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We were out training with the PVS14s last night and I was explaining a couple of ways this can be done.
A patrol base is essentially just a temporary - usually just an overnight- camp site. We use the term "patrol base" and it sounds all tacticoool but it could be any place you overnight with a group of people.
I was discussing the concept with my son and he asked me "so say your watch is at 1am. How do you know when to wake up."
Couple options here for that sort of thing.
In smaller groups, say less than 8, if the situation permits it, and the stay is really just overnight, then I would camp in the smallest spot possible. In essence more of a "hide" position than a patrol base layout.
We were taught this by the old SF guys 25 years ago (damn that long...).
So say your patrol or group of six needs to be down for the night the idea may go as follows:
Team locates a good "hide" position but does not move directly into it. We would usually fish hook- also known as "button hooking" and observe the back trail for a while before moving off towards the actual hide position.
Picture a fish hook- it's kind of shaped like this
j
Only the curve on the end of the j is longer right. It's that tip of the hook wherein you set up and watch your back trail. Your back trail being the way you came in, in other words, the long straight'ish part of the J or fishhook.
Your team should have an SOP like how long the back trail is observed, what to do if their is a follow up or a tracker, etc.
Remember when you fish hook, it's not about continuing in a straight line and then taking two steps off the trail to the right and looking back! It's a little more involved than that.
Ideally you will fish hook wherein you can use the terrain to your advantage. A hilltop over looking a valley you just went through, etc. If you realize your being pursued you can dip over the hill using the hill as cover, etc.
A lot of people try to put the patrol base/camp site right where they fish hooked. That in general is a bad idea.
A tracking team is going to have flank trackers out, it will likely not be just one guy walking from spoor to spoor with his head down.
Again, situational dependent and all that jazz, but I would consider moving a good bit away from where you fish hooked. Direction and distance set by you and being METT stuff dependent.
So you move into the area you are going to camp in. For normal camping we are taught to look for what criteria for a campsite? Near water but not too near, maybe south or east facing to get some heat or early morning sun if the weather sucks, plenty of natural materials for campfire, decent access, etc.
But if it's a situation where we have felt the need to fish hook to our camp, than most of that is out the window.
A "hide" type camp position won't necessarily be the most comfortable camp site. You may want to camp in the swamp, in a thicket that you have to crawl a bit to get into, etc. Again, situational dependent, METT-T and all that jazz...
So, again assuming a small group of say 6 people. They move into the hide position. With such a small group you are going to sleep close to each other. We used to rest and later sleep in what looked like a star type pattern. Every man facing outwards laying prone (rest position). Just close enough that you could touch the next guy's boot with your boot. Gear was kept on for short breaks or right next to you. Codes were used for certain number of taps from boot to boot and signals were sent "around" the circle that way.
After a certain period of time people took breaks to prep gear for the night. Never more than about half at a time, usually one or two at a time.
When it was time to sleep the watch shifts were set up in a clock type pattern. 12 o' clock position was established and that person was the start of the watch. The time was divided up and when the first person at 12 o' clock position watch was up, he reached over to the person at the 1 o' clock position and woke them up. In a small group hide type position these two people might be within reach of each other. If nothing else they were not more than a few steps away from each other. The pattern repeated until morning. We never did a "stand to" type deal, the older guys usually just had us up and moving well before sunrise.
Gear was kept packed, you took out only what you needed to wrap up in for the night. If you rigged a tarp you rigged it where any lines could be loosed with just a pull of the string and the tarp/poncho grabbed and stowed as you were running off.
It was very common to wake up at various times of the night to a burst of 5.56 and yelling. That was to simulate getting bumped and having to ditch camp immediately. If you weren't gone quickly or you were messing around with your gear, you were left behind. Hopefully you paid attention to where the rally point was or you would be ambling around all night searching for the group.
The clock setup allowed you to not have to remember "who" you went and woke up for next guard shift and kept down the amount of walking around the camp thereby making noise.
For a small group, this usually worked out well.
A patrol base is essentially just a temporary - usually just an overnight- camp site. We use the term "patrol base" and it sounds all tacticoool but it could be any place you overnight with a group of people.
I was discussing the concept with my son and he asked me "so say your watch is at 1am. How do you know when to wake up."
Couple options here for that sort of thing.
In smaller groups, say less than 8, if the situation permits it, and the stay is really just overnight, then I would camp in the smallest spot possible. In essence more of a "hide" position than a patrol base layout.
We were taught this by the old SF guys 25 years ago (damn that long...).
So say your patrol or group of six needs to be down for the night the idea may go as follows:
Team locates a good "hide" position but does not move directly into it. We would usually fish hook- also known as "button hooking" and observe the back trail for a while before moving off towards the actual hide position.
Picture a fish hook- it's kind of shaped like this
j
Only the curve on the end of the j is longer right. It's that tip of the hook wherein you set up and watch your back trail. Your back trail being the way you came in, in other words, the long straight'ish part of the J or fishhook.
Your team should have an SOP like how long the back trail is observed, what to do if their is a follow up or a tracker, etc.
Remember when you fish hook, it's not about continuing in a straight line and then taking two steps off the trail to the right and looking back! It's a little more involved than that.
Ideally you will fish hook wherein you can use the terrain to your advantage. A hilltop over looking a valley you just went through, etc. If you realize your being pursued you can dip over the hill using the hill as cover, etc.
A lot of people try to put the patrol base/camp site right where they fish hooked. That in general is a bad idea.
A tracking team is going to have flank trackers out, it will likely not be just one guy walking from spoor to spoor with his head down.
Again, situational dependent and all that jazz, but I would consider moving a good bit away from where you fish hooked. Direction and distance set by you and being METT stuff dependent.
So you move into the area you are going to camp in. For normal camping we are taught to look for what criteria for a campsite? Near water but not too near, maybe south or east facing to get some heat or early morning sun if the weather sucks, plenty of natural materials for campfire, decent access, etc.
But if it's a situation where we have felt the need to fish hook to our camp, than most of that is out the window.
A "hide" type camp position won't necessarily be the most comfortable camp site. You may want to camp in the swamp, in a thicket that you have to crawl a bit to get into, etc. Again, situational dependent, METT-T and all that jazz...
So, again assuming a small group of say 6 people. They move into the hide position. With such a small group you are going to sleep close to each other. We used to rest and later sleep in what looked like a star type pattern. Every man facing outwards laying prone (rest position). Just close enough that you could touch the next guy's boot with your boot. Gear was kept on for short breaks or right next to you. Codes were used for certain number of taps from boot to boot and signals were sent "around" the circle that way.
After a certain period of time people took breaks to prep gear for the night. Never more than about half at a time, usually one or two at a time.
When it was time to sleep the watch shifts were set up in a clock type pattern. 12 o' clock position was established and that person was the start of the watch. The time was divided up and when the first person at 12 o' clock position watch was up, he reached over to the person at the 1 o' clock position and woke them up. In a small group hide type position these two people might be within reach of each other. If nothing else they were not more than a few steps away from each other. The pattern repeated until morning. We never did a "stand to" type deal, the older guys usually just had us up and moving well before sunrise.
Gear was kept packed, you took out only what you needed to wrap up in for the night. If you rigged a tarp you rigged it where any lines could be loosed with just a pull of the string and the tarp/poncho grabbed and stowed as you were running off.
It was very common to wake up at various times of the night to a burst of 5.56 and yelling. That was to simulate getting bumped and having to ditch camp immediately. If you weren't gone quickly or you were messing around with your gear, you were left behind. Hopefully you paid attention to where the rally point was or you would be ambling around all night searching for the group.
The clock setup allowed you to not have to remember "who" you went and woke up for next guard shift and kept down the amount of walking around the camp thereby making noise.
For a small group, this usually worked out well.
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