From Navy emergency rooms and submarines to Coast Guard aircraft and surface ships, service members wearing Darth Vader-like headgear and operating in virtual reality environments that would make any video game junkie envious are training for the battlefields of the 21st century. Most often associated with the aviation community, simulation and training also plays a large role in other warfare communities.
Captain Joseph Lopreiato, head of the newly opened National Capital Area Medical Simulation Center, explains how computerized mannequins and virtual reality operating rooms are used to enhance medical education.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard, in the wake of 9/11 and the new homeland security requirements that resulted from that tragic event, is using innovative technology to ensure that it is "Always Ready" to defend our shores from those who would do us harm.
Commander Jay Alien describes the new reconfigurable cockpit trainer used by Coast Guard aviators to simulate many different aircraft. Surface officers also pilot virtual boats, allowing them to experience the effects of the environment on their ersatz vessels.
Finally, Captain Arnold Lotring, commander of the Submarine Learning Center in Groton, Connecticut, faces the challenge of training millennial sailors, those who have grown up in an Internet-connected world. Submariners from the center are looking at helmet-mounted virtual reality trainers to teach fire fighting and weapons launch techniques.
Don't be fooled by all this shiny new technology though. There is still a place for the old knob and switches trainers of yesteryear. They continue to soldier on into the new century. But virtual reality simulation is here to stay.