Powers of destruction

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

: SDTHE GI AS TERMINATOR

From: jacdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: SDTHE GI AS TERMINATOR

The following article appeared in the March 1, 2002, issue of the
Mid-Hudson (NY) Activist Newsletter, published in New Paltz, NY.

THE GI AS TERMINATOR

The Pentagon is not content with simply possessing more destructive
military machinery than all other nations combined.  It wants to train
and equip  the individual GI to become a super-killer as well.

According to a press release we received from the government's Oak Ridge
(Tenn.) National Laboratory (ORNL) Feb. 21, "Arnold Schwarzenegger as
The Terminator has nothing over the Objective Force Warrior envisioned
by the Army and a team from the ORNL and organizations throughout the
country."

We contacted Oak Ridge to make sure the announcement wasn't a satire or
hoax, and were assured by Ron Walli, the lab's public relations person,
that it was genuine.

The goal of the Objective Force Warrior project, we were informed, "is
to develop a high-tech soldier with 20 times the capability of today's
warrior and to have that soldier commissioned by about 2010.  With
advanced technologies, the army plans to create an overmatch and greatly
minimize danger to its soldiers."

George Fisher, the head of ORNL's National Security Directorate, says
"the Army wants to stretch the bounds of technology but still have
something that is feasible and can be built."  Innovative technologies,
he continued, "would allow a soldier to engage and destroy the enemy at
longer ranges and greater precision and with devastating results.
Technologies that would make that possible include better communications
devices, advanced situational awareness software, chem-bio detection and
protection, advanced weapons, and protective equipment."

Walli's press release noted that "Fatigues and the flak jacket of the
past ... would be replaced by a system designed to protect a soldier and
provide hemorrhage control in case a bullet penetrates. The helmet of
the future warrior might be a sealed unit that contains communications,
vision enhancement, a laser for target ranging and a heads-up display."

Fisher said the Army asked the lab to "coordinate a unique visioning
process" for the Terminator GI because of its "unique capabilities and
its connections to industry, institutions and technologies."  Groups
working with ORNL on the project include the Picatinny Arsenal, the U.S.
Armor Center, Yale University, and the NASA Langley Research, among
others.

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