By W. E. Linde

FORT BRAGG — The Army Research Lab has started testing virtual and augmented reality headsets that not only greatly enhance situational awareness in combat, but also show soldiers how good life could have been had they made better life choices. Troops this week who trained with these next-generation headsets were able to experience life as if they had just joined the Air Force.

“It really is a game-changer,” said Terry Smith, the ARL program manager who also happens to be a retired Air Force colonel. “The junior enlisted troops can actually feel what it’s like to have their own bathrooms as an E-4. They can sit in virtual cubicles and tell the AI supervisor that they’re too busy to make it to PT.”

Words like “unreal,” “amazing,” and “soul-crushing” could be heard as the troops murmured amongst themselves in the virtual world where office buildings were built after 1970.

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“It was so real,” said Spc. Mason Tiller. “I could feel the G’s pull me back into a virtual office chair.…