " would better describe it. It took a while for it to sink in, and it took a number of long distance phone calls to understand why he had made this decision. Eventually, it started to make sense.
The truth is that Hans' reasons for joining the Army are no different than my reasons for joining thirty-some years ago, and my reasons for joining are really no different than the ones my father had for joining the Navy in the prior generation. Primarily it was an economic decision. Hans is tired of being poor. He is tired of being in a dead-end job. He wants to have things like a new pick up truck, or a house in the backwoods somewhere. He has dreams, and he needs money to bring those dreams to fruition.
It would over-simplistic to say that the decision our son made, like the decisions of many other young people, is solely motivate by economics. There is more to it. Hans wants to have an adventure. I understand that. A young man should have an adventure. A young woman should probably have one too. Part of youth involves risk-taking and participating in activities that are somewhat dangerous. Those of us who are older tend to play it safe, and we forget what a joy it was to do things that straddled the fine line between courageous and stupid. There is also an idealism in the young that often fades as time goes on. There is a desire to serve a higher purpose, even if that purpose is morally ambivalent.
My feelings about all that has happened are decidedly mixed. I admire Hans for making a commitment; it was a gutsy move. It was especially bold considering he knew that I would be deadset against it. I am sad because I had hoped so much to end this cycle in our family. I had hoped for my generation to be the last that felt the need to wear a uniform. I really had thought that I had driven stake through the heart of this nonsense. I fear for Hans, mostly for the condition of his soul. He has a gentle spirit; I would him to keep that.
Hans starts basic training on February 8th. He came to visit us last week. He brought a sticker for our car. It says “Proud Parent of a Soldier ". I put it on the car near the sticker that says “War is not the Answer ". Both statements are true.
If you know of someone thinking of joining the military ask them to consider other options and ways they can serve their country, community and loved ones. There are organizations such as Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and VietNam Veterans Against the War whose members can speak from personal experience as to what the military really offers. There are resources and people that they should talk with first. Get different perspectives other than the military recruiter, get the truth. A good place to start is www.nnomy.org
Army scales back Summerfest exhibit after last summer’s protests
By Bill Christofferson
Mon, 05/11/2009 http://www.uppitywis.org
The controversial “Virtual Army Experience” exhibit that
was shut down at Milwaukee’s Summerfest last year after protests
from peace activists and others will not be back this year. Instead,
there will be a “typical Army exhibit,” an Army spokesperson
said, with a dog tag machine, a Humvee and an Army dragster. She was
not forthcoming with details. But there will be nothing like last summer’s
exhibit, which included allowing 13-year-olds to fire machine guns from
a Humvee at realistic human targets on video screens.
That drew complaints from Veterans for Peace, Peace Action
and others in the community.
The Army responded to concerns from Summerfest by removing
the Humvee and replacing the Virtual Army Experience with an exhibit
using stationary targets. Talk radio went nuts, and Summerfest Executive
Director Don Smiley beat a retreat after the festival was over, saying
that the decision to close the exhibit had been a mistake, and if the
Army came back this year with the Virtual Army Experience he would allow
it, if not welcome it. At the same time he promised a “full review” of
the issue.
In January, when I met with Smiley to discuss the issue,
he clearly had not changed his mind and defended the Army’s exhibit
as well as the presence of military recruiters on the Summerfest grounds.
Peace groups believe the grounds should be free of recruiters, and that
recruiting at a music festival is inappropriate. Smiley says Summerfest
needs the money that the military recruiters -- all branches have exhibits
of some type --pay to be on the grounds, and that they are no different
from commercial displays who pay to be there. He refused to say how
much the military pays -- with our tax dollars -- citing confidentiality
clauses in contracts with sponsors and vendors. The decision not to
bring the Virtual Army Experience to Milwaukee again is clearly the
Army’s decision, not Summerfest’s.
But the result is positive in any case.
Collecting personal information from children as young
as 13 was an issue last year. The Army says it will not collect information
from anyone under 16 this year, and that recruiters will only talk about
Army enlistment to people 16 and older, “per the law.”
The Virtual Army Experience drew protests in other cities
last summer, including the Cleveland Air Show, and the Army has announced
it is not returning to Cleveland, either. The Army’s Virtual Army
Experience website does not list a schedule of events for 2009, but
it is not clear whether that means the Army has scrapped the exhibit
altogether or simply does not want to alert activists in advance when
it is coming to town.
ARMY EXPERIENCE CENTER BOWS TO PROTEST
by John Grant
The $12 million marketing experiment in brand-selling the US Army to
Philadelphia youth and adults at the Franklin Mills Mall was forced
to shut down for the afternoon on Saturday, May 2nd. Over two hundred
protesters -- many from Washington DC, New York and other out of town
locations -- expressed their outrage at tax dollars being spent to seduce
teenagers to join the Army with violent video games and human-target
shooting simulators.
Protesters gathered at Saint Luke's United Church Of
Christ a mile south of the Franklin Mills Mall on Knights Road in Northeast
Philadelphia. There were speeches by Gold Star mother Sue Niederer and
others, plus the reading of an eloquent Criminal Complaint directed
at both the Army Experience Center and the Simon Property Group, the
owner of the Mall that rents space to the Army next to the mini Las
Vegas game emporium Dave & Busters. The Army Experience Center features
dozens of video stations available to young teenagers to play a host
of violent video games like "America's Army," which comes
in various versions, all designed around a mission that involves simulated
first-person shooting with an automatic weapon directed at human targets.
Members of Philadelphia VFP Chapter 31 were joined by
VFP members from the Long Island chapter, in the photo below in front
of Dave & Busters. VFP members Phil Reiss and Louise Legun from
Lehigh Valley were there, as was Ann Wright and VFP Board Members ElliotT
Adams and Patrick McCann. VFP member Bill Perry was there with his Delaware
Valley Veterans For America group. At least two IVAW members were part
of the march.
After a spirited march to the mall that went past 13-year-old
Michael Gilbert advertising a beer distributor, Philadelphia Police,
led by Civil Affairs Captain Bill Fisher, made no attempt to stop or
re-direct the protesters. All 200 marched into the Mall and collected
around the open area in front of the Army Experience Center. The Center
was closed due to the protest, and active-duty and civilian staff stood
in their nifty knit shirts at the opening to the Center looking very
glum and serious, many with the latest tactical earphones in their ears.
To their left, there was a phalanx of police lined up along the wall.
Outside the Mall entrance under the China Buddha Inn sign, there was
a line of police wagons waiting.
After several speakers pointed out how the Center exploits
vulnerable youth with high-tech video seduction techniques, Captain
Fisher gave a series of three warnings, and upon the third, everyone
moseyed out of the mall rather than be arrested. There was a report
of one arrest, and that will be clarified later. As usual, it was a
vastly asymmetrical confrontation -- to use a favored military term
-- and the forces of Militarism, Commerce and Police had the upper hand
all the time. Still, the action was successful and raised real questions
about the moral stature of the Army Experience Center and any future
plans on the military's part for other such Centers in malls around
the country.
The moral argument for the AEC can be reduced to this:
The military is convinced it is protecting the empire and, therefore,
it has the right to do whatever it decides to do with OUR tax dollars.
And, if you don't like it, well, you just better shut up 'cause if you
press too much The Man Gonna Get Ya. In this case, The Man was represented
by Captain Fisher and his Philly Civil Affairs cops, who did allow a
fair degree of citizen First Amendment free-speech rights to trump the
Mall's and the Center's claims on Property Rights. For example, at a
previous demonstration at the center, no photographs were allowed.
The Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills Mall
sees patriotism in stirring up the primal, hormonal emotions of our
vulnerable teenagers to recruit them to hunt down and kill other, equally
duped kids in far flung and strange cultures like Afghanistan. Now,
it is doing this recruiting in a dismal economic downturn. In the Pentagon
they know our colonial wars cannot be fought totally by the remotely "piloted" drones
armed with lethal rockets we are favoring more and more to attack those
we deem a threat to our power in the world. Drones are not enough, and
young kids are still needed to hump those rugged "boonies" in
Afghanistan to search and destroy armed elements of the Pashtun people
who just want our "foreign" military out of their lands.
What the military is doing at The Army Experience Center
is far beyond what is needed to protect America from terrorists. Places
like the Army Experience Center are where our youth are roped into an
imperial mission that they are dishonestly not being informed about.
The protest at the Army Experience Center was an effort
to express citizen outrage with our self-perpetuating militarized culture
that continues to pursue the demonization of others and the use of killing
and bombing to solve problems that could be addressed in less violent
ways. We seem unable to disengage from Iraq unless we can be assured
it will be 100% loyal to us. We act as if Islam is some new and sinister
force in Afghanistan and Pakistan, when the reality is it has been a
central factor of life there for centuries. In the future, we can not
afford to micro-manage and determine how people live in these places.
For example, Pakistan's prime problem is corruption and economic injustice,
not the rise of Islam.
The deeply entrenched Militarization of our country as
represented by The Army Experience Center shows how out-of-whack our
thinking has become in this culture. We're spending ourselves into fiscal
and moral bankruptcy. At this time of economic reckoning and change,
we need to re-evaluate our national priorities and make them more practical.
A good place to start is to realize, as the woman in my photo has attached
to the photo of the devastated family
Military Recruits Children: "America's Army" Video Game Violates
International Law
Wednesday 23 July 2008
by: Michael B. Reagan, truthout| Perspective
"America's Army" is a video game developed in part by the US Army to lure potential recruits.
In May of 2002, the United States Army invaded E3, the annual video game convention held in Los Angeles. At the city's Convention Center, young game enthusiasts mixed with camouflaged soldiers, Humvees and a small tank parked near the entrance. Thundering helicopter sound effects drew the curious to the Army's interactive display, where a giant video screen flashed the words "Empower yourself. Defend America ... You will be a soldier."(1)
The Army was unveiling its latest recruitment tool, the "America's Army" video game, free to download online or pick up at a recruiting station, and now available for purchase on the Xbox, PlayStation, cell phones and Gameboy game consoles. Since its release, the "game" has gone on to attain enormous popularity with over 30,000 players everyday, more than nine million registered users, and version 3.0 set for launch in September. "America's Army" simulates the Army experience, immersing players in basic training before they can go on to play specialized combat roles. Most of the gameplay takes place in cyberspace where virtual Mideast cities, hospitals and oil rigs serve as backdrops for players to obliterate each other. As a "first person shooter," the game allows players to "see what a soldier sees" in real combat situations - peek around corners, take fine aim, chose weapons that replicate those actually used by the US Army.
For the game's commercial developers, realism is one its strongest selling points. Console version programmers were shipped to military training facilities in Wyoming, where they ran boot camp obstacle courses, fired weapons at the shooting range and got whisked around on helicopters. Back at hip, safe San Francisco Bay Area game companies, Army weapons specialists worked with developers to ensure aim, fire, sound and reload functions for all of the game's weapons were as close to the real thing as possible. The Army also ensured that players learn real weapons skills such as breath control and the reload time for a M4 carbine. And in order to edge closer to the Army's goal of "realism" and "authenticity," several of the game's missions are based on actual combat experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even the training simulators and firing ranges are modeled on the real life versions at Ft. Benning, Ft. Lewis and Ft. Polk. In a 2005 press release, Ubisoft, the multimillion-dollar publisher of the console version of the game, wrote that "America's Army" is the "deepest and most realistic military game ever to hit consoles," hoping that it gave players a "realistic, action-packed, military experience."(2)
But behind the fun and games is an attempt, in the words of a military booklet on "America's Army," "to build a game for Army strategic communication in support of recruiting." The Army spent $6 million to develop the game at the Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation Institute (MOVES) before handing it over to private companies for adaptation to the console formats in 2004. As the name implies, the MOVES Institute is the military center for creating virtual training environments and simulators. A MOVES Institute booklet proclaims a later version of the game, "America's Army: Special Forces," was developed specifically to increase the number of Army Special Forces recruits. "The Department of Defense want[ed] to double the number of Special Forces Soldiers, so essential did they prove in Afghanistan and northern Iraq; consequently, orders ... trickled down the chain of command and found application in the current release of 'America's Army.'"(3)
Like so many aspects of contemporary military operations, the development of later versions of the game has been handed over to corporations for private profit. Some of the biggest game companies have worked on the console, arcade and cell phone versions of "America's Army." Ubisoft, the world's seventh largest video game company, is the game's exclusive producer and has recently publicized record profits for the first quarter of 2008. Ubisoft worked closely with San Francisco based Secret Level to develop the 2005 Xbox version. Global VR, in San Jose, California, is preparing the release of the arcade version, and Gameloft programmed a version available for download to cell phones. Getting in on the action are other more traditional military contractors, such as Digital Consulting Services (DSC), a multimillion-dollar military tech company based in Newbury Park, California. Among DCS's other projects are the Encore II Information Technology Solution for the innocuous sounding Global Information Grid, "an all encompassing communications project for the Department of Defense," worth $13 billion over five years. Or the Navy's Seaport-Enhanced - a $100 billion multicontract program to integrate Navy warfare operations. The Army worked closely with these and other companies to produce "America's Army," the first and only officially licensed Army game. It is this partnership and the close attention to technical detail that the Army and game companies claim gives "America's Army" its realistic quality. As Col. Casey Wardynski, director of the US Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA) and director of the game project proclaims, "America's Army" is "the most authentic console game about soldiering in the US Army."(4)
Yet, far from providing realism, "America's Army" offers a sanitized version of war to propagandize youth on the benefits of an Army career and prepare them for the battlefield. In the game, soldiers are not massacred in bloody fire typical of most video games, or for that matter, real combat. When hit, bullet wounds resemble puffs of red smoke, and players can take up to four hits before being killed. To further protect youth, concerned parents can turn on optional controls that sanitize the violence even more - shots produce no blood whatsoever and dead soldiers just sit down. This presentation of war contrasts to the much more grisly reality unfolding every day in Iraq and Afghanistan, like a June suicide attack on the Fallujah City Council in which three Marines, two interpreters and 20 Iraqis, including young children, were killed. Photos by American photojournalist Zoriah depict a horror scene in a small courtyard, dismembered body parts - ears, hands and pieces of skull - spot the ground; one Marine's head looks smeared into the pavement. Zoriah writes of the scene, "There are dying people strewn around like limp dolls along with lifeless bodies of all ages. People are screaming and crying and running as if they have something important to do, only they can't figure out what that important thing could possibly be ... people are literally frantic removing the dead, as if their pace may bring some of them back." It is this violent, realistic quality of combat that has been excised from the game.(5)
Another ploy in the Army's "realism" playbook is what the Army calls "America's Army's Real Heroes." On the "America's Army" web site, visitors can explore the stories of eight combat veterans who received silver or bronze stars, purple hearts, or other awards. Among them is Sgt. Tommy Rieman, an Iraq veteran who used his body to shield his gunner from incoming fire, miraculously surviving bullet wounds to the chest and shoulder. He was selected to be a "Real Hero" and media celebrity for Army recruitment not solely for his courage, but also because he survived his experience. Those who have made the "ultimate sacrifice" are unlikely to be chosen at all, like 22-year-old Specialist William L. McMillan, who was killed on July 8 when his vehicle was destroyed by a roadside bomb. Or 35-year-old Sgt. Steven Chevalier, of Flint, Michigan, father of two, who joined the Army after high school in 1991 because he couldn't find work in Flint. On July 9, in the midst of his third tour in Iraq, Sergeant Chevalier was destroyed by a grenade attack in Samarra. Other Army nonheroes include those who have taken the courageous step of refusing orders in an illegal and immoral war, like Lt. Erin Watada or members of 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment who refused patrol orders in Adhamiya, Iraq.
What the game's "realism" is attempting to do is to mask the violent reality of combat, and military experience in general, for very specific purposes. At a minimum, the Army hopes "America's Army" will act as "strategic communication" to expose "kids who are college bound and technologically savvy" to positive messaging about the Army. Phase one of the propaganda effort is to expose children to "Army values" and make service look as attractive as possible. The next phase is direct recruiting. According to Colonel Wardynski, who originally thought up selling the Army to children through video games, "a well executed game would put the Army within the immediate decision-making environment of young Americans. It would thereby increase the likelihood that these Americans would include Soldiering in their set of career alternatives." To make the connection between the game and recruitment explicit, the "America's Army" web site links directly to the Army's recruitment page. And gamers can explore a virtual recruitment center through the "America's Army Real Heroes" program. Local recruiters also use the game to draw in high school children for recruitment opportunities. Recruiters stage area tournaments with free pizza and sodas; winners receive Xbox game consoles, free copies of "America's Army" and iPods. Game centers are also set up at state fairs and public festivals with replica Humvees and .50 caliber machine guns, where children as young as 13 can test out the life-sized equipment.(6)
When players walk into Army sponsored tournaments, the government knows more about them then they may suppose. The game records players' data and statistics in a massive database called Andromeda, which records every move a player makes and links the information to their screen name. With this information tracking system, gameplay serves as a military aptitude tester, tracking overall kills, kills per hour, a player's virtual career path, and other statistics. According to Colonel Wardynski, players who play for a long time and do extremely well may "just get an e-mail seeing if [they'd] like any additional information on the Army." The "America's Army" web site, however, is quick to point out that the Army respects players' privacy. The Army claims that player information is not linked to a person's real world identity unless that person volunteers their identity to a recruiter. But it is not clear that recruiters have to give any sort of discloser that a voluntary relinquishing of one's name is also an invitation to a player's statistical information. Answering seemingly innocent questions from recruiters in "America's Army" chat rooms or at state fairs about one's screen name may divulge personal information without intending to.(7)
Beyond its recruitment goals, the game serves as a training device for both military tactics and weapons, and to condition players for battlefield operations. To this end, "America's Army" game assignments are designed to simulate real world battlefield missions. For example in one mission, "Special Forces fight alongside Indigenous Forces they have trained. For this mission, [players] must rescue and escort a wounded resistance leader who's escaped to a neutral hospital for treatment - or hinder the escape of a wounded enemy courier, depending which side you're on." Missions like this shadow real world military actions such as the November 2004 seizure of a Fallujah hospital, a blatant violation of international law. The Army justified the war crime by explaining the hospital was furthering enemy propaganda. Other missions designed to acclimate players to warfare take place on an offshore oil rig or reenact the "Blackhawk Down" scenario. The oil rig game environment mimics possible combat deployments like to the new military installation being built by the Navy on the Khawr al Amaya Oil Terminal in the Persian Gulf. Interestingly, in these mission environments every gun-carrying character found online has a real person behind it. Yet, all players perceive themselves as American Forces while their avatars may be represented as black masked "terrorists" to their opponents.(8)
If this weren't enough, the Army has designed weapons systems and training simulators based on "America's Army" simulations and gameplay and incorporated them into the game. Players are organized into groups of Army units to learn to think, act and work together, a key component of basic infantry training. With a system of honor points that can help or hinder a virtual career, players are rewarded for their teamwork and strategic thinking, and discouraged from acting like a lone Rambo. Weapons training programs are also developed from the game or incorporated into "America's Army." These include the Live Fire Virtual Targetry for Urban Combat, in which boot camp recruits fire live ammunition at huge screens with "America's Army" simulations projected onto it. Additionally, training software for the Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station, a remote control vehicle with automatic weapons, was incorporated into the 2.7 version of "America's Army." The Army has also used the game to test new weapons. The Army's weapons research laboratory, the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), uses "America's Army" simulators to create virtual weapons testing grounds that are so lifelike ARDEC can "try out a new weapons system before any metal is cut." In "America's Army" one can play and undergo real-world military training at the same time.(9)
Most troubling of all, these recruitment and training techniques are targeted at children. Apart from sanitizing the violence of war, the Army toned down the gore in the game to get a Teen rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the equivalent of a PG rating on movies, so that children as young as 13 could play "America's Army." Chris Chambers, the game project's deputy director explains that "we have a teen rating that allows 13-year-olds to play, and in order to maintain that rating we have to adhere to certain standards. We want to reach young people to show them what the Army does ... We can't reach them if we are over the top with violence and other aspects of war that might not be appropriate. It's a choice we made to be able to reach the audience we want."(10)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has found that Army use of the game, and its recruiting practice in general, violate international law. In May, the ACLU published a report that found the armed services "regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment. Department of Defense instruction to recruiters, the US military's collection of information of hundreds of thousands of 16-year-olds, and military training corps for children as young as 11 reveal that students are targeted for recruitment as early as possible. By exposing children under 17 to military recruitment, the United States military violates the Optional Protocol." The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, ratified by the Senate in December 2002, protects the rights of children under 16 from military recruitment and deployment to war. The US subsequently entered a binding declaration that raised the minimum age to 17, meaning any recruitment activity targeted at those under 17 years old is not allowed in the United States. The ACLU report goes on to highlight the role of "America's Army," saying the Army uses the game to "attract young potential recruits ... train them to use weapons, and engage in virtual combat and other military missions," adding that the game "explicitly targets boys 13 and older." In June, at the 48th session of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Committee noted US violations of the Protocol and urged the United States to "ensure that its policy and practice on deployment is consistent with the provisions of the Protocol."(11)
Four years after the game was introduced at the 2002 Los Angles E3, and half way around the world in Mosul, Iraq, "America's Army" was having an effect. Sgt. Sinque Swales had just fired his .50 caliber machine gun at so-called insurgents for only the second time. "It felt like I was in a big video game," he said. "It didn't even faze me, shooting back. It was just natural instinct. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" While Sergeant Swales found game training conditioned him for combat situations, other soldiers report "America's Army" played a direct role in guiding them to the military. Pvt. Doug Stanbro told The Christian Science Monitor in a 2006 interview that he "never really thought about the military at all before I started playing this game." An informal Army study of the same year showed that 4 out of 100 new recruits in Ft. Benning, Georgia, credit "America's Army" as the primary factor in convincing them to join the military. Sixty percent of those recruits surveyed said they played the game more than five times a week. And a 2004 Army survey found that nearly a third of young Americans aged 16 to 24 had some contact with the game in the previous six months.(12)
"America's Army" is not a game; it is a recruitment and training tool that the Army uses in violation of international law. While soldiers and civilians continue to kill and die in Iraq and Afghanistan, private corporations like Ubisoft reap handsome profits from the Army's project to train and recruit children. Military game developers are very open about this role, as Colonel Wardynski proudly proclaims in article after article, "We want kids to come into the Army and feel like they've already been there." In this sense, "America's Army" is more than a recruiting tool; it is an attempt to shift public perceptions about the Army and a conscious effort to militarize youth and video game culture. Indeed, the Army has been largely successful, so long as we accept sophisticated propaganda, recruitment and training programs like "America's Army" as simply games and entertainment. In a statement that could apply to any of the military propaganda programs for youth, including popular movies like "Transformers" and "Iron Man," Wardynski says, "If you don't get in there and engage them early in life about what they're going to do with their lives, when it comes time for them to choose, you're in a fallback position." With the need for fresh recruits at an all-time high due to popular opposition to the murderous and illegal wars, the Army is hoping their game will keep them from stepping into a fallback recruiting position. According to Colonel Wardynski, "today's Soldiers are gamers," and, we might add, the Army is hoping to make the statement true in the converse as well. When this means the militarization and recruitment of our children, we should all take special notice.(13)
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Michael B. Reagan is an activist and graduate student in the San Francisco Bay Area. He can be reached at micatron@berkeley.edu
Footnotes
(1) Knight Ridder Tribune News Service: "Army Game to Draft Virtual Soldiers," May 23, 2002, pg. 1
(2) Business Wire: "US Army and Ubisoft Join Force in Unprecedented Agreement to Deploy 'America's Army' Brand Worldwide," April 14, 2004; Business Wire: "US Army and Ubisoft Bring 'America's Army: Rise of a Soldier' to Video Game Consoles; The Most Authentic Military Console Game Ever Created Ships to Retail Stores Today," Press Release, November 15, 2005.
(3) The United States Army and the Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation Institute: "'America's Army' PC Game Vision and Realization: A Look at the Artistry, Technique, and Impact of the United States Army's Groundbreaking Tool for Strategic Communication," January, 2004, pg. 22, henceforth, "MOVES Booklet"; MOVES Booklet, pg. 37.
(4) DCS web site: http://www.webdcs.com/contracts.php?id=encoreII; Business Wire: "US Army and Ubisoft Bring 'America's Army: Rise of a Soldier' to Video Game Consoles; The Most Authentic Military Console Game Ever Created Ships to Retail Stores Today," Press Release, November 15, 2005.
(5) Zoriah Photojournalist: "Suicide Bombing in Anbar - Eye Witness Account - Iraq War Photographer Diary - Graphic Images," posted June 26, 2008, http://www.zoriah.net/blog/suicide-bombing-in-anbar-.html
(6) Carrie Kirby: "The advertising game: Adopting the latest thing in advertising, Army out to do some computer recruiting," San Francisco Chronicle, August 5, 2002, Sec. E 1; MOVES Booklet 7; a Wisconsin counter-recruitment group was recently successful in booting recruiters armed with the video game from "Summerfest" before the Army pressured festival organizers to let them back in if they restricted game to those 17 or older.
(7) Gary Webb: "The Killing Game," Newsreivew.com, November 4, 2004, http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=23529
(8) MOVES Booklet 28.
(9) Jason Dobson: "Army Game Project's Frank Blackwell on 'America's Army,'" Serious Game Source, September 2006; Webb: "The Killing Game."
(10) Seth Schiesel: "On Maneuvers with the Army's Game Squad," The New York Times, February 17, 2005, Sec. G1
(11) American Civil Liberties Union US Violations of Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict: Sons of Misfortune: Abusive US Military Recruitment and Failure to Protect Child Soldiers, May 23, 2008; United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, Forty-eight Session: "Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict," June 6, 2008.
(12) Jose Antonio Vargas: "Virtual reality prepares US soldiers for real war; Young warriors say video shooter games helped hone skills," The Wall Street Journal Europe, February 15, 2006; Patrik Jonsson: "Enjoy the video game? Then join the Army," The Christian Science Monitor, September 19, 2006.
(13) The Washington Post: "'America's Army' video game doubles as military recruiter; Officials hope online multiplayer adventure will encourage teens to volunteer of service," May 30, 2005, Sec. A13; Joan Ryan: "Army's war game recruits kids," San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 2004, Sec. B1; Eric Gwinn: "Uncle Sam wants you - for 'America's Army,'" The Chicago Tribune, November 7, 2003.