Re: Ghurkas and Fieldcraft

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On Wed, 7 Nov 2001 aebrain@austarmetro.com.au wrote:

> During one exercise (in the Australian Air Training Corps when I was
in my teens) we had an "escape and evasion" scenario. There we were, 20
of us in our parade boots and bright blue 1-piece overalls in a 100m x
100m area of forest in broad daylight. We had 15 minutes to hide before
the searchers came through.
> Most got caught, but 5 of us didn't.
>

> It wasn't difficult untying one of the searcher's shoelaces. I took 12
> names (reading name badges of anyone coming within 5 metres), someone
> else got 15. I got stepped on twice.

I've had the same experience doing Live Roleplay events.

> Now agreed we had some time to prepare, we didn't have to move from
> our locations, and they didn't use tracker dogs. But neither were we
> wearing cammo uniforms. A lot of this "magic ninja stuff" - Fieldcraft
> as practiced by Apaches, Gurhkas, etc is a lot easier than it sounds.
> Even rank amateurs can do quite well if they give it a bit of thought,
> while the professionals can work apparent miracles *in terrain they
> know well* (emphasis added).

Right. And even when you're not wearing camo, slightly muted colours
make
a good deal of difference already. I've had people stand a few feet from
me, and comment 'It's no point looking for him, he'll find us if he
wants
to, we'll never find him'... It takes just a bit of well planned
dramatic
entrances and escapes to create quite the reputation ;) And I am
_definately_ a rank amateur. Just take my time moving through woods and
pay attention to what I am doing, and look and behold, I'm suddenly ye
silent ninja. (In comparison to the ignorant gits; NOT in comparison to
traine dpeople ;) )

Cheers,

   Derk
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