Mission: Tactical Ghillie Suits

mission: Tactical Ghillie Suits

Intelligence:

a ghillie suit is netting glued or sewn to a BDU jacket and pants, and then frayed and colored burlap and jute cord is woven into and tied onto the netting until it looks like a big bushy piece of foliage. Snipers use them routinely to blend right in with their environment. They work so well in fact, that when done right, there could be a sniper only a few feet in front of you and you wouldn’t even see him. The term “ghillie suit” originates over a hundred years ago, in the highlands of Scotland, where ghillie was a term given to a guy that would be employed by land owners to catch poachers, control predators, and generally monitor the health of the wildlife in the area. The ghillies wanted to blend into the wooded areas so they could surprise the poachers, and so they attached netting to their clothing, and from that netting, they hung old rags that they had dyed to match the foliage in the area. The idea worked so well, and the ghillies disappeared into the woods so well, that the townsfolk and the poachers came to think of them as masters of disguise, ghosts that would seemingly pop out of nowhere. Snipers still use ghillie suits today, as it is considered one of the best forms of physical camouflage on the planet. Navy Seal snipers wear ghillie suits. So do the Special Forces (Green Berets) and Army Rangers. Marine LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol) units wear ghillie suits, as do members of Britain’s legendary SAS (Special Air Service). Snipers will generally enhance their ghillie suit by inserting bunches of plants, dirt and mud native to the region right into the suit’s netting. Turkey and waterfowl hunters would really benefit from wearing a ghillie suit.