It's Me Trying and Failing

Rebecca Roberts may be "trying and failing" on an Apache helicopter simulator, but she's not trying and failing at hosting a US Army commercial on NPR (nothing exceptional on All Things Military - machismo, drones, recruiting, etc.).

Roberts offers one challenging question to Maj. Dillard who runs the Army video game recruiting station: "...some have criticized it for bait and switch tactics, masquerading as an arcade when it's really an Army recruiting station." Not a bad start...but after the officer counters by saying that in traditional recruiting stations there are "not a lot of ways to get a virtual experience of about what the Army might be like" - Roberts is done with questions.

Being at the exciting Army Experience Center, you might have hoped that in addition to playing Apache Helicopter killer and interviewing a kid who was "taking a quick break from blowing bad guys away," Rebecca would have asked if she could play the endless the stop-loss Deployment Game, or the thrilling Battle for the Benefits, or the Depression and PTSD Treatment Roulette Game. And since we got to hear about "bad guys" twice she might have asked to play When Bad Guys Happen to be Good Guys. Of course those games are off limits to NPR, which is fast becoming a radio version of The Pentagon Channel.

Roberts, however is happy to play the Go Army game with Dillard as he declares that "if you understand the Army then you're inclined to think highly of it and join the Army." Then noting that many people have negative impressions of the military, Dillard shows Roberts "some of tools designed to counter those misconceptions. Two giant video displays - one called a career navigator; the other called a global base locator. Think of them as huge plasma screen rumor debunkers." (I swear to God she called them that!) I was waiting for her to ask, "And just how many bases does the US have around the globe?" Let's just say I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting...