WND Paintball Story

[Arizona_Troy]

The following is listed as an exclusive news story on World News Daily. The site, www.wnd.com is normally a good news site and offers another perspective on things happening in the world.

Now they are reporting on an Air Force sponsored paintball game, and it isn't pretty.



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Air Force's presidential assassination game
Deputy undersecretary to participate in paintball 'duty'

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Posted: November 4, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern



© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

A deputy undersecretary of the Air Force is scheduled to participate in a paintball game in which one team seeks to protect the president while another seeks to assassinate him, according to a memorandum obtained by WorldNetDaily.

The sanctioned exercise for Air Force servicemen and family members is set to take place Wednesday, Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving. It is organized by the International Affairs Division located in Rosslyn, Va., just outside Washington, D.C.

According to the memo, Deputy Undersecretary Willard H. Mitchell has approved the paintball games as "approved duty" on the day before the holiday.

"After regular is completed, we will have the 'Protect the President' game," said the memo to everyone in the International Affairs Division by Laren Watanabe. "(Mr. Mitchell has bravely volunteered to be the president.) For that event, 'the President' (Mr. Mitchell) and his secret service detail get a 10-minute head start to hide in the paintball field. Mr. Mitchell will be unarmed, but his protective detail (made up of flag officers, the division chiefs and selected others) will be equipped with the better paintball markers and unlimited paintballs. They are immortal – hits on the protective detail don't count (simulating body armor). Everyone else is a potential assassin. There may be as many as 60 of you depending on participation. But each will have no more than 20-30 paintballs (depending on the numbers) and a hit on you by the protective detail eliminates you. The assassins will also have a limited amount of time to accomplish their task (TBD depending on the numbers). If Mr. Mitchell is hit with a paintball within the time limit, the assassins win. If not, the secret service wins."

Some recipients of the memo questioned the wisdom and sensitivity of the exercise – especially at a time of sniper activity in the Washington area, the terrorist threat and the imminence of war.

"These people appear to be out of their minds," wrote one. "The waste, fraud and abuse aspect is self-evident. The bad taste and judgment factor is off the charts."

Paintball is described in the memo as "the most rapidly growing 'extreme' sport in the world."

"The object of the game is usually to accomplish some kind of task such as locating/securing a flag and then advancing it into the opposing team's starting circle WITHOUT GETTING SHOT," it continues. "If you get hit anywhere on your person or equipment (paintball gun) with a paintball that breaks, you are 'out' (dead) for the rest of that game. Games vary in length from five minutes to 20 minutes depending on the format (open field vs. dense forest vs. building complexes) and you are resurrected at the end of each game. One of the main reasons that paintball is so popular is because you DO NOT have to be young, fast, athletic or good-looking to play. What does count is quick thinking and deviousness. (Age and treachery can overcome youth and skill.)"

The Secretary of the Air Force/International Affairs Division is a unit of 200 people reporting to Mitchell. Prior to assuming his current position, Mitchell served as the deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for program and budget, the Air Force's principal deputy assistant secretary for financial management, and in senior executive positions where he was responsible for international business development for Lockheed Aeronautics Systems and Teledyne Industries International.

The International Affairs Division focuses on national military strategy goals – to create, advocate and facilitate USAF policies and programs that support U.S. national security objectives through international political and military affairs, the $108 billion foreign military sales program, education and training, cooperative research and development, and related matters, in concert with U.S. government, foreign and industry partners. In addition, Mitchell's department oversees the release of Air Force classified information to foreign governments, individuals and international organizations.

[Deathstalker]

I don't have a problem with this article. So a few people have issues with it. They don't appear to have problems with paintball itself, just the context of this particular game.

[Deep Sixx]

Sounds like fun. What's the problem?

D6

[Jaster]

I don't see what's wrong with that article either. Quoted a few people and told what's happening. I think the article was rather informative. Had good and bad views/opinions of the event and left the conclusion and final opinion up to the reader. He told the truth. Odd for a reporter.

[Arizona_Troy]

The concern I had was that the article refers only to the document for reference of the event itself but they willing to print someone else’s note of the event and it appears to me that it is a negative opinion. They do not have comments from any of the Air Force staff, positive or negative, other than what is printed in the memo.

Luckily they did print quite a bit from the memo which does go into the focus of the event, but again, the slant and title of the link is the “Air Force’s presidential assassination game”. This is at the top of the web page where they reserve it for top news stories, such as attacks on nations, military buildups, pending wars and such.

I just think that while the article is not negative about paintball itself, it is a negatively toned and presented on their web page. They don’t make a distinction of what the issue is but they imply that it is about paintball.

[WYRViNX]

Originally posted by Arizona_Troy
Some recipients of the memo questioned the wisdom and sensitivity of the exercise – especially at a time of sniper activity in the Washington area, the terrorist threat and the imminence of war.

"These people appear to be out of their minds," wrote one. "The waste, fraud and abuse aspect is self-evident. The bad taste and judgment factor is off the charts."

Paintball is described in the memo as "the most rapidly growing 'extreme' sport in the world." :confused: "Waste", "fraud", "abuse"? I've never played this format before, but I've heard of it - eons ago. I think the commenter took the quote "After regular is completed, we will have the 'Protect the President' game," as "After regular is completed, we will have some Neo-terrorist training w/ the famed immortal Us Secret Service defending against artificial munitions similar to nothing of practical use". :rolleyes: I mean, come on, the name of the game is even to "protect" the president not "assassinate" him.

It's too bad. Arizona_Troy is right, they should have pulled in some comments of the participants, would have given a better spin on the article.

[Jaster]

Well the object of the game is to "kill" the Pres. So what else would it be called? I would think that inlight of the terrorist attacks, over all world events, and the pending war, training that involves keeping the Pres. alive and counter terrorist training would be a good thing. To me the article seems very factual. No opinion one way or the other. Just the facts with quotes from some people involved. An article most likely written by someone in the service along with a military memo. Some civilian comes along and see's "military playing paintball" type of thing. Tax dollars at work. Then they get all sensitive about it. Oh they're trying to kill the Pres. bla bla bla. Washington sniper, we going to war, bla bla bla. It's bull **** . They train for war. It's not candy and roses it's bombs and bullets. Does it suck? Yes. Is it necessary? Yes. Personally I think civilians need to stop commenting on military training and exercises. Civilians don't like to look at the reality of it. Yes right now it's playing paintball but, it's also training. When it comes time to do it with bullets and our boys do their jobs we know they were trained right and civilians rejoice. If the Pres. were to be killed, civilians jump up and down about why weren't our boys trained right. They conveniently forget that they were the ones that said it was a "waste" or "fraud" or "abuse".