GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE BATTLE RIFLE. PART I: AMMUNITION

If think everyone by this point knows my take on the assault rifle vs. battle rifle deal. I think the easiest way to increase the performance of your rifle is to simply increase the size of the hole in the skinny end. In addition, there is also a variety of special ammunition available (some more available than others) that can increase the usefulness and performance of a battle rifle.

BALL

Even the Plain-Jane old full metal jacket ball rounds will perform pretty well penetration-wise. Just the standard M-80 147-grain Full Metal Jacket round in 7.62mm has quite a bit of penetrative power, even though it was designed as an anti-personnel round with a relatively soft lead core and dates back to 1953. It can penetrate a 3.45mm standard NATO steel plate at 620 meters, which is also listed as its maximum effective range, although snipers have successfully used the .308 to ranges of 1,000 meters.

A WWII training video I have shows the old .30-06 ball round from an M1 Garand punching through a 12-inch oak tree with enough power to explode a bucket of water upon exiting. I once packed a line of 1-inch soft pine board ends 48 inches thick and put .30-06 ball rounds through the whole shebang. The .308 ball rounds did not quite make it through the whole stack, but came within a few inches.

Still, penetrating forty inches of wood isn’t too awful bad. Ian Rhodes, veteran of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, certainly appreciated the penetration of the 7.62x51mm round, as did his fellow soldiers.

“FAL 7.62 long rounds [7.62x51mm NATO] have the power to punch through the tree trunks generally found in the African savanna and jesse bush! AK47`s using 7.62 short [7.62x39mm], on the other hand, generally did not. This fact was used to great effect by the Rhodesians. When firing into an area that included trees, rocks or ant hills etc, a single round down the left hand side of a solid object was good practice (not forgetting most opponents are right handed), then double tap the base of the tree and continue to the right, squeezing off single (or double) rounds in fairly close proximity (In a conventional situation, moving from left to right takes out the trigger man before the machinegun loader or second.) Smallish rocks, strange "lumps", or "bundles of rags" were to be killed. In fact anything out of place was to be dealt with - the "rocks" may be heads, hands, or a pattern on a camouflage uniform etc. The soldier then moved his aim to the next area of cover and repeated the process.”

Before they let him play with tanks in the desert, Erwin Rommel cut his tactical teeth as a light infantry lieutenant in the elite mountain troops fighting in the First World War. His first battles, however, were with the French. Here he noted what a “mere” bolt-action rifle with an 8mm hole in the end can do.

“The enemy was withdrawing from the fire of our guns which were sweeping the highest portion of the ridge…I estimated that about a hundred Frenchmen were coming straight at us in column of files. Not one of them lifted his head above the grain. Was I to call up the remainder of the platoon? No! They could give us better support from their present position. The penetration effect of our rifle ammunition came to mind! Two or three men at this distance! I fired quickly at the head of the column from a standing position. The column dispersed into the field; then, after a few moments, it continued the march in the same direction and in the same formation. Not a single Frenchman raised his head to locate this new enemy who had appeared so suddenly and so close to him. Now the three of us fired at the same time. Again the column disappeared for a short time, then split into several parts and hastily dispersed in a westerly direction…We opened with rapid fire on the fleeing enemy. Strange to say, we had not been fired on even though we were standing upright and were plainly visible to the enemy. To the left, on the far side of the clump of bushes where we were standing, Frenchmen came running down the highway. They were easily shot down as we fired at them through a break in the bushes at a range of about ten yards. We divided our fire and dozens of Frenchmen were put of action by the fire of our three rifles.”

TRACER

Non-military folks make much ado about tracer ammunition…sometimes too much ado, if Hollywood action flicks are any indication.

A tracer consists of an FMJ projectile with a flammable tracer element in the base. The tracer element is intended to permit visible observation of the bullet's in-flight path, or trajectory, to the target. The tracer compound, in .30-caliber loads, burns out around 900 yards. Ignition of the tracer element doesn't take place until the bullet has left the barrel and the standard gliding metal FMJ jacket insures no damage to a barrel other than normal wear and tear. Interestingly, tracer bullets will even burn under water.

The .308 load is the M62, firing a 142-grain projectile at 2,750 fps, identified by an orange bullet tip. The .30-06 load, with the creative nomenclature of M1, has a velocity of 2,665 fps and has a red tip. If you just have projectiles, which are still fairly cheap, they are both .308 diameter and can be loaded in any rifle which uses those bullets…the .308, .30-06, .30/40 Krag, .300 Win Mags, etc. No matter what you see in asinine Hollywood shoot-‘em-up’s, tracer bullets do not make flammables blow up. NATO or US made tracer ammo is safe to shoot in any weapon of the appropriate caliber, i.e. being non-corrosive.

Accuracy fans are not much enamored of tracers. They start out at a different weight and velocity than the standard ball round and their mass and weight actually changes in flight as the tracer compound burns up. It’s “close enough for government work”, especially from machine guns and against moving targets.

Tracers do have their uses. They were primarily developed for anti-aircraft use, and can of course still be used for that purpose. Nearly every treatise on anti-aircraft gunnery I’ve perused says that even the best anti-aircraft sights are just to get you close enough to walk your tracers onto target. All this is, of course, intended for machine gun use, but if rapid semi-automatic trigger work is the best that’s available, well, that’s it. Naturally, riflemen try to avoid the attentions of helicopters and such, but if one is determined to come after the squad there’s nothing to be lost by trying to put some holes in it to make it go away.

British infantry forces in the Falklands War were armed with the inch-pattern SLR FAL in semi-auto. When Argentine jets attacked the ships of the British fleet, they often overflew the infantry, who quickly found out their Blowpipe shoulder-fired Surface-to-Air missiles were somewhere between excretal and useless. So they engaged Argentine aircraft with SLR’s and GPMG’s (M240 machine guns).

“One British officer said that everything fired at attacking aircraft had good effect. If the aircraft was not shot down, the tracers and pyrotechnics intimidated the pilot into using his weapons prematurely, changing his interest, or aborting the mission. To ensure that the Argentine pilots knew they were being engaged by ground forces, the British relinked their machine gun ammunition to add more tracers. British ground forces were credited with downing three Argentine jet aircraft with small arms.”

Tracers are also regularly used, especially by infantry leaders, to designate targets. “On my tracer!” We’ll detail this particular use later, when team shooting is covered. Some folks also advocate the addition of three tracers at the bottom of your magazine so that you are alerted to the mag running dry.

One more interesting tracer of relatively recent design is the CARTRIDGE, 7.62MM, DIM TRACER, M276. This tracer can only be seen through night vision devices. The cartridge is identified by a pink ring behind a green tip.

ARMOR PIERCING

More useful for sheer hitting power and the most recognizable of the special purpose ammunition is the old WWII-vintage M2 “Black-tip” .30-06 armor piercing AP ammo. At present, CMP has some back in stock. Get it while the getting is good. This stuff used to be a dime a dozen at gun shows, but in recent years has become increasingly difficult to come by. Both the .30 M2 and the SS109/M855 62-grain “green tip” ammo were specifically exempted from the hysterical AP “cop-killer” BS law. It was supposed to apply to pistol cartridges that could penetrate police body armor, you know, like in Lethal Weapon Part XVIII or whatever it was, when Mel Gibson could shoot Teflon-coated 9mm rounds through the blade of a D-9 Cat. Since there are technically 7.62x39mm pistols, AP ammo in that caliber was banned. Taking it one big ludicrous step further in their “interpretation” of the law, the BATmen have decided that 7.62x51mm/.308 is also a pistol caliber.

From THIS source:
2) AP ammo is the bullets ONLY, not the loaded ammo, although ATF has
identified some AP ammo by the loaded ammo, not projectiles, for the
information of FFL dealers, who are not supposed to "willfully"
transfer AP ammo.
>From this it follows that loading the bullets identified above into
completed rounds does not constitute "making" AP ammo; making the
bullets themselves does.
4) Because of #1 and #2, it is OK to reload the AP bullets into any .30 caliber case. DON'T, however, SELL IT TO ANYONE - that is NOT legal.

So technically, the way a normal human would read the law, it is OK to "roll your own" .308 AP cartridges as long as you keep them for personal use and do not sell or distribute them. Of course, we’ve all noted how the Alphabet Soup agencies, the courts, and the politicians read laws a little differently than the rest of us. Especially that pesky Constitution thing, which I thought was in pretty plain English. Sometimes I think they drop acid and then read the laws under a strobe light to get the interpretations they do, but that’s beside the point.

Anywayyyyy...the most common AP round, the .30-06 M2 ammunition, the so-called “black tip”, launches a 165.7-grain projectile with a hardened steel alloy penetrator core at a muzzle velocity of just over 2,700 feet per second. The conventional gliding metal copper jacket of the full metal jacket ball rounds surrounds the penetrator, just like a regular ball round, to protect the rifle barrel. The Army manual describes this round’s performance as: “Penetration, fired at 7/8-inch thick homogeneous armor plate at 100 yards, will not be less than 0.42 inch.” At two hundred yards, the caliber .30 M2 AP is supposed to be able to penetrate a half inch of homogeneous armor plate and 0.3 inches of face hardened armor plate. At six hundred yards, the penetration is 0.3 and 0.2 inches respectively.

At 100 yards a single shot will penetrate 19 inches of sandbags, 48 inches of log timbers, 7 inches of concrete, and an inch of soft steel. I have a WWII U.S. Army training film showing a GI with a Garand easily punching holes clear through a four-inch thick concrete wall, flawlessly round after round, at 200 yards. I myself shot an old concrete farm silo that was due to be torn down. The walls were four inches thick. Upon entering the first wall, the AP bullet left a little .30-caliber hole with the copper jacket flattened around it. Where the projectile exited the interior wall, it has spalled out a shallow crater about the size of a dinner plate. The alloy penetrator core was embedded halfway through the far wall. When I chipped it out, the penetrator was still sharp on the tip.

The WWII Combat Lessons pointed out other uses for these AP rounds. In Italy, an infantry captain noted, “We found that caliber .30 AP pierces enemy armored halftracks at close ranges.” Men of the 60th Division serving in France advised, “In wooded country, have the men carry only armor-piercing ammunition; it will go through trees if the enemy uses trees as cover.”

Maxim 1910 with 24 pounds of steel gun shield but still "no cover for you!" Chicom gunners.

In Korea, another American infantryman recalled engaging Chinese machine guns at ranges of 300-350 yards. “I shot into machine gun positions with those large Maxim machine guns with my M1. The armor piercing rounds would go right through the metal shield on the gun. We found guns with bullet holes through the shield and there would be AP slugs in the side of the receiver that stopped the gun from firing.” Yet another Korean vet gave the .30 AP a little test. “One time I took two sandbags and laid them back to back and I emptied a Thompson magazine into them. It made a real good mess on the surface of the first sandbag. Then I took my Garand and fired one black-tipped bullet into the sandbags and it went through both bags. That’s all you need to know. Range and penetration was the key factor.”

The modern version in 7.62x51mm is the M61 AP, a 150-grain projectile, again with a penetrator core and identified by a black tip. The manual somewhat vaguely says, “The cartridge is used in rifles and machine guns against personnel and light armored or unarmored targets, concrete shelters, and similar bullet-resisting targets.” Technically, performance is approximately 10% less than the old caliber .30 M2.

The second generation of 7.62x51mm armor piercing is the Swedish Bofors-designed M993, a 126.6-grain tungsten penetrator-cored projectile launched at nearly 3,000 feet per second. It’s intended purpose is to provide, “…an enhanced armor penetrating capability for use in standard 7.62 mm weapons.” By the numbers, it can penetrate 1/4-inch of armor plate at 500 meters, and 1/2-inch at 100. Supposedly, they tested these on Russky BRDM-2 scout cars and penetrated the armor. Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark. Not too shabby for the lowly 7.62mm. It’s much harder to find, and I’ve seen it listed for $5 per round on up.

Various versions of the BRDM-2 armored scout car are still manufactured and used all over the world. Maximum armor is 14mm on the hull's front glacias plate , and the side armor is only 7mm. Many of the wheeled armored personnel carriers, such as the Russian BTR series, the Czech OT series, and the British Saracen have the same or less armor. Of course, for the maximum penetration listed, the M993 projectile must strike at a flat 90-degree angle.

Even harder to find is the M948 SLAP, Saboted Light Armor Penetrator. This load uses a plastic sabot to encase a sub-caliber 5.56mm tungsten penetrator launched at extremely high velocity. It is just about like the old Remington Accelerator hunting loads…”Turn your .30-06 into a varmint gun.” The load can penetrate 15mm of armor plate at 300 yards. It also penetrates 120mm of helicopter Plexiglas and is highly effective on brick and concrete walls. It is identified by a black stripe on the bullet nose. Of course, these cartridges are extremely hard to come by. Figure on a bare-ass minimum of $10-$20 a pop, usually more, for this ammo…if you can find it.

This load could be fairly well duplicated through reloading a .223/5.56mm M855 62-grain “green tip” projectile into a .30-caliber plastic SABOT. Using .223 soft point hunting bullets, I was never able to get any real decent accuracy out of a SABOTed .30-06 or .308… i.e. dinner plate-sized groups at 100 yards. Not good enough to hit a coyote or fox, IMHO. But get ‘er up there around 4,000 fps and it will by God penetrate.

ARMOR PIERCING INCENDIARY

Going one step further and one step better is the armor piercing incendiary or API. These not only have nearly the same increased penetration as the regular AP, but they also carry an incendiary compound. The manual for the M14 caliber .30 API states: “Penetration, fired at a 7/8-inch steel plate at 100 yards, will not be less than 0.42 inch. Upon impact with a target, the incendiary composition bursts into flame and will ignite flammable material.”

Even .30-caliber API will not necessarily to set off gasoline tanks and cause giant orange mushroom clouds 300 feet in the air, like in the movies. Then again, as convoy ambushes in Iraq have shown, sometimes not even a direct hit from an RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade sets off a fuel tanker. Of course, your chances of touching something off without API are near nil, so it sure beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

One-inch thick soft steel plate at 100 yards with an M1 Garand. The rusty hole is from the standard .30-06 M2 black-tip AP. The rest are from the 155-grain re-sized Russian API loaded in .30-06. Note the black scorch marks on the metal.

The .30-06 API penetrated this 3/4-inch hard steel plate at 100 yards. As you can see, standard 150-grain full metal jacket ball ammo merely cratered one side.

This stuff used to be almost impossible to come by, and expensive, but if you act now you can get 155-grain API bullets for a fairly reasonable price at GunBroker. These were pulled from Russian 7.62x54R ammo (.311 diameter) and professionally re-sized to .308 diameter. The loaded ammo will cost you an arm and a leg.

I bought a pack of 50 projectiles, loaded them in .30-06, and was very pleased with the results from my M1 Garand. Upon impact with a hard target, an inch-thick 10-inch soft steel plate in my case, the compound goes off with a visible flash, a puff of smoke, and a quite audible report. Penetration is so close to that of the M2 AP as to be hardly noticeable.

MISC.

During Vietnam, there was a duplex load for the 7.62x51mm which fired two 84-grain projectiles loaded one atop the other, for suppressive fire. It was about as accurate as you would expect. Frangible rounds exist for use when over penetration is an issue, as in for use by police snipers or room-clearing. Various Match-Grade loads are available, but these are pretty much wasted on battle rifles and should be used in sniper rifles. There are blanks and grenade launcher blanks; you can’t use the former for the latter purpose. Of course, it’s kind of irrelevant without rifle grenades anyway.

So there you have it. Similar special purpose ammunition exists for all the old battle rifle cartridges; .303 British, 7.62x54R Russian, German 8mm Mauser, etc. but it is harder and harder to come by. Get it while you can, boys and girls.

LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET THE HELL OUTTA THE WAY

It’s a funny thing, but it’s the way it is. If you’re serving in the military or a veteran, you can criticize the military all you want. However, if someone who hasn’t “been there, done that” makes the same criticism, the soldier, Marine, or vet will feel the powerful justification and need to kick the critic’s ass. Hard. Especially the ultra-patriotic rah-rah bomb-‘em-back-to-the-Stone Age Chicken Hawks, who want to go in blasting…as long as they themselves don’t have to actually put on boots or carry a rifle.

People tend to think Ben and I are some kind of uber-hawks, but that ain’t really the case. We would support a necessary war, a Constitutional war, a declared war. We would support a fight to protect and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic. I still have damn little use for Communists and Islamists, but I guess that’s a personal problem. But no matter the conflict we still feel for and support the poor bloody grunt, pilot, tanker or cannon-cocker who is stuck in the middle of a horrible mess not of his making.

The first people who must receive the blame for the unnecessarily putting our men in harm’s way are, of course, the politicians. I deservedly beat on them regularly, and thus will mostly skip them this go round. The next folks in line are the senior military officers, especially the Joint Chiefs and the Perfumed Princes of the Pentagon. Oh, occasionally an actual warrior like USMC Commandant Charles Krulak or Col. David Hackworth will sneak into their ranks, but the politicians and their yes-men senior officers do their best to get rid of such people as quickly as possible.

A great leap towards better policy would be if the Perfumed Princes really do need to tap into a tiny reservoir of integrity and learn at least a few shreds of something resembling leadership. They could learn a lot from General George S. Patton, Jr, although I would have hated to serve under the SOB, and would have to agree with Bill “Willie & Joe” Mauldin’s assessment of him:

“If you're a leader, you don't push wet spaghetti, you pull it. The U.S. Army still has to learn that. The British understand it. Patton understood it. I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes.”

That Patton was an honest-to-God genius is easily proven by this single quote:

“Politicians are the lowest form of life on earth. Liberal Democrats are the lowest form of politician.”

Patton also had a great deal of advice to offer our current crop of high-ranking military officers in regards to the very neglected and almost unknown subject of real leadership.



"We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way."

“No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair."

“Do your duty as you see it, and damn the consequences."

“Always do everything you ask of those you command.”

“The more senior the officer, the more time he has to go to the front.”

The maverick creator of the elite WWII USMC Raiders, Evans Carlson, was one of those warriors who butted heads with the stultified Perfumed Princes on a regular basis. On the eve of war, as he strove to do what was right by his personal code, he wrote:

“I am tired of attempting to adjust my action to the arbitrary whims of a superior officer. Self-preservation seems to be the first thought of an officer of the U.S. Army or Navy. His whole training tends to accentuate that inclination. As a result he inevitably takes the short view of things, considering each problem in terms of his personal economic security. He will take no action which may jeopardize his career.”

Things have definitely not improved in the sixty-odd years since he wrote that.

In a completely unrealistic zero-defect environment, innovation is gone and over centralized control is in. You don’t train for war; you train to pass the choreographed text-book maneuvers at NTC. Experimentation, innovation, deviation, or learning in the way of tactics is strictly verboten. Mistakes are swept under the rug rather than identified and studied and corrected.

"It seems very queer that we invariably entrust the writing of our regulations for the next war to men totally devoid of anything but theoretical knowledge." Patton

After a real shooting war, military historians toot their favorite general’s horn, or the generals toot their own, crowing about brilliant plans and executions thereof, while the tactical war-fighting information learned with so much blood and pain at the grunt-level never gets recorded in the institution’s memory. The bloody street-fighting lessons of Metz had to be relearned in Seoul, again in Hue City, and yet again in Baghdad.

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” Patton




While Eastern armies have traditionally delegated decision-making authority to those making the tactical decisions at the sharp end of the spear, the men in direct contact with the enemy and with a direct view of the immediate surroundings and situation, the American second lieutenant or platoon sergeant may have to call a general half a world away on the sat phone to get permission to order a helicopter strike on a target that’s shooting the hell out of his unit.

“It may be of interest to future generals to realize that one makes plans to fit the circumstances, and does not try to create circumstances to fit the plans.” Patton

Eastern armies practice recon-pull; if a gap in the enemy’s defenses is found, even if by a single rifleman, it is immediately exploited and reinforced. We practice an over-controlled top-down command-push method. The PBI must not deviate from the grand master plan, even if that means trying to shove round pegs into square holes. Even if it means soldiers must rush across open ground straight into the muzzles of emplaced machine guns ala WWI. Cover and concealment for a bloodless advance may lie close by, but the troops cannot cross a phase line, boundary line, or fire zone, or whatever and mess up the general’s neat little grease pencil lines on the map overlay or, today, his computer graphics and Power Point presentations.

Outside-the-box military author H. John Poole, USMC, summarizes the realities of too much top-down control more eloquently than anyone else I’ve ever heard:

“U.S. privates have been traditionally encouraged to let their leaders do much of the thinking. In boot camp, their societal individuality has been largely replaced with a blind obedience to orders. Later, to keep from being punished in an error-free environment, most will do only what is minimally expected of them. They wouldn’t dream of telling a superior something he didn’t already know. If they are too closely supervised, many will lose any semblance of initiative. This problem may have grown worse since WWII. For the American private between the World Wars, a corporal was God and an officer even higher. Now, majors are doing things that any good corporal could do.”

All of this may be choreographed down to the over-burdened grunts taking fire at the squad level by a pompous guy with a lotta stars on his collar in an air-conditioned office in Flordia.

On innovation, General Ulysses S. Grant once noted: “If men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.” Patton said, “If everyone’s thinking the same, someone’s not thinking.”

Fast forward to the command innovation of the Vietnam: “I will be damned if I will permit the U.S. Army, its institutions, its doctrine, and its traditions to be destroyed just to win this lousy war.”

So the American method became, “Don’t send a man when you can send a bullet.” Then, later, “Don’t send a bullet if you can send a shell; don’t send a shell if you can send a bomb.” From the grunt’s eye view, I heartily approve. The grunt may be over-commanded by idiots, has no choice about being there, has no personal beef with the enemy, and would very much like to go home with life and limbs intact.

So we ignore and eventually lose on-the-ground close-range war-fighting tactical skills and over-compensate with firepower. As usual, these tactical skills had to be re-learned in blood all over again in the cities of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan.

“Since 1941…our forces were not as well trained as those of the enemy, especially in the early stages of the fighting…when we went on the offensive, we did not defeat the enemy tactically. We overpowered and overwhelmed our enemies with equipment and fire power.”
Lt. Gen Arthur Collins, USA


“The North Koreans were like ghosts. They passed over the countryside and left no mark on it in many ways. But when you use the rock crusher techniques of an American army you hurt your friends. And that was true in Vietnam as well as in Korea.”
Maj. General Edwin Simmons, USMC

This method is, as it should be, not much fun for the enemy and, in traditional open battle, wins battles and wars hard and fast, ala Gulf War One. If engaged in a Constitutional and declared war against an identifiable enemy that is a clear and present danger, have at it. Blast ‘em. On the other hand, when guerilla war is conducted in urban areas, this method pretty much sucks for any non-combatants caught in the crossfire, whether “friendly” or “enemy”.

The military’s mission, as Rush likes to point out, is to kill people and break things; to win wars. I would like to add that this mission is to be in conducted in the defense of the United States. The military’s mission is not nation building, operations other than war, being the world’s international beat cop, meals-on-wheels, acting as the UN’s strongman, peace-keeping missions, peace-enforcement missions, refereeing domestic disputes between people who have been passionately killing each other for centuries, getting involved in other countries’ civil wars, or trying to fight undeclared kinda-sorta-but-not-really “wars” with no real identifiable goals under un-winnable rules and policies.

“Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning.” Patton

If you can’t even define the damn mission, don’t attempt it. If you can, go in, hit ‘em hard and heavy, and then get the hell back out instead of staying for years. A power vacuum will quickly be filled by some other group after you smash your enemy group, and you won’t face the animosity from the rest of the population as you would by staying indefinitely. If the new group in power gives you trouble and becomes a threat on down the line later, repeat the process, but otherwise stay out of other people’s business.

America at least really does try very hard to minimize “collateral damage”, but the longer you stay and fight the more likely it becomes, and having a bloodless name for it is small comfort to someone whose house and family has just been blown to bits. A video-taped apology from some American general, and maybe a wad of greenbacks, just doesn’t seem to make up for it. Afghanis especially believe in the blood feud and, if they have to, they’ll wait years to get revenge.

When the Soviets were in Afghanistan, they strove for collateral damage, so that the guerillas would lose their base of support and ability to live off the land. “The Soviets apparently showed little concern for the civilian population and started each sweep with an artillery bombardment. This did not win many hearts and minds for the Soviet forces. Often the Soviet effort seemed deliberately aimed at killing civilians and forcing them out of the rural areas.”

So, smartass, you ask, what’s the solution. There ain’t none, but using the military as intended by the Founding Fathers and the Constitution would be a great start. Wars need to be declared by Congress, not at the whim of Executive Orders, but congresscritters are too weasely and gutless to declare war for fear of having to answer for their actions later. Protecting and defending the Constitution is the sworn duty of every serviceman and woman, but don’t expect to see much of that these days, since much of what the civilian policy makers decree and do is unconstitutional.

One task specifically assigned to the military by the Constitution is to “repel Invasions”. Well, an invasion is exactly what we’re facing on the southern border. That would be a better place to deploy our troops rather than scattered all over the globe.

So, while I support our troops, their service and their suffering and their sacrifice, I don’t necessarily support the undeclared other-than-wars they’re shoved into or the jerk-off politicians who shove them there. The disingenuous dirt bags in Sodom on Potomac…and yes that includes previous administrations…and their fawning flag-rank yes-men, need to s**t or get off the pot. Lead, follow, or get the hell outta the way.

HOW I WOULD TRAIN A COMPANY NOW

Notes On Training
From Combat Lessons Volume Three
July 3, 1944
How I Would Train a Company Now by Captain Robert C. Gates, Infantry, ITALY

“If I had to train a rifle company again, I would stress the following:

Basic discipline, by which I mean smart saluting, alertness of bearing, cleanliness and neatness of person, clothing, and equipment — shoes shined, hair cut, etc. Get perfection in this early, as it is the basis of much later training.

Combat firing on a course which included a lot of surprise targets. Proper distribution of small arms fire over a suspected target area is very important.

Use of the rifle sling, particularly in combat firing. Most men fail to use it even when in a defensive or other situation where its use is perfectly practicable. Practice until the use of the sling is so natural that a man must consciously decide not to use it when the situation is such that its use is inappropriate.

Sniper training for the upper 20 percent qualified in marksmanship in each rifle platoon. Organize at least two 3-man sniper teams in each platoon. Allowing for casualties and sickness, you could count on having about two 2 man teams in each platoon in combat. A sniper’s rifle and a pair of binoculars per team are essential.

BAR training to be given to every man in the squad until he has a thorough knowledge of the weapon. It is one of our more effective weapons but must be in the hands of a trained man to be really valuable. A BAR man in one of our companies got twenty Germans ‘for sure’ in one hour during one of their counterattacks; this was one-half the casualties his platoon inflicted.

Scouting and patrolling need plenty of emphasis. My company landed in Sicily with about 7 noncommissioned officers and 25 privates efficient in this. As a result, they were worked to death. There numbers became reduced and the replacements that we received knew little about the subject. Therefore, our patrolling grew progressively weaker as the campaign went on. This training should include passage of minefields, compass work and map reading, and patrolling against actual enemy groups.

Terrain appreciation, to teach the men advantages and disadvantages of terrain features. Teach them to visualize how the ground on which you are located looks from the enemy’s viewpoint, i. e., what he can see and what he can’t see; where you can take positions unobserved, etc.

Camouflage and camouflage discipline, particularly the discipline. Pound into the men the necessity of not making trails, not moving around when the enemy can observe your position, and similar matters, until each man always thinks about it.

Organization of the squad chain of leadership to the point where if only two men are left in the squad they will know automatically which one is the leader. Keep the squad organized this way regardless of casualties and consequent replacements.

The weapons platoon should be worked into the company team to a point where the company commander habitually uses it to its utmost capacity. Too often, the 81mm mortars and the artillery are called on to accomplish work that could be handled by the weapons platoon.

Living in the field under adverse circumstances should be taught. This means that the men should know how to cope with cold, rain, snow, mud, and ice, when they are on the front line for many days. The men should know how to put a shelter half over a foxhole or slit trench, leaving a small hole through which to observe and to fire. They should know that they must remove the shelter half and re-camouflage the trench or hole whenever the weather clears. They should also be trained to remove their shoes and socks each day and massage their feet. Such training will really pay dividends.

Messenger Service.

Messengers should receive specialized training in scouting and patrolling, make them practice and practice until they can repeat a simple verbal message exactly as it was given to them. Do not permit them the slightest deviation from the wording of the message. Also these men should receive intelligence training, as frequently they have opportunities to see and report things of value to the commander. All messengers in my regiment have been sent to an intelligence school and it has helped.

In selecting noncommissioned officers, I am convinced that steadiness is the first asset, resourcefulness is the second, and intellect only third.”

WELL, SURE, HE TRIED TO BLOW UP TIMES SQUARE, BUT AT LEAST HE'S NOT A HUTAREE!!

So, we have this failed car bomb attack in New York City, what the left believes to be the Center of the Universe, but someplace you couldn’t get me to go at gunpoint. Anyway, if the bomb hadn’t fizzled, there would have of course been numerous casualties in crowded Times Square.

On the first day, Obama Reichsfuhrer Eric “Heinrich” Holder said that it was too early to designate the failed bombing as a “terrorist incident.” What the hell did you think it was, Eric? A fraternity prank? A whoopee cushion? Eventually, after taking their special low-speed, high-drag, deer-in-the-headlights tack when it comes to making actual crucial decisions, even the Obama Dictatorship had to admit it was a “terrorist act”.

Every media outlet was falling over themselves to joyously report information on a “white male” suspect fleeing the area. New Yawk Mayor Michael “Tax Our Base Outta Town” Bloomberg was quick to go on television with Katie “Axis Sally” Couric so they could egg each other on regarding the bomber and his motives. “A home-grown?” Axis Sally prodded, to which Bloomberg responded, “Home-grown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something.”

What a big surprise it was to everyone, except those with functional brains, that the bomber, Faisal Shahzad, turned out to be a member of the Religion of Peace! Gee, who’da thunk?

He also turned out to have overseas and international ties, was pulled off a plane headed for Dubai, and the Pakistan Taliban released videos taking credit for the attack. Federal officials were quick to downplay any possible connection to any terrorist organizations, saying that, “other possibilities, such as domestic terrorism or an individual acting alone,” were not being ruled out. Neither did it mean, they said, that international ties automatically constituted a well-formed plot. One federal law enforcement official, for example, said international communications don't necessarily "get you to an international plot, a multi-organizational plot." Sure ain’t like the sound bites they were spewing out in all directions about the Hutaree.

Of course, not long after the Feebs and the talking heads played down the international terrorist angle, two of the shit head’s associates were arrested in Pakistan, and he personally confessed to going to Pakistan to receive explosives training.

With even that template broken, Talking Bimbo Head Contessa Brewer over at PMSNBC (go figure) broke out in wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments, pissed off and hurt that the perp was a member of the Religion of Peace and not some male WASP she could bash every night for weeks and weeks to come. Like other brainless talking heads, she had to bring the Hutaree into it as well.

“I mean the thing is that- and I get frustrated and there was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country because there are a lot of people who want to use this terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry. And so there was part of me was really hoping this would not be the case that here would be somebody who is not the defined. I mean he’s accused, he’s arrested you know I don’t want to convict him before it’s time to do so. He’s the guy authorities say is involved. But that being said, I mean, we know even in recent history you have the Hutaree militia from Michigan who have plans to, let’s face it, create terror. That’s what they were planning to do and they were doing so from far different backgrounds than what this guy is coming from.” Other talking head liberals were debating whether Faisal was a terrorist, or just a criminal.

Well Contessa, you air-headed self-flagellating liberal propagandist, why don’t we compare poor wittle misguided Faisal…who actually built and attempted to detonate a bomb…with those big mean ol’ nasty Hutaree you’re still harping on and sooooo worried about.

There’s a joke going around that “Hutaree” is an old Shawnee word meaning “Stupid White Men”. Which, when it comes right down to it, might just be the only thing they’re actually guilty of.

It turns out that the Feds are having a wee bit of trouble actually prosecuting the Hutaree for committing an actual crime, like, oh, say, building a bomb and trying to blow it up in Times Square. It was sensationalized that one of the Hutaree had a book of Adolph Hitler’s speeches but, when it comes down to it, there’s absolutely nothing illegal about that either. Hell, as a WWII historian and writer, I have a copy of Mein Kampf. I’ve only read parts of it, but it’s scary as hell how a slick-talking demagogue with his own media can take over an entire nation, demonize groups they don’t like, and install a dictatorship complete with its own secret police and show trials. But at least Hitler fixed the German economy, which is more than we can say for the present demagogue. Those who don’t learn from history….

Anyway, after much back and forthing, the Feebs finally decided on criminal charges of “seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence,"

In rode Leslie Larsen for the Feebs, the lead FBI Agent in charge of the Hutaree investigation, to “prove” the case. She was put on the stand by the judge over the very strong objections of the Federal Attorney, saying the defendants had no legal right to question her. (Face their accuser?) And no wonder. Her answers sounded like Hillary Clinton during her questioning. “I can’t recall.” “I don’t remember.” “I was…um…baking cookies…for my daughter.”

Actually, she couldn't recall many details of the two-year probe.” She, “hadn't reviewed her notes recently…” She, “couldn't remember specific details of the case.” Defense lawyer William Swor asked if the No. 1 defendant, Hutaree leader David Stone, had ever instructed anyone to make a bomb. "I can't fully answer that question," the agent replied. She also couldn't answer questions because she said she hadn't reviewed investigative reports.

She said that because they were still being examined, she didn't know if weapons seized by investigators last month were illegal. “We’re still fabricating that evidence, your Honor.”

In lieu of evidence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet played an audiotape of what he said were Hutaree members talking about killing police. The participants “talked over each other, often laughed and made goofy noises and disparaging remarks about law enforcement”. (I seem to recall more than one rap “musician” talking about and advocating shooting cops, but that’s “art” and “free expression”.) Prosecutors objected to questions about interpreting the secretly recorded conversations, but the judge said they were fair game.

"I share the frustrations of the defense team … that she doesn't know anything," U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts said of the FBI’s absent-minded (or close-lipped) SAC. The judge suggested she didn't hear or read in the transcripts any indication that violence was imminent. "Mere presence where a crime may be planned is not a crime. … How does this add up to seditious conspiracy?"

The judge then ordered all nine of the accused released on bond.

The Federal Attorney is supposed to have responded, “D'oh!”, at which point one of the defense attorneys pointed at him at went, “Ha-Ha!”


“It makes sense in general —but when you’re pressing people to undertake conduct they would have never undertaken without an informant pushing them along, there is a real question if you’re creating crime, not preventing crime.” David Cole

CAMOUFLAGE; BEYOND THE FACEPAINT

CAMOUFLAGE FROM AERIAL OBSERVATION

There are extra precautions that must be taken against discovery by aircraft that may not occur to someone unused to worrying about aerial observation. This is something which one must always be conscious of at all times. If you are seen, as Murphy’s Laws of Combat say, “Try to look unimportant; the enemy may be short on ammo.”

While worth a chuckle, it is unfortunately also true. Afghanistan, Serbia, and Chechnya have shown that a major modern military powers have absolutely no problem "swatting flies with a sledgehammer".

SHADOWS

From the air or from the ground, staying in the shadows is always the way to go when you wish to go unseen. Casting your own shadow, however, night or day, can be a "dead" giveaway. Here’s what the WWII Russian Partisan’s manual advised.


As soon as you notice the approach of an enemy aircraft, quickly look around to see if there are any buildings or trees nearby creating a shadow. Now, try to hide in the shadow and you will become invisible to the enemy. In order to better conceal yourself, get right up against the tree or wall.

This is called shadow camouflage. It is used for camouflage from surface observation during the day, but also at night when the human shapes casts a shadow, thus increasing the danger of being noticed by an enemy.

If the airplane surprised you or there are no shadows anywhere, squat or lie prone. Remember this fundamental rule—never move when a plane is above you. A moving man against an immobile background is very noticeable from the air. If you can, pull something over you to break up the features of your outline from an aerial enemy.


A friend of mine in Finland had a grandfather who fought in the Winter War and the Continuation War against the Russians. His granddad often led ski patrols far behind Soviet lines, sometimes with a Lahti 20-mm anti-tank rifle, to attack Russian supply lines. In their pure white snow cammo, they were almost invisible.

Then, returning from one patrol and crossing a frozen lake, the Arctic sun, so low in the sky in winter, came out of the clouds briefly, making them cast long, long dark shadows across the ice. A sharp-eyed Soviet pilot spotted the shadows and strafed them, killing one man before they could gain the safety of the forest.

TRACKS

Tracks are particularly damning from the air. They should hug features such as existing roads or tracks, railroads, fences, tree lines, or other natural lines in the terrain. Tracks can additionally be brushed out or covered with natural materials. If tracks cannot be completely obliterated, they should not lead to your position. Extend them on past your location a considerable distance, not ending the trail in the middle of nowhere but at another logical position.


In the winter, tracks are especially dangerous, as in fresh snow even a single man on foot can leave sign easily detected from the air. German ski troops and mountain infantry had methods to negate this danger as well as possible.

The use of existing roads is even more important than in summer. To prevent detection of new trails, they must be made along natural terrain contours, gorges, knolls, ditches, and hedges, or through woods. They must always link with the existing road net and must never terminate at a camouflaged object. This applies especially to firing positions.

In order to confuse the enemy concerning our own strength, when established roads are not used, it may be necessary for foot troops, skiers, sleds, snowmobiles, and other vehicles to march on a single trail. Sharp turns by snowmobiles must be avoided because they produce easily recognizable snow banks.

The obliteration of tracks will frequently be necessary. This may be accomplished by lightly dragging branches, trees, or barbed-wire rolls across them. Inhabited urban localities conceal troops from aerial and ground observation. One method of hiding vehicles is to park them against farm buildings and walls and cover them with snow-covered canvas.

Billets and bivouac shelters, and supply caches outside inhabited localities must be established as far as possible in evergreen forests or in dense snow-covered deciduous woods. Trees may be chopped down only if timber is abundant. Clearings which may be visible from the air must be concealed from enemy observation by arching and tying branches together over the open spaces. Care must be taken that the branches are covered with snow. In open terrain, gravel pits, hollows, inclines, gorges, and ditches must be utilized as cover. Concealment of tents by digging them partly into the snow or ground may be necessary. This procedure also applies to vehicles.

There are many historical examples of armies not enjoying air superiority hiding from and fooling the enemy’s air observers by "improvising, adapting, overcoming". In the Second World War, avoiding detection by enemy aircraft became particularly important. Although all sides practiced such camouflage, the Russians proved particularly adept at it, especially in the early war years when the Luftwaffe still enjoyed complete air superiority.

A favorite Russian method they used through the end of the Cold War to deceive aerial reconnaissance was the underwater bridge.

Noteworthy, too, was their camouflage of river crossings by the construction of underwater bridges. For this purpose they used a submersible underwater bridging gear, which could be submerged or raised by flooding or pumping out the compartments. The deck of the bridge was usually about 1 foot below water level, and was thus shielded from aerial observation.

The Chinese Communist Forces infiltrated some 300,000 troops into North Korea undetected despite the United Nations’ complete and total air superiority. As noted by McMichael:

Moving almost exclusively at night and hiding during daylight, whole rifle platoons were packed sometimes into single Korean huts, where they remained until dark. If shelter was not available, the soldiers lay huddled and motionless in ditches, gullies, and draws, covering themselves with straw, mud, and other materials. Sometimes forced to move by day in later operations, the Chinese picketed the hills along the route with observers. If a UN aircraft was spotted, the observer fired a shot, signaling troops within hearing to take cover. At times, troops on the march during the day carried straw mats on their backs. When lying down on the ground in orderly rows, the troop formation gave the appearance of a recently cut field to air observers. Some troops dressed in white, like the Koreans, and moved openly on the roads. Others pretended to be ROK soldiers.


Vehicles were camouflaged by day or hidden in tunnels, under bridges, or in dugouts. The Chinese also parked operational vehicles among vehicles that had been destroyed or disabled in previous air strikes, or they left them in awkward positions in ditches to appear disabled. Such measures often fooled pilots during subsequent air strikes. In the same deceptive manner, the Chinese camouflaged destroyed vehicles to cause the UN air forces to waste their ordnance on what they thought were operational vehicles.

The Vietnamese were just as skillful at moving their troops and supplies unseen. The Marines observed this in Vietnam first-hand during a large-scale ambush.

The U.S. Marine Advisor was moving with the CP group when it came under fire. In the ensuing action he was able to observe enemy troops at close range. They were expertly camouflaged and all wore the standard fiber VC helmet covered with freshly gathered vegetation. All of the Viet Cong observed wore a cape type garment made of camouflage material. At the introduction of U.S. FAC aircraft, a platoon of Viet Cong were observed to “hit the deck” arrange the camouflage cape over their backs and remain motionless. Aircraft flew over them as low as 500 feet and never noticed their presence.

Not long after, the Vietnamese proved adept at moving large bodies of troops and supplies unseen, first against the French with the Red Highway and then against the Americans on the Ho Chi Mihn Trail. (Devil’s Guard)

Of such routes; “It had been cut through the jungle without allowing as much as ten yards to be exposed to the skies. At a few less densely wooded sections, hundreds of trees had been roped together and drawn closer to one another with the aid of pulley-like contraptions. They had been fastened in such a way that their crown intertwined over the road. In the open ravines, networks of strong wire had been stretched between the slopes to support creepers, which had soon blotted out the road beneath.

The jungle road included permanent bridges, twelve to fifteen feet wide, most of them constructed a few inches underwater to fool aerial observation.”

CAMOUFLAGE NETTING

The First World War made the idea of camouflage a necessity and, in some cases, an art. Camouflage comes from the French word for “to disguise”, and the French were the first to take the art seriously and professional. WWI was the first air war, and it did not take long for the combatants to figure out that formerly secure artillery batteries, supply trains, and even front-line positions were easily seen from above. Once seen, they attracted enemy artillery and bombs from the sky.

Camouflage netting became the accepted way of concealing military assets from the air. They became common issue rather than special works during the Second World War.

The Japanese were well-noted for their excellent camouflage techniques during the Second World War. American military intelligence bulletins, using captured manuals in part, made these notes on the Japanese use of camouflage netting and other devices used to conceal themselves, their equipment, and their positions.

In arranging nets, the Japanese try to make them conform to the contour of the land. "When hanging out nets," an enemy source states, "do not leave gaps where each net touches the edges. To avoid casting shadows under nets, set up canvases under them * * *.

Frames for nets should be as low as possible. Where nets touch the ground, they must be sloped gently."

Particularly in jungle areas, the Japanese have been using nets extensively, not only for personnel, but for weapons, installations, and horses and mules. These nets usually have been garnished with local vegetation so as to blend well with the surroundings.

The manual recommends the use of camouflage net frames over peepholes and loopholes when the latter are not being utilized. These holes also are sometimes covered with grass.
Periscopes and similar equipment are camouflaged to represent natural objects.
Before using wire for camouflage purposes, the Japanese recommend that it be smoked in a straw fire to remove its shine and make it more pliable.

Individual Japanese Camouflage Netting

It was not just jungle islands and/or China where the Japanese fought and used excellent camouflage. On foggy, snow-swept Attu and Kiska, the islands they captured in the Alaskan Aleutian Chain, their camouflage was just as good.
The individual camouflage nets were made of vari-colored netting. Wisps of similarly dyed raffia (strong fibrous strands from the leaf stalks of raffia palm trees) were tied into the string meshes of each section.

Individual nets frequently were laced together to cover conical tents. In many instances high revetments were built around the tents, and the camouflage nets fell at a gentle angle from the peak of the tent to the revetment wall. The practice of locating tents at the bottom of deep and almost inaccessible ravines provided an additional safeguard.

The white snow parkas were used for wearing above the snow line. Where possible, the enemy avoided travel across snow patches during the day unless clad in white clothing. When the enemy soldiers moved across the pale grass of the hillsides they often moved in a crouching position with strips of grass matting held in front of them.

Individual enemy riflemen and observers were supplied with hooded camouflage capes, which were made of light, rain-repellent tan paper. The capes were about 9 by 6 feet, and were tied with tie strings. Behind and under these capes, riflemen and observers could sit for a day at a time, dry and protected from wind and rain and indistinguishable from the tundra.

Originally, cammo nets were intended to simply fool the human eye in general, and enemy aerial observation in particular. Now, as electronic detection threats have increased, modern cammo nets have incorporated new features to fool radar and FLIR as well.

The new Ultra Light-weight Camouflage Net Ssystems (ULCANS) will hopefully lead to more surplus Light-weight Camouflage Screen System (LCCS) panels becoming available.

One of the spiffier things one can now get surplus are panels from the “old” LCSS, Lightweight Camouflage Screen System, what everyone else calls a cammo net. Designed for vehicles and other large pieces of military equipment, LCSS is useful for concealment in four different ways:

Casts patterned shadows that breakup the characteristic outlines of an object.

Absorbs and scatters radar returns (except when radar-transparent LCSS is used).

Dissipates infrared radiation.

Simulates color and shadow patterns that are commonly found in a particular region.

Designed, when panels are connected, to conceal things as big as M1 Abrams tanks, LCSS comes in a diamond and a hexagon shaped panel. These panels are connected to make a net as big as needed. The smallest panel, though, is 16x27 feet, which is rather large for most light infantry usage. A unit could go in on a group buy of the stuff and cut it up into the sizes needed for individuals.

With a layer or dome of this stuff over you, with a foot or more of air space between you and it, your signature to high-tech sensors is reduced a tremendous amount. Add natural foliage in the net and natural tree cover overhead and it will do wonders. Swedish Diab-Barracuda netting also has special thermal dissipating and radar scattering qualities. I believe it was the first system that did. You can often find it available for sale as surplus if you look hard enough while LCSS is out there but can still be hard to come by.

When erecting the LCSS, keep the net structure as small as possible. Maintain the netting at a minimum of two feet from the camouflaged object’s surface and avoid eye-catching steeples and shadows. Lines between support poles should be gently sloped so that the net blends into its background. The net should extend completely to the ground to prevent creating unnatural shadows that are easily detected. Doing this will ensure the LCSS effectively disrupts the object’s shape and actually absorbs and scatters radar energy. The net should extend all the way around the object to ensure complete protection from enemy sensors.

The old Coast Artillery Journal offered these do and don’t tips for camouflage, from the air and from the ground. They are still as appropriate today as they ever were:

CAMOUFLAGE HINTS

DO’s

1. DO choose your position carefully. A proper estimate of the situation will make your work easier and avoid impossible camouflage problems.

2. DO use common sense to outwit the enemy. Common sense is uncommon.

3. DO avoid the skyline when concealing against terrestrial observation.

4. Do make full use of natural cover. The cover of a spreading tree is worth truckloads of artificial material.

5. DO utilize ditches, hedges, edges of woods, folds in the ground, etc. These “accidents” of the ground will prevent accidents to you.

6. DO avoid conspicuous landmarks. You don’t want to be at a focal point of enemy attention.

7. DO keep in the shadows. The enemy can’t see of take pictures of something in the shade.

8. DO remember that shadows move. Although shadows as a rule fall toward the North of an object, the length and direction of such shadows change throughout the day.

9. DO avoid all regularities of line or spacing. Nature has no straight lines and the enemy if looking for unnatural signs.

10. DO remember that anything unusual catches the eye of the enemy observer. Try to blend into the background; you want to be inconspicuous.

11. DO garnish carefully. Natural garnishing must look natural so use material similar to that in the vicinity and support is as it would grow.

12. DO thin out garnishing at the edges. A regularly garnished net casts a regular shadow which is obviously out of place in the surroundings. It will look like a stamp and we don’t want to pay postage on our own death bombs.

13. DO change dead vegetation. Forget it and something (or somebody) else will be dead.

14. DO keep your topsoil when digging in. It can be used to cover your spoil on the parapet.

15. DO make bold patterns, in garnishing or painting. You can’t see a two-foot break in the outline from a distance of a mile or two.

16. DO look before you leap. Plan and lay out your position in detail before moving in and trampling down promiscuously. Signs of activity lead to enemy activity which reduces the possibility of further activity.

17. DO observe camouflage discipline in making a reconnaissance. Signs of activity before occupation are just as disastrous as signs afterward.

18. DO restrict movement when the enemy is observing. A motionless object may escape detection: a moving one will attract attention.

19. DO take extra care when tired. Fatigue leads to carelessness.

20. DO work in the shade or at night. The enemy is looking for you at all times but his eyes are not as good as a cat’s. He can’t hit what he can’t see.

21. DO keep your tops “Flat’. Sagging nets are worse than baggy knees.

22. DO use existing roads and paths. Traffic here will not leave noticeable signs.

23. DO conceal the entire layout. If one tent or truck is seen it makes no difference that the rest of the installation is perfectly covered.

DON’Ts

1. DON'T be careless and give away your buddies. They're depending on you just as you are depending on them.

2. DON'T look up at airplanes. The enemy is looking for you too and you're easier to hit than he is.

3. DON'T move unless you have to; then think first how you can move to cover most unobtrusively.

4. DON'T use artificial materials unless the natural cover is insufficient. Natural cover blends best with nature.

5. DON'T be regular in your layout. Regularity is a military attribute and the enemy recognizes it as such.

6. DON'T take shortcuts over the open or step outside cover. Every time you put your foot down you attract forty-eight square inches of enemy attention.

7. DON'T walk around the outside of a net to fix the camouflage. Where you walk will be light in a photograph; the camouflage will be dark. Do you think the enemy will miss such a bullseye?

8. DON'T hide your installation and bury your spoil and belongings in the open. Remember the Ostrich.

9. DON'T let your net tops sag. They will photograph like a wet blanket laid out on bushes and they are not a bit safer.

10. DON'T lower the sides of your camouflage. Your Commanding Officer cannot see what you are doing, but when the enemy, sees the shadow thrown by these sides he will be even more severe.

11. DON'T hide under matted camouflage. It is as conspicuous as a bad haircut.

12. DON'T end a road at an installation or make a lot of trails to a position. Did you ever lose your way to a Canteen?

13. DON'T leave things near the edge of your camouflage. The edge of your camouflage isn't--and shouldn't be--opaque.

14. DON'T crowd around an installation. Dispersion reduces the likelihood of conspicuous trampling.

15. DON'T clean up an old position; it won't look natural to the enemy. If you're moving out, it will remain as a dummy: if you're moving in you don't want to change the appearance.