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Videogames Help Save Lives!

Posted by Jonathan Hunt - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:09 PM

Everyone knows video games do nothing but corrupt our nation's youth, turning them into mindless killing machines that would just as soon curb stomp you as look at you. Well, apparently, 28 year old Paxton Galvanek missed the memo, as he recently applied his America's Army video game skills to saving another's life.

This troubled young man has been a long time player of America's Army, where he was trained as a virtual field medic, not a rifleman or sniper. Obviously, the signs were all there, but no one was paying attention. On a regular November morning, Galvanek was driving along with his family down I-40 in North Carolina when they witness an SUV lose control and flip close to five times. Galvanek pulled over to the side of the road and had his wife call 911 while he checked the occupants of the now smoking SUV. And that's when Galvanek's story turned tragic.



Unlike any respectable videogamer, who would spend those crucial first moments searching the victims for money, ammo, power-ups, or questioning them for crucial mission information, Galvanek rescued the two injured men by removing them from the smoking vehicle and pulling them to the far side of the road.

Now, Galvanek had the injured men just where he wanted them. The driver of the car had even lost two fingers, leaving him virtually incapable of defending himself. But, yet again, Galvanek's story took another dark turn.

Instead of claiming their lives as his own, he saw to their wounds, using a towel to apply pressure to the driver's hand wounds. A few minutes later, an Army officer in plain clothes arrived on the scene and took over treatment of the victims. The ordeal was over.

In the aftermath, many are left asking the questions, "Why?" or "How can a loving God let something like this happen?" When asked directly why he had resorted to such actions, Galvanek had only video games to blame. But perhaps there is nothing more chilling that to hear the motives in the perpetrator's own words.

In a letter he wrote to the makers of the America's Army videogame, Galvanek claims, "I have received no prior medical training and can honestly say that because of the training and presentations within America's Army, I was able to help and possibly save the injured men. As I look back on the events of that day, the training that I received in the America's Army video game keeps coming to mind.”

TheFeed understands how this must be hard for many of you to understand. It must be difficult to fathom how people like this can go unnoticed by society for so long, especially with all the evident signs.

America, we must not forget. America, we must endure.




Comment(s)

Posted by darkmystic1239 - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:23 PM

and then they say video games curropt minds.....or do they?

Posted by hetman - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:24 PM

I would have just thrown a grenade in their and recieved a double frag and 20 points. To each his own I guess.

Posted by fedaykin0 - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:25 PM

hetman, that only works if you have grenades handy, remember?

Posted by Slaytanic40oz - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:27 PM

If it was like Full Auto they could've just rewound time and avoided the crash entirely. Whats wrong with them?!

Posted by fedaykin0 - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:33 PM

they aren't Tango & Cash, either, or they could've flipped the truck and avoided injury altogether.

Posted by sinister6972 - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:36 PM

Ever heard of the old saying, "If you can beat em, join them"? Apparently, the U.S Government figure that out many years ago, right? Since they can't take down the gaming industry, they'll figure they got their own. Damn government and their policies. (Don't you worry, I remember what they did to Vegas. I won't forget and neither do we......just one solution Government....be careful what you wish for)

By the way, do you really want to know the truth if videogames do in fact "corrupt" minds???? I have a theory on it but I still need more answers. TRUST ME, this question is as complex as having "cell phones" in your brain........(HAAAAA, got you there, huh?) But I do believe that we will find some answers in the near future.

Posted by KratosFan - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:37 PM

I've stomached the betrayal of the hetman's for the last time! The time of the hetman's is coming to an end!
Darkmystic1239 is weak, spike47 is dead, and all on AA tremble at my name!
Come back with me to my time, fedaykin0, and together we will conquer the hetmans!

@hetman-
JK. F.

Posted by Slaytanic40oz - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:40 PM

i'm breakin out the tin-foil hats now

Posted by fedaykin0 - Friday, January 18, 2008 12:45 PM

ok, i'm officially declaring my very own Scattering. me for out. and thanks, America's Army, for inspiring the oddest thread ever. . .

Posted by M_A_Cwell - Friday, January 18, 2008 1:13 PM

@ Kratosfan
that was most inspiring message ever

Posted by hetman - Friday, January 18, 2008 1:24 PM

Anyone who is down with some COD4 my gamertag is h37man.

Posted by Letters2Kay - Friday, January 18, 2008 1:31 PM

Great, now the Army gets to pump their nads about this story forever and pat themselves on the back for creating a game that trivializes the actions of their soldiers. Awesome...

Posted by hetman - Friday, January 18, 2008 1:39 PM

!letters2kay I do not think they army is trying to trivialize warfare. I think they are just using it as recruiting tool like they have been doing the last 60 years. They called it a G I joe. Because G I stands for Government Issuied. It is the same thing they are just using games instead of action figures.

Posted by Lil_Jon83 - Friday, January 18, 2008 2:54 PM

Shout if u love sarcasm!

Posted by ArchivalWheat - Friday, January 18, 2008 4:33 PM

Actually, GI stands for Galvanized Iron.

:-)

Posted by tays014 - Friday, January 18, 2008 8:12 PM

Yay great story

Posted by PaxtonRU - Friday, January 18, 2008 8:55 PM

Thank you all for the kind words...I wasn't looking for any of this, I just wanted to thank AA for putting the medic training into the game. I would hope that if my family and I were in the same situtation that someone would help us out.

Keep gaming!

-Paxton Galvanek
(Here is my gaming community site: www.thewraiths.org)

Posted by eraseme - Saturday, January 19, 2008 8:30 AM

curse you videogames, curse you!

Posted by thetank12 - Saturday, January 19, 2008 9:24 AM

this is a great story actually one time this kid saved his mom by doing the hemlich manuever and he saw that on his cartoons so maybe these thing arent so bad after all

Posted by UnJaked - Saturday, January 19, 2008 11:20 AM

Great job Paxton.

Posted by BiggestSonicFanEVER - Saturday, January 19, 2008 3:41 PM

I'm confused. How is that dark. Is he blaming video games or prasing them? Whats happening?

Posted by toby3p0 - Saturday, January 19, 2008 8:06 PM

BiggestSonicFanEVER, he is being sarcastic, making fun of how a few crazy people *cough*jackthomson*cough* think videogames create violence.

Posted by toby3p0 - Saturday, January 19, 2008 8:09 PM

btw, Paxton, I think you deserve a hug.

Posted by hightall - Sunday, January 20, 2008 12:16 AM

i am now going to play more video games

Posted by plookoon94 - Sunday, January 20, 2008 2:58 PM

lol

Posted by yoshiarecool - Sunday, January 20, 2008 5:00 PM

Jack Thompson: "Video games saved a life...NOOOOOOOOOO I'm melting, I'm melting. I regret nothing, I lived and died as a dick.

Posted by Tobi_IsAGoodBoy - Sunday, January 20, 2008 6:07 PM

I want to see Jack Thompson try to negate this hahahaha!

Posted by SgtSmashBabies - Sunday, January 20, 2008 8:33 PM

im still in shock that he didnt take the guys life

Posted by Alienkid - Monday, January 21, 2008 3:42 AM

I'm not sure about what you're trying to tell me, Are you making fun of him saying that AA told him how to stop the bleeding? Or are you trying to say that things in video games can apply to real life too?

That was the whole reason I couldn't play America's Army, I've been through real basic training and I don't want to play a damn video game about it just to get to the fun part of the game. It's kinda like playing as roxas in Kingdom Hearts 2. Pointless

Posted by neoix - Monday, January 21, 2008 7:33 PM

what they're referring to, took place in an episode of attack of the show a while back during the loop. Adam Sessler, another guy I don't remember the name of, and Jack Thompson were having a debate about violence in videogames, and Jack Thompson was making it out to seem like video games will destroy people's minds and essentially make them mindless drones that have no idea what they're doing.

Jack Thompson just needs to realize when he's wrong and move on. If violent video games actually caused real world violence, or if there was any legitimate evidence of it, the video game industry wouldn't be nearly successful as it has been.

Posted by cheezball420 - Tuesday, January 22, 2008 8:27 AM

Its true you can learn plenty of things from video games, they don't rot your mind, and I think that some things in vide games can apply in real life. Think about that Jack befor you say we're mindless dopes.

Posted by rmd83 - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 12:49 PM

Well, in most cases like the whole GTA ordeal the parent/s and child blamed video games because they didn't want the finger pointed at them. Video games do not harm nor help, it's fictional characters influenced by either reality (WW2 shooters, flight sims, etc...) or fiction.
The fact is, Jack T. is really stuck up with a telephone pole stuck up his butt. Also, why isn't he attacking bad parenting, public schools, broken down neighborhoods, etc...?I'll tell you why, because he's busy attacking the virtually cheap babysitter.
Anyways, i couldn't give an honest answer of if i think video games are bad, good, or neutral. It's ultimately up to the parenting, but even then some kids with morals taught on a regular basis end up getting into trouble too. This story was great though and paxton does deserve a medal

Posted by DarkDestiny20222 - Friday, January 25, 2008 11:04 AM

I'm doing a paper on How Videogames don't cause real world Voilence. Can anyone give me any websites or stories to help?

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