It's no secret at this point that there are a ton of gamers in the armed forces over in Iraq and Afghanistan. Handheld video games are among the most requested items from our troops stationed in the Middle East, right up there with a home cooked meal and possibly going home sometime soon. There have been games for troops movements in the past, notably Fun For Our Troops and Cheap Arse Gamer's efforts, but this one's from the kids. Peter Gallagher and Jack Wilson created Games For Heroes after organising a letter writing game to help cheer up the troops. Realizing that letters are nice, but video games are better, the two teens created Games For Heroes, now working in conjunction with MarineParents.com to gather 10,000 new and used handheld systems and games and ship them to the fighting men and women abroad. It's amazing what teens can do when they aren't busy playing video games all day, isn't it? Hit the link below for details on how you can help!

Games For Heroes [Official Site]

U.S. Major General Jeffery Hammond, delivering a press briefing on the progress of the 4th Infantry's efforts in Iraq, revealed the inspiration behind their current strategy for dealing with Al Qaeda operatives and Shiite extremists.

"I believe they have been degraded, we continue to PacMan, like the video game, away at their efforts, at their different levels," Major General Hammond said.

While it's nice to see a video game reference made by high-ranking military officers, I have to wonder exactly what this means. I get this bizarre mental image of an overhead view of the streets of Baghdad, fruit carts spilling into the streets and the military struggling to pick up the produce for extra points. Are we the ghosts, or are we Pac-Man himself? Are power pellets sanctioned under the Geneva Conventions? With so many questions, one thing remains quite clear - we need to air drop Billy Mitchell into the war zone immediately, hot sauce and all.

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This one is for a good cause. For the kids. Blog A Geek By Any Other Name was watching a fluff CNN piece about an Iraqi kids TV show. The clip showed how the show was a refuge from the war and let kids be, well, kids. Fair enough! Then guess who appeared? PHONEY FREAKAZOID PIKACHU! Yay!! A reporter interviewed one of the Iraqi kids who said that she really loved Pokémon. We bet she'd love the real ones even more.
Even Iraqi Kids Love Pokémon [a geek by any other name via Japanator]

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Former US Marine Eric W. Hall went missing last Sunday after leaving a relative's house in Deep Creek, Florida. According to his family he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since returning from from Iraq three years ago. Hall had returned home with a severe leg injury sustained from a bombing that also killed a close friend. Relatives report that Hall had been playing Call of Duty shortly before his disappearance and they believe that the game may have triggered some bad memories of wartime. While it is not a definitive fact that the game had this effect on him, given the amount of realism that is put into games these days it certainly seems a reasonable possibility.

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