DIE JUGEND MARSCHIERT

Die Jugend marschiert mit frohem Gesang
bei Sonnenschein und Regen;
die Jugend marschiert mit sieghaftem Drang
dem gro�en Ziel entgegen.
Wir st�rmen die Welt, geh'n fest unser'n Schritt
wer jung ist der f�gt sich freilich mit,
die Jugend marschiert, kein Pfad ist zu steil,
dem Siege entgegen zu eil'n.
Sieg Heil!

Colonel Casey Wardynski is the Director of the U.S. Army’s Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA) at the United States Military Academy. Colonel Wardynski also serves as an Associate Professor of Economics within the Department of Social Sciences.

BE all you can be"? Ancient history. "An army of one"? Last

year's news. The military's newest promotional campaign is

not even televised; it is America's Army, a free computer

game produced by the military and aimed at winning the

hearts and minds of tech-minded teenagers.

The Army is looking to hire 79,500 young adults this year -

and, as Colonel Wardynski said, "Gaming tends to be very

interesting to young Americans."

The Army is hoping the game will help cut down on one of

its biggest expenses - filling its ranks. Doug Smith, a

spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox,

Ky., said the Army spends about $15,000 to recruit every

soldier.

Colonel Wardynski said the government will have spent about

$7.6 million to develop the game by September; he said he

expected the cost of creating new missions and other

updates to be about $2.5 million a year and the cost of

maintaining the multiplayer infrastructure to be about $1.5

million.

If the game draws 300 to 400 recruits in the next year, he

said, it will have been worth the cost - especially since

the game is considered likely to attract people attending

or considering college, who tend to be more expensive to

recruit.