1979
Schools in America apparently have their own army recruiter (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
453 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Yeah, we had to take it in school as well. Since I had no interest in dying in Iraq, I just filled in bubbles at random. Still got phone calls and mailings aplenty begging me to join the military. They even mailed me a video game that the Army made, though I never played it so I don't know how bad it was.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Was it Americas Army? I played that when it released. Not bad. I’m not a fan of shooters, but it was at least interesting to see a game that had an honest attempt at making it as “real” as possible.

    The sniper mission was the only thing I didn’t complete. It had one mission where you had to sit and wait for up to 48 hours real time before you could take a shot at your target. Neat concept, but totally impractical for a game.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Americas Army stunk bad on release, but was pretty solid by the time that it got to 3.0.

    Recruits are trained on the engine used in ARMA by Bohemia Interactive. I played some of the scenarios on Operation: Flashpoint (which featured cold-war operations in the late 1980s).

    Eventually, when I got hit, I assumed I was dead, and occasionally be surprised that I'm not, in fact, falling over, and am still alive and still have functional parts.

    But yes, the most effective way to play seemed to be to hide in a bush and wait for minutes (hours if necessary) for the enemy to cross your firing line.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I guarantee you recruits are trained in the nearest forest. There's edge cases where using a video game can be useful for testing new tactics with veterans. But recruits are looking for the basics. Like what does a platoon wedge look like in a forest versus the grass.

    War games are really useful for officers trying to plan things. That way they don't need to pay for thousands of people to deploy to special training areas to figure stuff out. But even then it's open to misuse, like when Rumsfield decided light infantry was a dead concept.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That tracks. I knew the Arma engine was used for training in the US Army and USMC but I didn't know where it fit in.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    You probably got more phone calls because you scored low. Most recruiters aren't't exactly looking for the cream of the crop. They prey on desperate individuals who have no other choice.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent