Each offers a testimonial about how exciting it is to be in the Navy. Yet all of the displays are static, and the game has no voices, just boxes with written dialogue. The player gets to click on a button that fires a missile at two enemy fighters. When he does this, the bogeys suddenly peel away, intimidated by the Navy fighters. The services' online games are new and targeted at teens still too young to enlist, so the Pentagon has no data to indicate whether or not they actually will help strengthen the Pentagon's recruiting performance.
Military officials see hopeful signs.
In January, the most recent month for which figures are available, the Stealth Force site got more than 85,000 hits, up from some 49,000 in the previous month. In January, a focus group was asked about Stealth Force, and about half of the participants said they would bookmark the site. Three-fourths said they would recommend it to a friend. Those names are passed on to field recruiters, who then follow the usual procedure for wooing the prospect into the service. Those leads might prove to go a long way toward making up for stubborn recruiting shortfalls over the last two years.