Tradução de termos em texto sobre Guerra

My virtual war
by Mark Alpert

A disturbing stroll through a simulated battlefield

War is hell. William T. Sherman, the Civil War general, made this statement back in 1880, but it's just as true today. The current conflict in Iraq, now almost three years old, is confronting American soldiers with horrors that we on the home front can only guess at. Recently, however, I got a high-tech glimpse of what the grunts in Iraq must be going through. During a visit to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C., I immersed myself in several virtual-reality training systems that can simulate urban combat with uncanny realism by allowing users to walk, march and run inside an electronic battlefield.

The Office of Naval Research is developing these systems as part of a six-year, $40-million program called Virtual Technologies and Environments (VIRTE). Much of the work focuses on the needs of the Marine Corps, which is engaged in some of the bloodiest fighting in Iraq. My first stop at NRL was a small windowless room containing the VirtuSphere, a nine-foot-high hollow ball made of sturdy perforated plastic. The VirtuSphere rests on 26 wheels rising from a stationary platform; the wheels allow the sphere to rotate in place like a giant trackball, turning in any direction. Next to the sphere was its Russian co-inventor, Nurakhmed Latypov, whose company - also named VirtuSphere - is working with VIRTE to incorporate this contraption into a training system.

Para não dar trabalho demais, peço apenas as principais palavras/frases em negrito traduzidas ao Português; e observando o texto, me veio à mente se NA HORA DE TRADUZIR, a pontuação no texto PRECISA ser a mesma no texto traduzido ou posso "ocultar" algumas pontuações, digo, traduzir de uma maneira que elas não sejam mais necessárias, mas sempre fiel ao texto original?

É só, obrigado!