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For SLReports.net
Maj. Gen. Erwin Lessel, director of Plans, Programs, Requirements and Assessments in the Air Education and Training Command, announced this week the opening of the Air Force's Virtual Base in Second Life, in response to the US Army's announcement that they were looking to monopolize SL for their own purposes.
Col. John Thompson, Air Education and Training Command Future Learning Division chief, headed the secretive team in conjunction with Air University's Innovations and Integrations Division headed by Mike McCrocklin, and created the base jointly under the direction of General Lessel.
Like many of the Air Force's programs, the base was shrouded in secrecy until this week, and was only made public in response to the accolades that the US Army had been recieving from Lawmakers and Lobbyiests for their innovative use of Virtual Worlds.
The Air Force was originally a part of the US Army, and the inter-branch rivalry between the two has always been high.
"We built MyBase for people who have very little opportunity to interact with the Air Force," Dr. Andrew Stricker said prior to the conference. "Here, anyone can learn about the Air Force and discover opportunities to become involved."
"MyBase is a virtual environment that integrates our concepts for the future of education and training," General Lessel said. "This release of MyBase, which is open for business this morning, is just the first step in securing a supplemental virtual environment for the education of our Airmen worldwide."
Air University's Innovations and Integrations Division began working on the concept of involvement in the virtual world months ago when they built "Huffman Prairie," another virtual Air Force region in Second Life. "The young men and women who will lead our Air Force in the future have been living in a digital world their entire lives and are better prepared than any other generation to operate in this environment," General Looney said in a White Paper published early this year. "It is imperative that we understand their needs and expectations, and develop an enterprise-wide system that fosters learning and captures their most critical asset - knowledge."
"The difference between the Air Force and Army models for Second Life are obvious," says one military policy analyst, "Fundamentally, the Air Force is more technology oriented, and tends to turn away more applicants than it takes. The Army can't get enough warm bodies to throw at our enemies worldwide. The Air Force will use Second Life to supplement and augement their training and education programs. The Army will focus solely on recruiting."
The analyst added, "The Navy might see an opportunity to mirror the Air Force program, with the added social element of users being able to keep up with family, friends, and former shipmates via Second Life while on lengthy deployments."
How Vladimir Putin, Russia's secret president who reportedly is ill-at-ease with Amerian encroachments in previously neutral territories, reacts to this latest incursion has yet to be seen.
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