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.