Night Patrol

By
Gentry Lee Tipton


In the summer of 1992 the Philippines was a hot and humid place to be. The Marines saw fit to place me here as part of the Marine Expeditionary Force; this is a reactionary amphibious force tasked for that region of the globe. Training drills and mock operations kept our minds off of the world back home. The jungle wasn’t the best type of training for the near future of the US military, but it was good training non-the-less.
My experience at patrolling was limited to the Persian Gulf War; huge disbursement and high visibility. We were in for a lesson in contrast. A night patrol? What could come from this? I asked myself. All of the company geared up, and loaded up in the five tons for a few hours ride. The sun was setting low in the sky and I knew that darkness would come quickly. As the trucks come to a slow near our drop off point, it started to hit me how dark it was actually going to be. We unloaded with uncertainty. The real reason for my doubt is that I knew how rugged the terrain is under that pillow like canopy of thick tree cover. This cover also added to the potential for total darkness during the patrol from a lack of any moon or star light.
A gear check, an uncertain look at the other Marines, and patrol movement began. Closer and closer to the canopy and to the darkness came with each step. This was a tactical patrol meaning that no light of any kind could be used at any time. Once in the jungle, I strained my eyes to see something, anything, but waving my hand in front of my open eyes and sensing nothing confirmed the concerns I had earlier. We were patrolling totally blind. The only way to know which way to go was to put your non-gun hand on the Marine in front of you, and adjust to the contour of the ground with your feet. The patrol continued to move, but very slowly. Occasionally, the yell from the Marine on point would be heard followed by the sound of falling and loosening of rocks as he fell. It was a wonder no one needed a MEDI VAC that night. By the time I got to the drop off, assistance was stationed to avoid injuries. Good to go!
The learning experience to be taken from such a task as a night patrol I understood very well. How much do you depend upon your sight to lead you through the rough spots? What happens when the lights go out? What will be your guide? Can your other senses compensate for your lack of vision? As much as I may have taken from this, what was expected didn’t turn out to be the most dramatic! Back on the patrol, as time passed ever so slowly, as did the patrol; after a little time had passed while in the darkness I noticed something. My vision adjusted to my environment and I was actually able to see something, but I was not sure what it was. Constantly staining my eyes to see something to get a little depth perception I noticed bits of glowing areas on the ground. The more my eyes adjusted, the more they stood out, and eventually were too numerous to count. It started to kind of freak me out a little because periodically it seemed like I was looking up at the starry sky, and the contours of the landscape stood out somewhat from the illuminated dots of faint, pale greenish light. Amazing I thought. We were standing amongst the stars! I brought this up to other Marines in the patrol and not everyone could see them. The glowing bits of matter on the ground turned out to be decaying leaves. Oooh…that doesn’t sound as cool when it’s put that way. None-the-less, it was the high light of the patrol for me.
The rest of the patrol was uneventful. We accomplished our mission of learning more about maneuvering over uneven terrain with reduced visibility, but not without difficulty as was expected.
This time I served in the Philippines was quite memorable because of the training, the sights, the scenery of the area, and many things that were taking place in the United States that I would never be able to change. Life goes on. Then it comes back to hurt you, or help you. Nothing can replace experience, but sometimes you wish something else would; like easy street.


Semper Fi