Using Night Vision Goggles

Most of my Army career was spent in tactical telecommunications units. I really can't complain about the conditions too much because there were a lot of guys that had it worse than we did. We had HUMVEES, 5 ton trucks, and a few Deuce and a half's to haul us and our equipment around with. But all soldiers complain about something. It's part of the job.

My biggest complaint was the lack of the high tech, good shit that the infantry was getting. My unit was one of the last to get the M16A2, the Kevlar helmets, and I never even saw a SAW (thats a squad automatic weapon, for you civilians).

I was surrounded by both high tech and antiquated communications gear, and I knew it was a matter of time before the good stuff would start to filter in.

As fate would have it, eventually the good stuff started to roll in (even if we were the last to get it). The officers usually got the good stuff like the 9mm Birettas to replace the old M1911 45 caliber side arms. And of course the night vision goggles. Since there were only a limited supply, only the drivers got them, so we could drive at night without lights during maneuvers or tactical situations.

Once we arrived to the area of operations the perimeter guards would be issued the NVG's. That's when everything changed.

Once I tried on the NVG's, I wanted to be on guard duty, just to see who I could mess with. But, at the time I had a responsibility, and I gave them to the first man on guard that night.

If you haven't used NVG's before, it's just like being in the daylight, only with green light.

Later that night asleep in my tent, I was awakened by the sound of giggling. Not the usual sound you would hear in a tactical environment in the middle of the night. I grabbed my gear and found one of the corporals hiding behind a truck, silently laughing so hard, it made me laugh. Without saying anything he handed me the night vision goggles, and pointed to one of the foxhole on the perimeter. I quietly took of my gear, and handed my M16 to the corporal.

As crawled slowly towards the fox hole, at first I thought I her the hissing of one of the radios that we sometimes kept on the perimeter. "Hissss... Hissss" then "clank clank", over and over again. I wasn't very noisy, but it was too noisy for a guard post or fox hole.

Just the fact that I could sneak up on this guy meant he wasn't alert. Once I got within about 10 feet, I could see what was going on.

I could barely make it out, and didn't want to believe what I was seeing. But there it was, in the green light of the night vision goggles, looking past the camouflage nets, through the sand bags was one hand gripping an M60 machine gun, and the other hand... choking his chicken!

In the loudest whisper I could muster, "what are you doing soldier"? He hit the bottom of the foxhole as if he was being attacked by incoming artillery, and pulled his rucksack in on top of him. I was kind of freaked out by the whole incident too. I actually stood up, looked into the foxhole, and said "hey soldier, stay alert, stay alive". It's all I could think of.

I gathered up my gear and walked past the now laughing out loud corporal, Since I was in charge of the guard that night It was my responsibility to ensure the integrity of the perimeter. That can be difficult when your laughing your ass off.

I left that training exercise with a renewed respect for technology. The guard that night left with a new nickname. "Stroker Ace".