Marines relax with, yep, more fighting

Lance Cpl. Tristan Van Scoy, left, watches as Cpl. Matthew Mooi, Cpl. Brett Maddix, Lance Cpl. Justin Humpich and Cpl. Fernando Izaguirre, all members of Fox Company Lance Cpl. Tristan Van Scoy, left, watches as Cpl. Matthew Mooi, Cpl. Brett Maddix, Lance Cpl. Justin Humpich and Cpl. Fernando Izaguirre, all members of Fox Company Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Marines relax with, yep, more fighting 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

BY MEG JONES

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Habbaniyah, Iraq -- The Marines are running through rubble-strewn landscape, blasting away with guns and screaming at one another as explosions send plumes of smoke into the flint-gray sky.

Some are wounded and breathing heavy, their gasps sounding like a death rattle, while others shout expletives as they sprint past concrete blast barriers and the blackened hulks of vehicles.

One of the Marines keels over.

"Dude, you're so dead," says Cpl. Fernando Izaguirre, 25.

"How do you figure?" protests Lance Cpl. Tristan Van Scoy, 20.

Izaguirre, Van Scoy and other members of 4th Platoon have just finished an all-day mission for Milwaukee-based Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, including an 11-kilometer foot patrol through a village near here in Anbar Province.

They're tired, they're covered with dust and sweat, they stink and they're hungry.

But the uppermost thought on their minds -- now that they've put down their M-16 rifles and shrugged out of their body armor and helmets -- is trading their real weapons for fake ones and playing the hot new shoot 'em up video game "Call to Action 4" on Izaguirre's Xbox 360.

The irony is not lost on Van Scoy, who's on his first deployment to Iraq.

"It's more fun than reading a book," Van Scoy said.

New era of play

Soldiers and Marines in previous wars passed time by playing poker, throwing around a football or Frisbee, reading tattered paperbacks, smoking, writing letters and napping.

Today's warrior still does all of those things. He also plays video games, which are hugely popular among U.S. troops serving in this war-torn country.

Many bring PlayStation Portables, Xboxes and PlayStations, and some buy them at the post exchange -- commonly known as the PX -- or from departing service members who don't want to haul the equipment back to the States. Some load their laptops with games.

At many of the recreation centers on U.S. bases in Iraq, video games can be checked out and played on PlayStations and Xboxes set up in booths.

It's common to walk down the line of video game stations and see guys -- and it's pretty much all males -- playing "Madden '07," "Halo 3" and golf, car racing and World War II games any time of day or night.

Video game tournaments are held at individual bases with games and equipment for prizes. Ads in a recent Stars and Stripes, the daily newspaper available at military installations overseas, are touting a tourney where players can compete against service members at other bases throughout the world.

And this month the U.S. Army is sponsoring a large "Halo 3" tournament in North America starting online with Xbox Live and culminating in a high-profile, high-stakes finale, said Brian Jarrard, community director for Bungie, the creator of the "Halo" games.

"It's another example of the game's popularity within all levels of the armed services, even so much as using it as a subtle way to drive the Army brand and potentially drive their recruiting efforts," Jarrard said in a recent e-mail interview.

It may seem odd that Marines and soldiers in Iraq would spend their precious free time playing a game simulating what they've just spent all day or night doing for real.

But it's actually not unusual considering that the demographics of video game players -- whether they're in uniform or civilians -- skew toward young males.

Plus the twentysomething guys in 4th Platoon grew up with video games, so there's not much difference playing in their basement with their high school buddies or playing in barracks in the Sunni Triangle with fellow Marines.

Time to Compete

"It's a competitive thing, and with young men at that age, there's a lot of testosterone," said Adam Sessler, co-host of "X-Play" on the G4 channel, a television show about video games.

"It's all the action without the risk. You can't discount that," Sessler said in a recent phone interview. "You can definitely behave with more whimsy on a virtual battlefield than anyone in their right mind would on an actual battlefield."

At a command outpost near the community of Sadiqiyah, members of Fox Company's 2nd Platoon play "Guitar Hero," "Tiger Woods Golf," "Madden '07" and fantasy games.

Lance Cpl. Josh Buege, 20, has "Red Alert," "Sims," "Wolfenstein" and "Rainbox Six" on his new Acer laptop, which he keeps in a hard plastic case so it doesn't get wrecked by the dust and heat and other calamities that can fell electronics in a war zone.

"It's just a way to pass the time to keep things interesting. You can only watch so many movies," said Buege, a sophomore majoring in history at Marquette University in Milwaukee.

Cpl. Casey Callahan, 22, a mall security guard, brought a Gameboy Advance on his first deployment to Iraq in 2004 and got a PSP shortly before returning in January.

His new PSP includes "Star Wars Battlefront," "Final Fantasy" 1 and 2, "Socom" and "Atari Classics." He's bummed he's in Iraq and will miss the releases back home of the new "Grand Theft Auto," "Devil May Cry" and "Highlander" games.

Comparing video games to his job as a Humvee gunner, Callahan noted, "It's a lot easier in the video games because you're not wearing 100 pounds of gear, and you can always restart."

For his fellow 4th Platoon Marines, Izaguirre shipped his Xbox 360 and television to their base in this community between Fallujah and Ramadi. He bought "Call to Action 4" last November as soon as it was released, while he was training in Twentynine Palms, Calif., for deployment. He also has "Halo 3."

Though the Marines carry M-16s, M-203 grenade launchers and SAW machine guns in real life, they can choose other weapons when playing "Call to Action 4."

The weapons in "Call to Action 4" are "all real, but it's stuff we don't have access to," said Izaguirre, of Schaumburg, Ill.

"What we have is good for what we need (in actual combat), but in 'Call to Action' you've got M-21 sniper rifles, the M-82 A1 sniper rifles and the P-90, a close-quarters weapon," he said.

The Marines take turns competing against one another, four at a time, with the TV split into squares showing what each player is seeing and shooting at, for 10 minutes or 100 points. The winner gets to stay for the next game as losers swap out consoles with guys waiting to play.

"Call to Action 4" players in 4th Platoon have put their own twist on the game.

"We have a rule that if you're running or shooting at someone and you see a watermelon, you have to stop and stab it," said Cpl. Brett Maddix, 30, a Cook County sheriff's deputy in Chicago. "It's one of those stupid things we do."

Fourth Platoon Marines like "Call to Action 4" because it's modern warfare and mimics their training. Previous incarnations of the game were set in historical situations such as World War II.

Realistic touch

For the most part, the game gets a thumbs-up for realism, such as the amount of time it takes to reload weapons -- though the Marines scoff at the relatively minor wounds sustained from shotgun blasts.

"Most players think it's realistic, but I think because we're in the military we tend to nitpick," said Cpl. Matthew Mooi, 23, of Steger, Ill.

"We have nothing but time here, so it's something we do notice. Besides missions, this is what we do."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Meg Jones spent several weeks with Wisconsin troops in Iraq. This was her fifth tour with our troops overseas -- once in Afghanistan and four times in Iraq. In addition to writing articles, she kept a blog throughout her trip. Read her posts on "Dispatches from Iraq" at blogs.jsonline.com/iraq.