The game is called the Virtual Army Experience. Players aged 13 and up sit in a replica of a Humvee, and shoot at life sized pictures of people projected onto an enormous wraparound screen. The Army's website says the game simulates the missions of real soldiers and depicts the reality of war - but some real soldiers disagree.
POWELL: Killing - just Killing - is not what soldiers are all about. In Iraq it's critically important that you relate to the people. It's not just about killing.
Mary Reynolds Powell was an Army nurse in Vietnam. She says she's horrified by the way the game sanitizes death and misrepresents the soldiers role in war. And she worries about what effect it will have on teenagers.
POWELL: They walk out of there with scores. They walk out of there having killed people-- and what it does is turn a supposed combat situation into a game.
The simulators, which travel to different festivals around the country, have successfully been blocked from other venues following complaints. Powell, and other members of the group Veterans for Peace, are asking organizers of the upcoming Cleveland Airshow to follow suit. Killing, real or simulated, is something they say Cleveland already has enough of. Gretchen Cuda, 90.3.