Hey this brings back memories.Steadfast wrote:
The Arabic nomads wear layers of clothing to avoid sweating and losing water. Why do you think our military has not copied the Arab style of dress? When you dig down in your hide, approximately how deep are we talking. Do you have some type of overhead cover like a ghili type cover as was done over artillery pieces in WW? I can imagaine that any shinny objects are removed or taped over to avoid giving up your position Pafsanias. And binoculars are carefully used to avoid glass reflecting?
Another item you mention above is the number 50 followed by "C" is this for 50Centergrade, the temperature?
Sorry for all the questions. I have never been in the desert. The only sand I ever saw was at the beach.
First the temperature the hottest we trained in while in lrsd was somewhere between 105 and 110 Fahrenheit. I did get to go as a child
of 7 in the Syrian Desert when it was 50 Centigrade or 122 Fahrenheit. Either way the sweat evaporates faster than you can see it and the body doesn’t have the chance to cool down. In the desert water is such a big issue that we never shaved nor brushed our teeth. Water was for drinking only and the loss of it was the end of the mission.
The Arab heavy garment (black) made of camel hairs is the traditional nomad cloth. I have one that king Faisal gave to my father long ago. I would guess the Army couldn’t go that route due to the excessive weight. Those nomad cloths are heavy.
Our hides in the desert were as deep as the terrain and time allowed for. If we hit rock then that was that or start over again a few yards away. Always watching out for noise and light discipline. One hour before the sun popped up we were ready with our ghili net that we stole from the legs for overhead cover. The binos we used were supposed to be anti-glare. I remember one time an opfor helo passed in daylight 25 meters from our position and we were a 2-man team sent urgently to cover a pass in Death Valley and they didn’t see us. We pilled rocks on all sides and draped the net on top. Another time we were the standard 6-man team and inserted by blackhawk, walked all night to our position. Dug a quick hide just deep enough to lie in say about 2 or 3 feet, tossed the net on top and all kinds of opfor drove around all day looking for us. They knew where we were, that was the time they stood so close to our hide we were afraid to fart. If you take care of noise and light discipline and don’t get out of your hide you can be in most places in the desert and not get seen or heard. Hell one time we would be in the hide and to pee we stuck our pricks out the net and let loose while lieing down.
Really we were so close to the opfor we dared not stand up.Once in 2nd bat in the winter we snuck into a leg amo dump... The point is before doing it I was dug down in the snow and a leg guard (smoking his but) stepped 6 inches from my face.
The point is "Who dares wins"!
