November 12, 2007 -
There may not be, as the saying goes, any atheists in foxholes.But there certainly are plenty of gamers.
A non-profit group is hoping to keep those gamers relaxed between missions by collecting games and systems for deployed U.S. military personnel.
As reported by the Bucks County Courier-Times (in GP's neck of the woods, actually), Fun For Our Troops was started by military wife Stefanie Doctor Shea. Sgt. Michael Shea, her husband, was recently deployed for a second tour of duty in Iraq. The Sheas are seen in the photo at left, taken on the day Sgt. Shea left for Iraq.
Choosing video games as the focus of her support efforts was far from a random choice. Before her husband shipped out the couple spent a lot of their down time enjoying the Nintendo Wii at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Dana Blackman Brady, married to a former Army Ranger, is partnering with Stefanie in the effort to get games to service personnel. She commented:
What [the troops] really appreciate over there are the true comforts of home. The stress relief and the escapism involved in these games, we really think could be beneficial.
We're hoping to get [video games] throughout the year. We don't want to have [soldiers] wait. We do foresee the issues with Christmas. It's going to be a crunch for those games.
Although the Defense Department provides no support to such efforts, the women have worked out a plan for getting the games to the troops. Stefanie Doctor Shea described the program:
We are working on an official website which will allow troops to sign themselves up as recipients or family members can sign them up. They will also be able to tell us what, if any, systems they do have so we can donate appropriate games.
Hopefully the site will be up in the next week or so (we have someone donating their services to build the site). We are willing to work with all branches of the military but the recipients themselves must be on a deployment. Our intention is that the equipment we send over will be passed on to troops in the unit that will replace them.
Donations can be made via the group's website.
Comments
Re: Military Wives Form Non-Profit to Equip Troops with ...
As your military friends would confirm, there is a very well-known, and well-used statement about wartime, which is what GP used, the "There are no Athiests in foxholes." It isn't an attack on Athiesm, or Athiests -- it is just that when faced with imminent mortality in a wartime situation many people end up, very quickly, making prayers to God. Or, at the very least, the individuals try to make peace with their lives. There is no attack against Athiesm, or Athiests in it, nor is it even "off-color" toward Athiests. As a welcome home present, my in-laws got him the Halo 3 Xbox 360, and Halo 3. Me and my wife are going to chip in for his Xbox Live service, so he can hook up with his buddies online and play against or with them.
If they have old-school consoles, I could totally hook them up with a few copies of tetris..
Filthy heretic, debasing yourself to warp-spawn! Praise the true Emperor, the master of all mankind! Burn the heretic! Kill the mutant! Purge the unclean!
I'm gonna see if i have anything to donate.
But this is a nice initiative.
Anyway, yeah, hopefully this will make things easier on the folks in uniform. I can imagine being deployed and away from your home being bad enough, they can use whatever comforts they can.
What? How can this be allowed to continue? I mean, why they'll turn all of those troops into preprogrammed killing machines! How could we possibly let the reenter our society after they've been exposed to these murder simulators?
Sure, while there are many that end up being quite busy, or facing constant immediate danger while deployed, the fact is that the majority of the people we send to the front line are doing some of the same things they do back in the States - office work, equipment maintenance, etc. I have several friends that end up deploying, but don't end up doing much out there. They have an essential job, and when the time comes for them to do something, they do it well, but they just don't perform tasks that need to be done -all of the time-. So any way to combat the boredom down there is a great idea.
/b
@BlackIce
The point is that when you're keyed up to that degree of intensity--and even when you're doing office work, it can be a little bit stressful to know that the familiar sound preceding launch of a mortar or some such weapon could be followed by the building you're in exploding--you need some form of normalcy. Psychologically, a combat situation can be so stressful that it causes longterm changes in physiological and mental stress reactions (PTSD for one), and it is in such trying times that the smallest comforts and familiarities of home are most important to maintain sanity and, well, downright functionality.
Maybe it won't ward off PTSD, but even if familiar leisure activities do nothing more than promote better stress management, that can be a literal lifesaver on the ground.
That is exactly the last game I play.. RPG's are good.
The games to get would be same as everyone else - whatever the intended gamer's favorite choice is. Being an active soldier on duty won't magically make you appreciate war games or FPS if you didn't like those games in the first place.
Also, FPS games are actually commonly played; we used to Lan COD2.
I did Motorstorm, funnily enough.
My brother-in-law recently returned from serving in Iraq, and with any luck he'll be able to keep from going back if he can get a position with the National Coast Guard (something he's been wanting to do for a while now. He's got a real keen interest in busting up drug smuggling rings).
However, while he was there, we sent him his Xbox and games which provided him and his buddies lots of enjoyment in between missions. Only real problem was when his buddy plugged the Xbox plug, meant for 120V of power, into a 240V outlet.
FWOOOSH!
Fried Motherboard.
He mailed it back to us where we took it to a friend of ours who partakes in console modding. Despite his hardware skills, he pronounced the Xbox D.O.A. with little to no hope of recovery, save for scrapping a whole separate Xbox and planting those parts into it.
But all is not lost. As a welcome home present, my in-laws got him the Halo 3 Xbox 360, and Halo 3. Me and my wife are going to chip in for his Xbox Live service, so he can hook up with his buddies online and play against or with them. It'll help him maintain contacts with the people he met and worked with in Iraq.
If this service had been around earlier, my brother-in-law probably would have been able to get back to the games quicker than waiting for us to receive the Xbox in the mail, find someone who could fix it, pronounce it dead, and then find a replacement.
I'm all for this service, and so is my wife. We'll see about donating to it soon.
~Otaku-Man
God bless them all.
Seriouly though I like the idea, I would expect any gamer would. Have to look into this myself though am kind of stuck as the troops would likely be limited to the GBA and PSP neither of which I own. Cannot see shoving in an X-Box on top of full gear, the batteries for the handhelds would be burden enough.
~-Sarcarm on-~
I have to wonder though if these games would not turn them violent. I mean they are only in a livefire zone and have small amounts of stress. Road side bombs, ambuses, car and suicide bombers... well as mentions some small amounts of stress. Still there is the fear that games sent them might turn them into trained killers.
Why not? When I was in the Army, the top games that fellow Soldiers played were: FPS, RTS, Sports, and RPG. There also was a strong tendency to play games with a war-based theme to them.
Damn you, I wanted to put something like that.
@GP
I, an athiest, am only not in the military because I cannot stomache the idea of killing another human being. (Even though I play 'murder simulators' all of the time.) I have friends in the military, some who are athiests. But, anyways, thanks for bringing this group to our attention so we can help donate. Even if you picked a rather off color way to start it.
I don't think that there was any offense intended in the initial statement. As your military friends would confirm, there is a very well-known, and well-used statement about wartime, which is what GP used, the "There are no Athiests in foxholes." It isn't an attack on Athiesm, or Athiests -- it is just that when faced with imminent mortality in a wartime situation many people end up, very quickly, making prayers to God (or gods, depending on whatever religious influences are around). Or, at the very least, the individuals try to make peace with their lives. There is no attack against Athiesm, or Athiests in it, nor is it even "off-color" toward Athiests. Heck, the term "Foxhole" is more considered the "off-color" terminology, and is looked down on in the Army (but still used).
I understand that there was no offense intended, I'm just saying that it could be taken in a very bad way. I accidentally deleted a sentence before hitting the submit button, as I was deleting another that I thought was not well written on my behalf. The first part was along the lines that I knew he probably didn't intend to offend anyone, but that it is a touchy subject among many today. I'm quick to assert my morality existing with a lack of faith due to the fact I live in a very christain area. But I digress, I know he didn't intend offense.
Damn, beat me to it.
No, it really isn't. People just make it into one.
It's a common phrase. Atheists, flippin' out about it is pointless.