Cyber-Comfort for Faraway Soldiers

For most, the year-end holiday season is a special time to gather with friends and family. But what about the thousands of military families separated from loved ones serving overseas? This year, they're getting a little high-tech help.

Microsoft has provided the USO with Xbox systems that will allow soldiers overseas to play games and chat with members back home. [CNN]

Under a program dubbed "Operation: Live Connections," the USO has partnered with Microsoft for its Xbox home video game systems.

"This is a really cool thing we're doing here," said Ned Powell, president of the USO, the nonprofit organization known for entertaining the troops during wartime. "We'll be able to put gaming consoles in all of our centers."

The game systems come loaded with popular video games such as NFL Fever 2004 and Project Gotham Raving 2 and allow troops to unwind a bit. More importantly, the systems will also come with Xbox Live, a Microsoft service that allows gamers to chat with their voices while playing online over the Internet.

"Operation: Live Connections is a welcome gift to anyone serving overseas this holiday," said 1st Lt. Edward Reynado, U.S. Air Force. "Xbox Live allows me to play my favorite games with friends and family as though I am sitting on the couch right next to them back home in Garden Grove, Calif."

Sean Korman in New York recently used the system to play an online racing game with his buddy Lt. Paul Brighton with the U.S. Army in Germany.

"Paul, did you pick a car and stuff?" he asked Brighton over the Xbox connection. "Paul, you're goin' down," he taunted.

"Operation: Live Connections will enable the USO to continue its commitment to supporting and entertaining military families in the United States and abroad through engaging, interactive online gaming via Xbox Live," Powell said in a statement.

And it helps family at home feel a bit closer to them, too.

Just ask Joann Bouchard who used an Xbox Live connection at a USO center in the United States to talk to her son Rob in Germany.

"It sounded just like he's right here," said Bouchard.

— Jim Hickey, ABCNEWS

Stimulating Special Forces Simulation

The U.S. Army is one lean, mean and increasingly high-tech fighting machine. And to help today's youth experience — and hopefully attract them to — life in the 21st century military, the Army has turned to video games.

Last year, Col. Casey Wardynski and a group of software programmers developed America's Army. The game mimics popular commercial titles in that players view and control the action from a first-person perspective.

Players experienced "what basic training in the Army is like and some of the early experiences you might have with a unit in the Army," said Wardynski.

The game, freely available online and on CD-ROMs from local recruiting stations, developed quite a following. More than 1.3 million people have spent more than 24 million hours playing the game online.

And now, Wardynski and his team have released the next version of the game, America's Army: Special Forces.

The game simulates the tough selection and training process that soldiers must undertake before obtaining the coveted Green Beret of the Special Forces. Once they past muster, virtual soldiers will be able to take on missions such as search and rescue of downed combat pilots.

Wardynski says the game's developers went the distance to make it look like the real thing.

"We've actually had people go off to Baghdad this summer and Afghanistan, last year," he said. "The dirt in the game is actually from photographs of dirt at [the Special Forces training center at] Fort Benning. It's that accurate."

And just like its predecessor, America's Army: Special Forces is now available for free. Players and Special Force operative wannabes just need to see their local recruiter for a no-obligation CD-ROM or download it from the Web at: www.americasarmy.com.

— Bob Schmidt, ABCNEWS

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