`DOOM' TRAINING KEEPS MARINES OUT OF THE MUCK.

Byline: Anne Gearan Associated Press 

From the halls of Montezuma to the screen of a PC?

That's right. Computers are training leathernecks to fight on land or sea.

These days, the U.S. Marines are using the computer-generated terrain of the popular video game ``Doom'' as part of their basic training to simulate a battle exercise.

``We were playing `Doom' over lunch for a while last year when we got the idea that it could be adapted'' as a training aid, Lt. Scott Barnett said.

Over the past several months, Barnett and other war game experts transformed ``Doom,'' with its mazes, puzzles and monsters, into hundreds of scenarios Marines might actually face in combat.

The futuristic elements of ``Doom'' - one of the best-selling computer games ever - were replaced by digital images of armed Marines and enemy soldiers.

``Speaking as a `Doom' aficionado, I find `Marine Doom' very boring,'' said Col. Paul E. Hanover, chief of the Marines' modeling and simulation branch.

However, playing computer games, even boring ones, beats slogging through mud for training exercises, Hanover and other Marines said.

The Mesquite, Texas, firm called id Software Inc. that developed ``Doom'' was not involved in the Marine adaptation but has no objections, company spokeswoman Audrey Mann said.

The Marine version works only on computers in which commercially available versions of ``Doom II'' already are installed.

Sitting at individual terminals, a four-person Marine ``fire team'' can use the computer game to learn to cooperate, listen and make decisions quickly, Sgt. Dan Snyder said.

``We are going to destroy the enemy and/or his will to fight,'' Snyder announced to three Marines in crew-cuts before leading them through a 15-minute demonstration of ``Marine Doom'' recently.

If the computerized assault on an enemy villa had been the real thing, Snyder would not have survived. His computerized image fell to an enemy sniper several minutes into the exercise.

``This is a valuable lesson,'' Snyder said. ``This brings home to a young Marine that when the fire team leader falls, someone else has to take over.''

Each soldier in the exercise has a different view of the battlefield on his screen and a separate responsibility.

``We're not just shooting for the sake of shooting. We have a stated training objective,'' Snyder said.

The Marines hope that computer simulations will save lives and save money, too. In this case, the only real cost is the approximately $40 price of each commercial version of ``Doom II'' used, Hanover said.

The approach can also help the Pentagon save money down the road, since time spent in a computer lab is less expensive than training soldiers in the field.

``Computer modeling is not a replacement for field training by any means, but it will help us make field training more efficient,'' Hanover said.

Marines use everything from a low-tech board game called ``combat checkers'' to the whiz-bang technology of virtual-reality goggles and gloves in war games.

Marines have also participated in a novel exchange program with Wall Street traders and bankers. Soldiers tried their hand in the trading pit last year, and earlier this spring the pinstripe crowd put on fatigues for a day in the trenches.