DRESSING:keep in mind a few things when dressing for the dark
1.speed
2.cloth
3.reliability of patern.
speed is of the importance when moving at night, units of legend move like shadows in and out with minimal sighitings or evidance. strike fast, strike hard, strike silently. loose but not beggy clothing should be worn.
cloth is important because I often hear swosh as the enemy nears and this always gets them killed.cottons are reliable.
sense BLACK is the absense of light it should never be worn. because in the dark light still remains and sense nothing at night appears BLACK you will instantly give your position away. at night grass,blacktop,and shrubs appears a dark blue or green, and trees,concreat and most walls a dark grey. so in logical thinking one should wear just that.also a wavy pattern is optimal, the best known night fihgting camo is DESERT NIGHT camo. OLIVE DRAB is im my opinion the second best. seing as how I have other proioritys and hobbies I do not invest much in camo finding my wits make up for the lose. I wear a flannel(the BEST camo in my opinion) in dark green brown and blue, this containing a waving patern when worn loose, and tucked in on the very edge of the shirt. I wear a forest green Walmart gardens shirt picked up at salvation army, and my fav pair of dark brown khakie pants. DIRTied with many battles of cousre distorting the color. in this outfit I have achieved many knife kills.(my knife being a copper expansion tube) and many dissarments or "takedown" kills. my record at airsoft in whole being flawless sept for one suicide death explained in a recent post.so in retrospect it does not take a well dressed soldier to do the night fighting. standerd issue is for sissys and day fighters.
TACTICS:a run threw with numbers
1.fireing at an enemy should be done calmly,night firing is usually too high, therefore, take care not to incline the upper part of the body to the rear, or raise the muzzle of the rifle above the horizontal
1a.realise the trigger with little presure on the finger
1b.move to a new position unless fierd back upon, wait untill fiering stops then move
2.it is silence that is needed when walking, when steping down use the outer edge of your foot and drop the rest slowly down starting from heel to toes. learning to do this will alow you to sneak up behind enemys and even beable to speed walk with much practice. also walking wiht a full glass of water or bowl or water half filled, without spilling will increase the "silent walk". I personaly use a minature level gained at the home depot.
3.keep a low position and use concealment more then cover, the prone position is extreamly effecting in shooting(no muzzle flash in airsoft) and a crawl is noise but effective when under fire.
4. point were you shoot. sense its dark and your senses of hearing sharpened aim using your middle finger and use your index to point at the target. little good will a sight do you at night. becasue your hearing is hightened you will be more accuratly pointing at the "target" sound. notice this does take mental focus, remembering to point and shoot rather then sight and shoot.
5.don't walk the line! and by line I mean horizon and backlighting,everything above the horizon will appear dark blue so if your not the same shade blue that you never will be you will quickly be a target. take great care in anazlizing "safe" terrain. walk in gullys,slops and lay low.remember rods are desined for movment even in the lowest levels of light a silhoutte can facilitate detection.
6.danger lurkes in shadows, when shining a light on the plesent shadowed broom closet you find a masked man wiht a gun. its funny to see pictures of this and how frightening ambushes can turn out, a great book for pics on this is "fighting at night" by Andy Standford.
7.TAC lights blind people, plain and simple.
8.speed sighting should be done in a orderly manor,weapin should be up unless a "friendly" is infront of your lane of fire, LIGHT ON,SHOOT,ASSESS result, LIGHToff , MOVE LATERALY.
9.learn to reload wihtout looking.
10.other means of aiming at night include using the silhouette of the back of your weapon as the sights and aiming lower then center mass, or point of entery you want your round to go. effective but I sitll like the point.
11. never shine your light at any object directly infront of you, so many times have a I seen a newbie shine his light not knowing light bounces off things and have it blind him.pluse it alluminates you. be that dancing "willow of wisp" (folklore)of death not the moron blinding him self.
12.remember distance favores the skilled shooter, if your not accustomed to your gun enough get closer before you fire.
13.when searching never turn your back on anything not checked, darkness favors the sneaky basterds.
14. so often do I see the player get lucky and "tag" some one out, and the DROP HIS GUARD. never do this, drop the target, scan for more, reload if nessisary, move.the dark laxes people for some reason when they think the initial threat is done with.
15.because the FIGHT OR FLIGHT response exists in all creatures wiht over 50 brain cells, tunnel vision can accure. remember to constantly scan even when you hear a "bump" in the night or see a potental target.
it is also easier to be flanked at night becaue of vision tunneling.
16.quoting CLINT SMITH "always cheat always win", darkness will provide the concealment needed be sneaky and youll survive.
thank you for my most basic of night fighting techniques. I hope you learn and enjoy them.
knowledged gained threw personal experiance and numerous writings.
"fight at night" by andy standford.
"guerrillas in the mist" by bob newman
"phantom soldier" by h.john poole
fm31-20 special forces operational techniques
"night movments" translated by c.burnett
"fighting at night" by Major Walter J. Wierzbicki, USMC
I may be making a part 2 soon...don't know, but time for bed :}
