In the mid 8o's we were doing weapon training in the first ever simulator used by us. We had to fire at a screen, this was of course new to us and we found it very exciting, we did not need to lay in the cold wet grass of the firing ranges, we could now stay indoors, go to the cookhouse for lunch instead of eating a not so hot meal that has been sat in the back of the trucks since arriving at the ranges.
In the simulator it did not matter if you made a mistake, by that I mean shooting an innocent bystander because you mistook them for a gunman, nobody died on the screen. I remember during one of our breaks the guys were singing its praises, I however remember expressing a concern that the potential existed for us to become disconnected from the reality of our job. I was of course told to wind in my neck.
Not so long back, I saw on the news a tank crew listening to Led Zeppelin as they engaged a target and one of the crew was shouting this is better than play station II. We now even have remote control aircraft delivering its payload and flown by a guy in another country.
Not only are we disconnecting our children and ourselves from nature but we are disconnecting our people from the true reality of war.
All life is precious.
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