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There was....
There was life before NODs, life with limited NODs, now life with "we got NODs" and soon to come life with "Everybody got NODs". Have done the first three but not the last.
NODs have their advantages, but also their disadvantages. In closed, I repeat closed, terrain while moving at night, even with NODs you are at the disadvantage over an alert enemy. IR helps but you still have to know how far out you can detect and how far your sound carries. Sound carries a lot farther than most people think.
It is far harder to move slow than it is to move fast. Poorly trained troops tend to pickup the pace and as a side product the noise level picks up. Sling keeper hits the hand guard - only an M-16 series makes that sound. Stiff branch on a nylon ruck? Halt - Thump, Thump, Thump and ruck heavy bodies hit the ground.
For you younger guys, the night has sounds, can you blend in - fade into the background or do you stick out. To find out you need to get in the woods with other people. I think the average American finds it hard to just sit still and be quite for an hour or so.
There is a bunch of old threads with similar tips and such floating around in here. All you new guys dig up all that SA stuff.
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