October 14, 2005: The U.S. Department of Defense is adapting its
training to take advantage of new technology, and the fact that most of
its new troops grew up on computer games. The new generation of
training simulations use a lot of interactivity. Two recent ones,
"Gator Six" and "Liberty" play out like a video game, but with content
that is more "military" than anything on the commercial market. These
two sims, and several others, address the complex decisions troops have
to make. In "Gator Six," the player takes on the role of an artillery
battery commander getting ready to head for Iraq, and takes them
through all the issues that have to be dealt with. "Liberty" is run for
sailors right out of boot camp, and introduces them to some of the
dangerous, non-combat, situations they can expect to encounter
soon.
The Department of Defense has been using this interactive
simulation format since the late 1980s (some of the first ones used the
now-obsolete laser disks). As the technology for developing these
systems got cheaper, it became possible to do more of them, on a wider
range of subjects. But what really got the brass going with interactive
sims is that they work, and all their new recruits know exactly what
these things are, and take right to them. Some of the interactive
training sims are made available for the troops to use in their own
free time, and many do. That's the kind of training that really takes
hold.
