How Army Snipers Create Camouflage Ghillie Suits For Combat | Boot Camp | Insider Business

these U.S army sniper Corps students are participating in what's known as a gilly wash vent designed to test the durability of a soldier's ghillie suit snipers rely on their ghillie suits in combat to disguise themselves from enemies the purpose of the ghillie suit is to achieve a blending we use natural vegetation as well we target into our suit and it helps us to blend in with whatever environment we could potentially be working in these future snipers will take the ghillie suits made and tested in training into actual combat we give them steps and places of the body where we want to cover that helps us look like nothing they could even know that they're looking for us they know someone is there but they cannot find us ually made ghillie suits can cost anywhere from 200 to 400 dollars it all starts with the base layer for many it's one of their old uniforms or a used one they can buy for roughly one hundred dollars I just cut a bunch of pieces out of it sewed a bunch of mesh into it for venting and then sewed netting on to the outside of it netting is used to break up the sniper silhouette and to attach natural and artificial camouflage to the suit the most common artificial camouflage is jute a fibrous plant-based material you just strip it into pieces and that is the hair looking stuff all the ugly suit but just be mindful of this color right unless you if you're not in Shade that's not going to do you any good right that's going to make you stick out instructors inspect students ghillie suit several times during the sniper course we do a 360 inspection ensuring that there are points that generally get blown out such as the crotch of the pants armpits elbows stuff like that those High wear and tear areas are reinforced they're they're sewn down they're glued I know you got it extended here you might want to try to extend this some here to break up this straight line every student skilly suit isn't going to be the same we give them left and right parameters and they fit you know wherever they fall in the durability of the suits is tested during an event known as the Gilly wash which happens in week two of the sniper course the purpose of the Gilly wash is to season and condition their ghillie suit not only to help it soak up color and to have it kind of more natural and earthy it also allows us to find any weak points they could potentially have in their ghillie suits just kind of see how if anything will tear like The netting and stuff on the back a gilly wash starts with students crawling and rolling across various terrains gravel pavement and sand what is the primary control we soak them down get them wet that's going to start creating a lot of weight it's going to make it a little bit harder for them as well [Applause] exercises such as lunges squats and push-ups test the suit's ability to stretch Under Pressure they're just kind of testing out their ghillie suit and sense of how able was it to take the beating after roughing up their suits students crawl on their stomachs and backs through wet and muddy trenches to add color to them it's not necessarily we're trying to find a weak point at that point but we're trying to get that color deeply rooted in the fabric there is really deep clay mud that's pretty prominent here so it's a good source for uh when you're trying to get that earthy tone here the clay around here in Georgia tastes pretty good so the last section of the Gilly wash takes place in a 200 foot long trench filled with water reaching up to chest High you have them low crawling over any kind of like obstacles and stuff like that see if your area that they drag themselves on will possibly peel up and again any kind of stitching is going to rip [Music] after climbing out of the trench the students get hosed off to remove any excess mud before hanging their suits out to dry it is a very physical event but it's completely necessary like we have to test out these goalie suits to make sure they're going to withstand the test of time the culminating test of the ghillie suits comes during stalk events students must navigate through wooded terrain without being spotted by the instructors walking around them or by those observing from afar with binoculars before the event begins the class covers themselves in natural vegetation that matches their surroundings on their ghillie suits they have a number of tie downs on their the Hat the top and the pants they'll tie a natural vegetation that matches the environment they're currently in just to give them an initial base layer of camouflage as they move through the land students are taught to use a 30 to 70 ratio of artificial to Natural camouflage and must carefully pick which kinds of foliage to use here in Georgia it's so hot and humid everything dies kind of quickly the only thing that's going to really live on you a long time is the pine leaves and stuff and the smaller the shorter the plant is the longer to live once the class enters the woods they must keep a low profile moving slowly and deliberately to avoid drawing the eye of an instructor as the foliage around them changes the students swap out the natural vegetation on their ghillie suits to match their environment but even the smallest of imperfections in a student's camouflage will get them spotted spotter spotting scope not a bad position at all right uh if you would have vegged more on that body scope you guys probably have been all right I had like a screen over the top of my tripod and it was like an off color for the foliage that was around I mean you're not going to go out there and not learn something so it's it's definitely fun they don't put it on it just disappears I like the movies or a video game but you uh you put it on and it helps us to achieve a blending effect with our environment a well-constructed and properly maintained ghillie suit can last a sniper's entire career I've done multiple washes in my ghillie suit and I've had it the entirety of me being a sniper the only time I have to do anything to it is just replace jute because it's natural and it's going to wear away eventually but all the stitching everything like that is continuously held up over the years that's the beauty of the ghillie suit is that it can be manipulated in so many different ways to kind of tailor it to whatever environment you're in foreign

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Length: 7min 59sec (479 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 14 2021