Jason Amerine commanded the Kaimuki, Kalani and Roosevelt High School Army Junior ROTC programs as a teenager and won the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his courage and wounds in Afghanistan as a Green Beret. Soon, he will be immortalized as an action figure and a character in a video game.

In a campaign targeting teenagers, the Army announced a new version of its "America's Army" video game, incorporating digital likenesses of eight actual soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We're trying to put a face on soldiers so that kids can relate to them," said Col. Casey Wardynski, director of the America's Army project. "It's hard to relate to a big green machine. This is a chance to get to know some of them who have done really outstanding things."

The same eight soldiers are models for $10 action figures that are scheduled to be distributed to stores in the fall, said Lt. Col. Kent Cassella, a spokesman at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where Amerine now teaches Arabic.

"He is a magnificent soldier and has been through some tough spots," Cassella said.

Amerine did not return telephone messages left at his home and on his cell phone yesterday. His father, Ronald Amerine of Diamond Head, said he may be traveling out of the country.

"He's still a special forces officer," Ronald Amerine said. "Who knows what he's up to."

RECRUITING TOOL

The video game comes after the Army fell short on recruiting last year, the first time since 1999. As of last month, the active-duty Army had signed up 72,997 new soldiers, nearly 3,000 above its year-to-date target. The Army National Guard was about 200 below its target of 63,240, while the Army Reserve was almost 2,000 below its year-to-date target of 33,124.

About 27 million copies of the taxpayer-funded game have been given away since its July 4, 2002, debut, and there are about 7.5 million registered users.

Gamers can get "America's Army" from recruiters or by downloading it from various video game Web sites, Wardynski said. The game is often included with computer systems.

The latest version, "America's Army: Special Forces," is the first to include actual soldiers, instead of using only generic warriors. The eight were picked based on such factors as awards they received and their availability.

As a boy growing up in Wai'alae-Kahala, Jason Amerine was into "Star Wars" action figures, not G.I. Joes, his father said.

But today, as a 6-foot, 190-pound 35-year-old Army major, he is the very model of a bendable action figure, Ronald Amerine said.

"Being his father, it's hard to be objective," he said, "but most people would say he's a good-looking guy."

Wardynski said the Army spends about $2.5 million each year on the video game, in which players go through a simulated boot camp or team up with other real players online.

Ronald Amerine has seen photos of his son's action figure and said. "It's very much a likeness. Anyone that knows him would recognize him, except that (the action figure's) hair is a little lighter."

PATH TO GLORY

Amerine's Army career traces back to Kalani High School, which is part of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps battalion command that includes Kaimuki and Roosevelt high schools. Amerine was so gung- ho that he transferred to Roosevelt, the battalion command, when he took command as a student.

"He ran cross country at Roosevelt," Amerine's father said, "but he was really into ROTC."

Amerine graduated from West Point in 1993, followed by Ranger school and airborne school and joined the Army's Special Forces as a captain.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he led a U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Group working with Afghanistan's anti-Taliban forces. On Dec. 5, 2001, a 2,000-pound bomb dropped by an American B-52 exploded about 100 yards away from Amerine and his men, killing three soldiers from the 2nd and 3rd Battalion of 5th Special Forces Group and injuring 20 others, include Amerine.

He suffered a ruptured eardrum and shrapnel wounds to his leg and became Hawai'i's first military casualty from the war, his father said.

When he came home to America, Amerine graduated with a master's degree from the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University and returned to West Point, where he has taught international relations and Arabic, his father said.

Amerine was happy to pose for the video game and have his likeness included, Ronald Amerine said.

But the idea of an action figure leaves him a bit embarrassed.

"The game made sense because it was a recruiting tool," Ronald Amerine said. "But he finds the action figure more amusing than serious. He's teaching officers who will soon have their lives on the line and that's what he takes seriously."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.