More Night Operations

7/28/2019 More Night Operations

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Sometime in the future, in a post-TEOTWAWKI environment, your retreat

group may decide to send out small teams to conduct either reconnaissance

or security patrols. They may want to collect information on what is

happening at the nearest town or confirm/ disprove the accuracy of any

information (rumors) previously attained. Whatever the mission, these teams

must function as a cohesive unit every time. Their success or failure willdepend on everyones ability to operate during darkness or periods of

reduced and/ or limited visibility (to include rain, fog, snow, etc.) even if they

do not have the aid of night vision devices because of expense, loss, and/or

damage.

Psychological Effects

The inability to see well in darkness leads to doubt and increases

apprehension. Darkness always brings out an individuals weakness,especially in lethal situations. It has been demonstrated many times in both

military and police situations that if a team member is confused, frightened,

or operating in a diminished capacity, the entire team will suffer. This could

lead to over-caution, which might make an individual a better target due to

slowness or additional time spent being backlighted or silhouetted. The

teams ability to function (and fight) at night is directly related to confidence

in individual skills, unit teamwork, and confidence in leaders.

At night, objects or shadows can appear real, exaggerated to the untrained

mind. These illusions can come from the over-active imagination (and viewing

too many horror type movies; which, due to darkness, the imagination cannotseparate fact from fantasy. Illusions may also come from:

- Confusion due to an error of the senses: hearing, smell, and sight

- A mistaken impression in the mind (a low tree with no leaves on its

branches is a man standing with a rifle, etc.).

- A confused mind and personal fears or phobias (a piece of rope is a snake; a

clothesline full of cloths is a group of people, etc.).

As stress increases, individuals may also imagine dangers, causing fear or

even panic. Fear can cause uncertainty, which could cloud an individuals

decision-making capability. This is true in all untrained or marginally

experienced people. Training will diminish this dilemma (however, to some

extent it will always be there); confident in their abilities, individuals and

teams will be better prepared for what they may encounter


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Physical Factors

Just as darkness affects the mind, it also affects the senses. Maximizing the

capabilities of the senses will enhance an individuals ability to move and fight

at night. Improving the senses of hearing and smelling requires training;

vision is maximized by understanding how the eye operates differently at dayand night and how to efficiently use its capabilities.

Hearing: At night, hearing becomes more acute. Several factors contribute to

this: increased concentration; sound travels farther in cooler, moist air, and

less background noise. Practice and training will help overcome an

individual's fear in what they hear at night. Training enables individuals to

discriminate multiple sounds, faint sounds, and sound source directions.

Below are some examples of sounds that you might encounter and the

distances the normal human ear can hear at night:

- Normal Footsteps (20 30 meters)

- Footsteps over leaves and branches (60 80 m)

- Normal conversation (90 100 m)

- Conservation in low voice (35 45 m)

- Coughing (55 65 m)

- Cocking / loading a weapon (400 500 m)

- Motor vehicle movement on a dirt road / highway (500 m / 1,000 m)

- Screams (1,500 m)

- Single rifle shot (2,000 3,000 m)

- Automatic weapons fire (3,000 4,000 m)

Remember sharp sounds carry much farther, and unnatural sounds are much

more easily identified. When patrolling, whenever possible, try to use natural

or normal sounds to mask your movement. Move quickly as possible when

these sounds can be used to your advantage (e.g., a car drives by, a gust of

wind through the trees, etc).

Check team members and equipment for objects, which can make noise.

Have members jump-shuffle before moving out. Some things to be aware of:

- Loose change or keys in pockets


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- Hand guards or sling on weapons

- Loose boot laces

- Loosely attached items, such as flashlights

- Items that flop forward when you stoop or bend over

- Water sloshing in a half-full canteen

Smell: Of all the senses, smell is used the least and often ignored. In the

movie Uncommon Valor, Col. Rhodes (Gene Hackman) tells the team we

will be eating nothing but Vietnamese food from now on. We dont want to be

tromping through the jungle smelling like Americans. This was because

different diets produce different characteristic human odors. With some

training, individuals should be able to easily detect and differentiate betweendifferent odors. Additional clues like exhaust from fuel-burning engines,

cooking odors, campfire, tobacco and aftershave can linger long enough to

signal an individual/ team of possible contact. Below are some examples of

odors that you might encounter and the distances the normal human nose

can detect them at night:

- Cigarette smoke (150 m)

- Heat tab (300 m)

- Diesel fuel (500 m)

Vision: Vision at night is different from vision during the day. At night, eyes

cannot differentiate color, and easily blinded when exposed to light. The color

receptors are clustered near the center of the retina, creates a central blind

spot, which causes larger objects to be missed as distances increase. Below

are some examples of light sources that you might encounter and the

distances at which these light sources could be seen at night with the naked

eye:

- Lighted cigarette (500 800 m)

- Lighted match (1,500 m)

- Muzzle flashes from small-arms weapons (1,500 2,000 m)

- Flashlight (2,000 m)

- Vehicle headlights(4,000 8,000 m)


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While at the retreat, members know that during the hours of darkness,

everyone must observe strict blackout rules. Windows, entrances, and other

openings through which light can shine must be covered with shutters,

screens, curtains, and other special opaque materials to prevent light from

escaping. The same is true while out on patrol (e.g. if you need to review a

map, use a tactical red lens flashlight (with cardboard filter cutout to createa smaller beam); be on the ground and under a poncho). If members are

lucky enough to have night vision devices, be aware that they can throw off a

retro-reflective glow commonly know by soldiers as cat-eyes reflection. This

glow could be seen by others also using night vision devices. Members should

always assume that others, not in the group, have just as much or even more

technology as they do.

Relation of Vision to Light and Shadows:

- When light, such as the low full moon is faced vision is decreased.

- When light, such as the high full moon, is behind, vision is increased.

- When light is straight overhead, the effect is neutral. To the patrol looking

for a target, both are easily seen when moving, and hard to see when in the

shadows or stationary.

- Direct lighting will ruin your night vision.

- It is easy to see looking from darkness into light, but nearly impossible when

looking from a lighted area into darkness. (e.g. standing near a campfire).

- When holding a light, you become a long-range target, while you can only

see your immediate surroundings.

- Silhouetting an object with light from its rear will clearly define it.

- Camouflaged individuals in the shadows are extremely hard to see, even

when moving.

- The smaller the object, the further away it will look. The bigger the object,

the nearer it will appear making range estimation difficult.

- Bright objects will seem closer, obscured or dark objects will seem farther

away, again making range estimation difficult.

Improving Night Abilities


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Awareness: Become in tuned with your surroundings be able to differentiate

between what is normal, and what is not (or being able to notice the absence

of normal sights, sounds, objects, or activities). It is also being able to

subconsciously catalog the various sounds and have a mental alarm when

something is not right. Being aware is something that can be developed

through training. Remember, you do not always have to be in camouflage,with weapons or on patrol to conduct training. Some examples of exercises

that individuals or a team can practice (day and night) are:

- In either an urban environment or at the retreat, sit quietly and carefully,

listen to each and every sound, identify and cataloging each individually,

rather than incorporating it into the overall drone creating by the mass of

sounds. Be aware of what is natural, or normal, and when the sounds should

be heard (e.g., birds singing during the day and not at night). Lock the sound

into your subconscious so that you will be able to take warning when their

absence is inappropriate, as well as when their presence is normal. When

doing these exercises, simply relax, breathe deeply and focus your mind.

- Practice on smelling techniques. Face into the wind, nose at a 45-degree

angle, relax, breath normally; then take sharp sniffs, concentrate and think

about specific odor.

- Practice moving at night or with a blindfold, becoming aware of texture and

feel.

- Practice moving through various terrains, during different times of the day

and the year; and in various weather conditions.

- Sit around a moderately normal area, such as dry, short grass (not knee-

deep dry leaves) with everyones eyes tightly closes, head down. While

everyone is concentrating on listening, have one team member try to move

toward someone else and try to touch them, without being detected; or place

someone in a designated area, and try to move the team to the position

without being detected. With practice, members will be surprised not only at

how well they can now move more quietly; but also, how good they have

become at detecting sounds.

Dark Adaptation: Is the process by which the eyes increase their sensitivity to

low levels of light. Individuals adapt to the darkness at varying degrees andrates. During the first 30 minutes in a dark environment, the eye sensitivity

increases roughly 10,000 times, but not much further after that time. [JWR

Adds: A good diet that has plentiful Retinol (the animal form of Vitamin A) is

also important. Just keep in mind that because Vitamin A is fat-soluble, you

should not over-dose on Vitamin A. Remember the standard KADE rule for

dosing vitamins that are not water soluble!]


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- Adaptation is affected by exposure to bright lights such as matches,

flashlights, flares, and vehicle headlights; taking 30 - 45 minutes for full

recovery.

- Night vision devices can impede dark adaptation; however, if an individual

adapts to the dark before donning the device, they should regain full darkadaptation in about two minutes after removing them.

- Color perception decreases during darkness where light and dark colors

distinguished depending on the intensity of the reflected light.

- Visual sharpness at night is one-seventh of what it is during the day, this is

why individuals can only see large, bulky objects.

Protecting Night Vision: While working and performing tasks in daylight, the

exposure to this light will directly affect night vision. Exposure to brightsunlight for two to five hours causes a definite decrease in visual sensitivity,

which can also persist for equally as long. During this same time, the rate of

dark adaptation and the degree of night vision capability will be decreased.

These effects are cumulative and may persist for several days. Therefore,

neutral density sunglasses or equivalent filter lenses should be used during

daylight when night operations are anticipated.

Night Vision Scanning: Dark adaptation is only the first step toward

maximizing the ability to see at night. Night vision scanning enablesindividuals to overcome many of the physiological limitations of their eyes

and reduce the visual illusions that so often confuse them. The technique

involves scanning from either right to left (or from left to right) using a slow,

regular scanning movement. Although both day and night searches use

scanning movements, at night individuals must avoid looking directly at a

faintly visible object when trying to confirm its presence.

Off-Center Vision: Viewing an object using central vision during daylight poses

no limitation, but this technique is ineffective at night. This is because theeye has a night blind spot that exists during low light. To compensate for this

limitation, individuals use what is called off-center vision. This technique

requires looking approximately 10 degrees above, below, or to either side of

an object rather than directly at it. This allows the peripheral vision of the eye

to remain in contact with an object. It must be noted that even when off-

center viewing is practiced, the image of an object viewed longer than two to


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three seconds tends to bleach out and become one solid tone. As a result, the

object is no longer visible and can produce a potentially unsafe operating

condition. To overcome this condition, the individual must be aware of this

phenomenon and avoid looking at an object longer than two to three

seconds. By shifting their eyes from one off-center point to another,

individuals can continue to pick up the object in his peripheral field of vision.

Training: While at the retreat, it is important to set up realistic training

scenarios, using role players, and in the terrain, your team is most likely to

encounter. Since night operations are a broad topic, covering a full spectrum

of many necessary skills, the following minimum things should be evaluated:

- Discipline and teamwork.

- Proper use of cover and concealment (including react to flares - ground/ air)

- Selection of proper positions and routes (geographic study of the terrain to

include potential obstacles, natural or man-made)

- Noise and light discipline.

- Teams ability to follow its plan.

- Use of contingency plans.

- Employment of proper tactics.

- Proper undetected movement

- Traveling formations (file versus wedge)

- Good planning sequence.

- Stealth techniques (night walking, stalking)

- Proper use of camouflage.

- React to unplanned contact (immediate action drills contact front/ rear;

right/ left; ambush, etc.)

- Movement on ridges and hilltops (which lead to detection).

- Abort and rally point exercises.

- Crossing danger areas (roads or open areas).

In addition to the above, the follow areas should be evaluated for urban

environments:


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- Moving past windows (low and high).

- Moving through doors.

- Getting over walls and fences.

- Getting under chain linked fences.

- Observation and movement techniques.

Conclusion

Although, modern electronic night vision devices are available, not everyone

will be able to afford them or know how to use them to their full capability.

Remember that fancy equipment is in no way a substitute for complete,

balanced, and specific training. Therefore, night training is a "must"

requirement for all individuals/ teams at your retreat. It will allow everyone to

become confident in their abilities (obtaining high morale and a mental

offensive spirit) even without the aid of night vision devices.

The last piece of advice I will leave you with is: The only thing more difficult

than training (or planning for an emergency) is having to explain why you

didnt train. Good-luck and God Bless!

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More Night Operations