From: Mark Roberts
John Sessoms wrote:
>From: Miserere
>> On 30 April 2010 23:03, Stan Halpin <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> > Sorry, I have worked for the Army for 39+ years and have
>>> > developed an aversion to camo. What triggered it was the
>>> > number of complaints about pedestrians being hit by cars on
>>> > base. Helloooo - they are all wearing camo! And then they
>>> > wander across the street expecting people to see them?
>>
>> That's some damn good camo! I'm sure some smart salesman at the
>> clothes supplier can work that into an ad campaign: "Camouflage so
>> good, not even your own people will see you! [There are currently 3
>> people wearing our camouflage in this ad.]"
>
>I dunno, but it seems to me if you're on an Army base you ought to
>expect people crossing streets to be wearing camo.
You expect it on the battlefield, too. That doesn't make it stand out
any better!
Seriously, the colors of "camo" have been developed over years to be
as difficult as possible for human to pick up in a wide variety of
conditions. Works pretty well: Statistics of motorcycle accidents, for
example, show riders wearing camo/khaki clothing to be over
represented in statistics.
It's not caused by the clothing.
It's more a correlation with an age demographic. The riders most likely
to be wearing camouflage uniforms are also the age demographic most
likely to ride unsafely. You can find a similar correlation between
camouflage uniforms and automobile accidents ... for the same reason.
The Army requires motorcycle riders to wear reflective high-visibility
vests over their clothing when riding, in addition to helmets and other
PPE ... even on posts in states that do not have helmet laws.
While the Army can't ALWAYS catch every rider when the rider is NOT in
uniform and is away from the post, they do enforce it quite stringently
for riders off post, in uniform and ON POST it don't matter whether
you're in uniform or not. You operate a motorcycle on post, you wear
Army Standard PPE including the vest.
In the military operating a P.O.V. is a privilege, not a right, and
commanders are not at all unwilling to revoke that privilege if the
soldier fails to adhere to Army standards. Because the commander can be
held responsible if anything happens to a soldier and investigation
reveals the commander was not adequately enforcing the safety regulations.
Did you know any soldier going on leave who is planning to travel by
motorcycle is required to file a risk management plan with a designated
safety supervisor? And that the soldier cannot get his/her leave
approved until the risk management plan is accepted?
Now I don't know how the National Guard does it in other states, but in
North Carolina, if you show up for drill Armory riding a motorcycle, you
better have an U.S. Army certificate showing you passed the ARMY test
and you better be wearing Army Standard PPE.
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