US Army Arcade
With enlistment down in urban areas, the US Army turns to video game technology as a way to increase recruitment.
At the Franklin Mills mall in Philadelphia, PA, the US Army has built a $13 million arcade at the Army Experience Center, a recruitment station within the mall. The 14,500 square foot video arcade contains three full-scale simulators including an armed Humvee, a Black Hawk helicopter and an AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopter. The exhibit also contains various Tom Clancy games such Rainbow Six andGhost Recon along with Madden football.
The facility, which opened up in August, is the military’s way of trying to attract the attention of possible recruits. With weak recruitment numbers in urban areas, the military hopes that the new arcade will help inform individual about service in the Army.
According to The New York Times, First Sgt. Randy Jennings, a supervising officer at the Army Experience Center, said the center’s intent was not just to recruit personnel, but also to inform young people about the Army, in an area where they have little contact with service members. Most recruits live near rural bases.
Since the facility opened, only 35 people have enlisted; results that are disappointing to the Army Experience Center.
“We won’t be measured by the number of people we put in the Army,” Sgt. Jennings said. “We’re basically a learning lab for the military, a way for us to interact with kids and find out what they’re interested in. People are going to join the Army, whether we had this or four or five recruitment stations.”
The Army has a history of building arcade simulators for various uses within the military. For example, during World War II, the military enlisted the help of director and inventor Fred Waller to produce one of the first “virtual reality” simulators for troops. Waller would go on to construct the Waller Gunnery Trainer; a simulation device that trained would be gunners on bombers such as the B-17 and B-24. However the facility in Philadelphia is the first of its kind, using the arcade a way to gain the attention of potential recruits.
If the facility is successful in its goal of informing and recruiting people interested in service in the military, the program may be duplicated in other cities across the country.
