From: aebrain@a...
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 10:27:32 +1100
Subject: Re: Ghurkas and Fieldcraft
> >I would believe either variant. Me too. 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. 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).