You stink!

[GunnyGene]

Not sure if this should be in this forum or in one of the Technical forums, but here goes anyway. Some of the folks here will know this already, but this is a nice reminder; We Stink! And that gives our opponents a decided advantage.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wol...s.htm#comments

[aa1911]

That's a pretty interesting read and has a lot of validity to it.

Most of the enemy smokes and smells worse than we do so they can be just as easy to sense also.

look at people who lose sight or sound, their smell and other remaining senses grow extemely strong.


I notice every year out hunting, that after a day or two, my sense of smell and hearing is greatly enhanced. I'm tuned into the slightest of sounds and things we would normally not even sense are very obvious all of a sudden.

Overseas it's been a different story for me though, most missions are quick and very active. But for overwatch and sneak and peak stuff, the article has a good point.

Thanks, pretty interesting

[GunnyGene]

Michael is running a series on combat tracking called "WolfPack". Be sure to read the others ( a couple prior to this one) as they come out.

These are some of the things that civilians simply have no concept of, and that a professional warrior accepts as second nature.

[GunnyGene]

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wol...sole-mates.htm

[time2shoot]

^^^^^^
sketchers. looks like size 11 1/2

[time2shoot]

they do have a light step. about 180 190lbs.
and they are moving slowly, heal to toe. and they are not pushing off with the balls of there feet, no toe kick out that would come with moving at a normal pace.
There trying to move slow and quiet.
And know heal slide. they are carfully pooting ther foot down.

[time2shoot]

howed I do gunny?

[hobby_mesa]

"Most of the enemy smokes and smells worse than we do so they can be just as easy to sense also."

Always gotta have a slam on tobacco, huh? So you know, generally statements about any group of people has a name. My rather expensive cigars actually have a pleasant odor. I can pick up people's scent...even get a picture in my head of their race when I smell them. Learned it as a young boy. Yet, you won't hear me commenting about how this or that "type" of person stinks LOL. Most or our enemies smoke LOL...you have actually amused me.

[GunnyGene]

Not bad. But you missed the imprints around the shoe print.

[GunnyGene]

Originally Posted by hobby_mesa

"Most of the enemy smokes and smells worse than we do so they can be just as easy to sense also."

Always gotta have a slam on tobacco, huh? So you know, generally statements about any group of people has a name. My rather expensive cigars actually have a pleasant odor. I can pick up people's scent...even get a picture in my head of their race when I smell them. Learned it as a young boy. Yet, you won't hear me commenting about how this or that "type" of person stinks LOL. Most or our enemies smoke LOL...you have actually amused me.

Perhaps I should have titled this a bit differently, but it was not intended as a slam related to personal odors, but rather as a commentary on the lack of combat tracking skills. Odors are part of that, but so are many other aspects of tracking, which most of our troops are not trained to read or take advantage of. It puts our guys at a significant disadvantage.

As Michael puts it in the series, we are simply not in tune with the "bioweb".

[carver]

You are what you eat! But that also goes for any thing you ingest. If you eat differently that your enemy, you will smell different, no matter what you try to do about it. I can smell squirrels in the woods sometimes. If I can smell them, I know they can smell me! Good article, and well worth taking a closer look at it, and the others he has posted.

[aa1911]

No slam, I'm a tobacco user myself. most enemy (or indig friendlies) do smoke and have little access to showers so they do smell pretty bad compared to Americans.

Tracking skills are certainly useful although more is done with electronics nowadays. It's a lost art, I've heard stories of folks in Vietnam changing their diet etc to cut down their signature smells.

So the enemy smells one way, we smell just as bad in another!

[jjmitchell60]

Being I never smoked tobacco in my life, well tried one regular and one menthol, but raised it all my life except time in service; I can smell some one who has been smoking at least 1/8 a mile on a calm day and if the wind is right a lot farther. Now mind you that is if they are not smoking at that time or have not in a while and yes the smell of smokeing does get on the body and in the hair not to mention clothing. IF smoking currently I can smell it 2-4x farther depending on wind. Not smoking has helped me a lot. Now with that said it is not just smoking. I use no after shave (last shaved in 1980) or cologne so I can smell that or perfume a mile away. Yes we are what we eat and our sweat will tell you that. You can tell the difference in the odor of different people depending on their life style and where they live. I spent some time in China and can tell you in a heart beat the difference between a native Chinese and a foreigner to China at a good 1/4 mile just by smell. I could tell IF a person living in China had come from Beijing or from out in the providence. Could tell if from another part of China due to the smell they gave off. Almost all of that was due to what they ate, what they used as heat, what was the main way of living (industrial, agricultral, or other), and their status in life as to wealth or what is concidered poor.
Bottom line is we are what we eat, smoke, ingest, live around, and do in life. We can teach ourselves the difference but once in the out doors for a period of cleansing, it will naturally come back to you IF you want it to. Too many worry about what they are missing when in the out doors to listen to what we have missed from not being in the out doors which is man's natural element IMHO.

Same with blood, I can smell it a good distance and do find wounded deer for my family and others that way.

There is a thing to training yourself to the ways of the outdoors but also there is a sixth sense we all have that comes back to you once you are in the outdoors for a extended periods IF you want it and allow it to.

Just IMHO.

[time2shoot]

hmmmm ????????????? trying to figure out what the impreshion behind the heal is.
don't see anything that was droped.
Is that shoe imprint over top of a bare foot imprint?

[GunnyGene]

Originally Posted by time2shoot

hmmmm ????????????? trying to figure out what the impreshion behind the heal is.
don't see anything that was droped.
Is that shoe imprint over top of a bare foot imprint?

It's the butt of a weapon that was set down - probably for balance or resting. He made a mistake. The point is that this clue (plus factoring in the avg weight of male Afghans between 20 and 50 years old) tells you that the person was probably carrying 30# or more of gear(ammo, food, water, etc.), so he probably weighed less than what the footprint alone would indicate. I'd say around 160lbs, maybe less.

[time2shoot]

gotcha. the sketchers logo on the shoe through me.
I can se it now. he left more than one impreshion.

Man If my platoon leader would have cought us doing that
As he would say :voodoo owns your azz now "