Patrolling in the military, as opposed to Law Enforcement, is very broad and can be conducting for any number of things from gathering information (Reconnaissance Patrol) to seeking open conflict (Combat Patrol) in the area of operations. The goal of patrolling is dependent on the mission, but it is often used as a means to deny the enemy intel or freedom to conduct operations unmolested. Patrolling is not just a stroll in the park, but rather a planned, coordinated, and even rehearsed operation in itself. The idea is to accomplish your mission with the highest reward on your side and the greatest loss to the enemy. Proper patrolling requires attention-to-detail and discipline in several areas, which we will discuss here. INFORMATION DENIAL No matter the type of patrol, the idea behind maintaining the following disciplines is to deny the enemy knowledge/Intel about your own forces, thereby denying them the ability to effectively plan an attack or defense. This denial requires you to be very methodical about your patrolling and adhere to disciplines before, during, and after contact. There will only be so much you can do after contact has been made, but there are still things you should do to further deny the enemy intel about whom they were engaged with. Obviously, it’s dependent on your location, but the disciplines still apply pretty much anywhere. FIRE DISCIPLINE This refers to individuals practicing discipline in their engagement with the enemy. All too often, people tend to “FEEL” that a high volume of semi-accurate fire is better than a lower volume of fire delivered with precision. Obviously, the area you are operating in may prevent you from having Positive Identification (PID) all the time, but you can still use some restraint and limit the amount of “To Whomever It May Concern” rounds. If nothing else, for the sake of ammunition conservation. The process for firing multiple shots is very simply applied as follows: ID threat, Sight picture, pull the trigger without moving the gun, ID threat, sight picture, pull the trigger without moving the gun, etc. The other part of fire discipline is giving your shots time to work. Many times, people will blaze away at someone without giving their bullets time to affect the brain or body. This is often a fear response where people will dump as many rounds into someone until they stop. This is not wrong, but often the shooters stop registering whether the threat still exists after the 3rd or 5th round in quick succession. This issue is answered in the above “multiple shot process” where you should be training your brain to “Identify” the threat before sending the next shot. Still holding the gun, boom, still coming, boom, still trying to load, boom. If you are honestly analyzing whether or not your target needs those extra shots, your splits will be no faster than .35 seconds. That is still about 3 rounds a second. This is still fast, but that time shows that you are actually performing an OODA loop cycle between each shot. For example, take a shot timer and shoot at two inch circle/square on a piece of paper 10 yards away. Watch the target with a hard focus and merely superimpose your fuzzy aligned sights over it. After your first shot, verify the shot landed were it was supposed to, line up your sights, and then send another, and repeat the process. This kind of cognitive involvement will slow you down, but not for long if you practice often. This makes you stay involved with the targets status and will make you process information at a much faster rate. LIGHT DISCIPLINE This refers to anything that can betray your position at night, through photonic barriers, and through the day. Anything that reflects or may be a bright contrast to your environment must be covered or, at the very least, subdued. No flicking off lighters/matches, using flashlights, smoking, shiny watches, etc. Police up any buttons with a Sharpie that may have lost a non-reflective finish, and use mud or camouflage paint on your exposed skin. Sweaty skin has a tendency to reflect light. Ensure weapon finish is non-reflective prior to patrol. NOISE DISCIPLINE This is really easy to understand and follow, but basically police up all your gear that clatters and secure it from doing so. Top off canteens, drain all air from camelback bladders, wrap metal straps and buckles in electrical tape, replace metal sling swivels with 550 cord, wrap electrical tape around base of mags (even polymer has a distinct signature when clanking/scraping against each other), etc. When you are done, you should be able to jump up and down and do burpees without making excessive noise. There will usually be some rustling, but in general it should be hardly noticeable. SCENT DISCIPLINE Throughout history, warriors have reported that they knew the enemy was close because of their unique smell. For this reason, you must abstain from use of deodorant, tobacco, soaps, bug sprays, lotions, aftershave, oils, and even smelly/scented stuff like coffee, garlic, etc. This does not mean to be a filthy pig. In fact, the SAS learned the hard way that you can’t go unclean into the field without producing a foul scent that seems to overwhelm the senses from a good distance. The smell of old and uncleaned skin is very unpleasant and something that will definitely carry on the wind. As far as what to eat in the field, I would stick to simple things like plain breads, unflavored rice, and stuff that generally doesn’t have a scent. I personally like the Mayday rations as they have a flavor, but almost no discernable smell whatsoever. You can’t be cooking food or lighting anything on fire because the smell of smoke and cooking food will carry quite a long way, even on a light breeze. SIGN DISCIPLINE Liam Neeson in Batman Begins says “You cannot leave any sign”. He was right, but that is not always possible to not leave ANY sign. Perhaps a more reasonable and accurate piece of advice is to not leave any CLEAR sign. As I discussed in the beginning of this article, the goal is to deny the enemy as much information as possible. It is very likely that your patrol will be followed, and therefore a tracker or team of trackers may be hunting for you. So, no matter if you feel like you are being followed or not, you need to cover/disguise/distort your sign. Perhaps even creating false sign would help in certain situations like a false encampment to buy time or feigned boobytraps. When you stop to conduct SLLS, you need to make sure you are doing it in a way that leaves the smallest footprint (Literally and Figuratively) possible. If you can reduce your print to nothing and completely hide it, all the better, but most often the rear element will work on disguising or distorting your sign to make it hard for the trackers to get an accurate read on your patrol. Some other considerations other than walking are things like digging a hole to urinate or spit and bagging up your solid waste. Trackers and their dogs will use these articles to get a good read on your patrol. When you eat, make sure you are bagging up all your trash and double check that you are not leaving crumbs to tell a tale. Use a gallon Ziplock bag to store and eat your snacks out of it, literally. Stick your face in the bag to eat if you are eating foods that will drip or crumble. This may sound ridiculous, but you have to take precautions. Mission takes priority over your dignity or comfort. Throughout the history of war, people have betrayed their position of stealth and security by littering, leaving their bodily waste behind, eating smelly foods, using tobacco, allowing their gear to rattle, canteens to slosh, and talking loud like they are tipsy at a barbeque. This is how you stack up casualties, not how you conduct a mission where the goal is to win and stay alive. WATER DISCIPLINE When you are out of patrol, you need to limit the amount of water you are tossing back. For one thing, the mission isn’t a walk in the woods where you can just stop whenever you want and take a drink. Drinking water can be done on the go with a water bladder or canteen straw, but this isn’t necessary if you are being strategic with your water. Canteens are only quiet if they are completely full or completely empty, and camelbacks tend to allow air in as you drink from them and then slosh around as well. A canteen is much easier to fill though, from my experience. If you wait to take in water until your patrol gets to a potential watering point, you can simply down the whole canteen and take some salt with it for maintaining your electrolyte levels. Then you refill your canteen, drop in a purification tablet or a couple drops of bleach from an eyedropper, and wait a minimum of four hours before the water is relatively safe to consume. When you are drinking water, your system is going to use it and try to purge itself of waste, meaning you are going to have to urinate. This is very inconvenient for the patrol and requires you dig a respectable cat hole and very gracefully put every drop in that hole. Not so fun when you are having to be conscious of every drop, in and out. Believe me, it is better if you just hold on a bit longer and then drink a full canteen with some salt. FOOD DISCIPLINE I used to be the sort of person who believed you should always have a snack on you to eat whenever. It sounded like a good idea when I was in because back then they still thought three meals a day was normal for the human body and even necessary. These days we understand that calories don’t mean anything and we were not actually designed to eat all the time. This is how you get Type 2 Diabetes/Insulin Resistance. Even when I was deployed, I did not have very much food, and I definitely did not eat all that often. I did not have time to sit down and stuff my face with crap because I was quite busy doing things that would help accomplish our mission. Patrols, preparation, guard duty, firefights, sleeping, to name a few things than take priority over eating MRE bread and pudding. I was maybe eating once a day, or perhaps not at all. If you are out on a patrol and trying to prevent yourself from getting discovered or caught by a tracking party, you might want to also be as strategic about eating as you are with water. If you wait to eat only when you are able to down your canteen of water, that would be an ideal time. Getting nutrients and water is a great combo. However, having some food tends to make us hungrier for more and/or tired post-prandial (after being fed). But also you will be encouraging your bowels to make room for the new crap you just stuffed down your throat. It is a risk you have to gamble with, but I would rather stuff myself the day before stepping off on patrol and then fast until I return. This way I don’t have to worry much at all about food unless in an E&E kit. ENERGY DISCIPLINE When you are out patrolling, you could be going up and down hills or mountains several times through the course of several hours with little rest except for SLLS. For this reason, you need to be smart about how you are using your energy and how hard you are pushing yourself or your team mates. When people get tired or exhausted, they get sloppy. Sloppy people get themselves killed and tend to drag their buddy to hell with them. The point here is to know when to take it slower and don’t push your body to the point that you are not capable of reacting to contact effectively. Also, make sure you are ready to carry weight up mountains with little rest between because that is just part of the game. Lastly, learn how to and practice recovering your energy, focus, and breath faster. No excuse not to improve yourself to be ready for the mission. SUMMARY The big picture I wanted to draw for you guys and gals is that patrolling done right is tedious, exhausting, and demanding...but only if you want to stay alive. The subjects I covered here were learned at the cost of many lives and they do take practice to make habitual. Also, there is a lot more detail that I could have gone into with this article, but for the sake of brevity, I have not extended everything into book chapters. You’re welcome.
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