My son got some money for his birthday and wanted a watch. He was able to find a fun one with flashing lights and dinosaurs, it even has little flashlight on it. It’s cool watch for a boy. As he was picking it out in the store, it made me remember story about another watch.
When I went through Field Medical Service School, the school that took Navy Corpsman and did their best to prepare them for a service with the Marine Corps, we had an instructor who had come from one of the Recon Battalions. A very serious guy, the type who always seemed to be disappointed and pissed off. He came from the time and place where fieldcraft mattered.
The recon guys worked in small teams, and where being discovered could mean mission failure or even death. Anything that would attract unwanted attention, create unwanted noise, light, or smell was avoided and ridiculed. Not just in the field but all of the time, so it was ingrained into their character and making it second nature.
One day we were on a ruck march, I believe, and the grumpy instructor was walking along the line. His ALICE pack (military backpack) looked empty as always, but it was the heaviest one out there. It had two 45-pound barbell plates tactically acquired (stolen) from the gym. Someone’s watch beeped because it was the top of the hour. He came unglued and seemingly flew over to the offending person, 90-pound pack and all.
“Who is a wearing a team killer?!” he bellowed.
A what? I’m sure he was met with dumbfounded stares. It might have been a self-explaining term, but it was a new one to us, nonetheless.
A team killer we soon learned from an explicative filled rant, was anything that made unnecessary noise, or gave off light, or smelled, or did anything to take away your stealth.
Watches where a required item, being a doc – a Corpsman, we had to be able to take vital signs, and a watch was best tool to get some baseline numbers in the field without advanced tools. They had better be quiet if you are going to work with the Marines.
Light and noise could give away your position, especially if you were on a recon team, doing sneaky stuff. Depending on what the infantry guys are doing it either didn’t matter at all, or it was equally dangerous. Sometimes the infantry was looking for a fight, and they are loud, and have lights. Sometimes they were doing sneaky things. Best to have a quiet watch when you are a grunt (infantry guy).
Team killers could be other things too; the cell phone definitely is the new big one. Noisy, light, gives off a signal, very distracting, etc.
One night when I was in the Border Patrol, I was up on the ridge spotting with thermal optic. There were two of my teammates sitting along a trail, in the draw a couple hundred feet below me. I took a break from scanning the thermals and looked down towards the draw. Much to my surprise I saw a glow coming from the area where the guys were. What the f@#$? We didn’t use lights at night unless it was an absolute emergency, they were a definite clue an illegal would see.
Well come to find out that glowing light was one of the guy’s Gameboy. WTF indeed, those are also team killers, don’t bring that in the field either.
Noise and light discipline, there are definite jobs where these are essential, if you are trying to be stealthy factor them in.
-Joseph
Outpost 95 