Characters

  • SGT Joe Rock
  • SGT Pete Barlow

Locations

  • Orchard Training Range, Idaho

When you do weekend training, you usually try to fit the full suite of training in all at once. So if you are doing (for example) weapons shooting, you want to do day-time qualification night time quals, gas mask and “night vision”, all in one weekend.

Same for convoy operations and driving. At least once a year, Army Reserve and National Guard units try to squeeze in a full weekend of “convoy operations” and driver’s training on military vehicles. Military vehicles typically have different handling characteristics than civilian cars; they are heavier (need more stopping distance) and may be armored (topheavy rollover prevention) and sometimes have limited vision to accommodate extra armor protection. There is also a need to qualify on driving at night without headlights– using only “NVGs” or “Night Vision Goggles”… sometimes called “NODs” or “Night Observation Devices”.

The old NVGs were true goggles, and they looked sort of like binoculars– two eye pieces to look into, and a night-observation lens to look out of in low light situations. Most modern NVGs are actually “monocular”, or single-eye devices. The brace on the helmet holds the device in place, and you can pre-set it to come down over your left or right eye (whichever is more comfortable). The idea is that it is best to keep one eye devoted to looking at things “naturally” (in the dark) while one looks at things with night vision enhanced technology.

The end result may not LOOK exactly like this… but it sure FEELS like it the next day.

Also: Shout out to Pete Barlow, another of my Patreon supporters! Thanks for your support, Pete!

And an announcement: I have vacation and Annual Training back-to-back for a few weeks, so BOHICA Blues will slow down for a bit. I’ll do one comic this week, one comic next week, and then a couple of specials. Regular posting will resume around the end of July.

Characters

  • SGT Joe Rock
  • SGT Pete Barlow

Locations

  • Orchard Training Range, Idaho

Your Comments