Miss Roth
English 9-4
21 March 2017
Camouflage More Than Just Fabric In today's society camouflage is not an uncommon sight, bright colors or dull colors, but was there a time before this craze of blotches of colors smattered all over a piece of clothing? There is much history about camouflages original purpose and how this ideas for these very distinguishing patterns seen just about everywhere. Everyone has seen pictures of military personnel wearing the green and khaki uniforms in wartime situations, although most people do not realize the significance of these uniforms and the true purpose they serve for military purposes. It helps to hide them from enemies similar to how animals use it to hide from their predators. …show more content…
In a similar way that animals use their colors to help protect themselves from predators, the military hoped to better conceal their soldiers in battle from the enemies that aimed to harm them. “Simplistically camouflage involves possessing markings that reduce the chance of detection.” (Stevens n.p.) On this basis is how many camouflage uniforms are developed, a pattern is designed to help conceal troops from being seen by enemy forces in a certain environment. This concealment also helps to avoid injuries caused by enemy. This is very similar to the camouflage tactics of animals, where much research was done to develop the possibly life saving measure of camouflage. “ Camouflage the art and practice of concealment and visual deception in war. It is the means of defeating enemy observation.” (Camouflage n.p.) The entire point of the development of camouflage for the military was to aid in the concealment of points of interest for enemy such as troops, bases, and vehicles. Thus this invention made it more difficult for enemies to detect troops as well as make it harder for an enemy to identify and engage the target. Although other militaries use camouflage as well certain patterns are more effective than other and currently the United States has some of the best and most effective patterns that work well in certain and varied environments.( Newark 5) With the invention …show more content…
Since camouflage allows a person to conceal their position, they need to be close to the target they are trying to observe. It also works the other way, camouflage makes the observers harder to see for the target which allows for better and closer reconnaissance of a certain objective. (Mason n.p.) Since camouflage allows forces to move closer than before they can now get better intelligence and even save lives because of this information. Although this only works with proper camouflaging techniques. So this requires the military to spend time on the subject of camouflage to prepare the soldiers on how to effectively camouflage themselves. This training can take more time and money but in return it makes gathering intelligence and reconnaissance much more effective for the military. Camouflage can hide a possible target from aerial surveillance as well as ground forces. This is effective if something of importance like a FOB, or forward operating base, needs to be hidden in a high action zone. Camouflage allows for a cheaper and more effective way to protect important things by using deception tactics and hiding from the eyes of possible