Pushing Through the Fog: A Closer Look into an Entry-Level Thermal, by GuerrillaLogistician

Editors note: This is another great write up by GuerrillaLogistician (@glogistician on X.com) . Check out the Brushbeater Store for all of your thermal and night vision needs!

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Reference – 2B Periscope

@glogistician on X.com

Merril shifted his weight, moving his hips to get a more stable position as he looked through his thermal.  Clicking the arrow, he zoomed in, and then holding the same button for a moment, he cycled through the color palettes.  Confirming that he had spotted his second pair of deer but no humans, he returned to the Sepia setting.  Hell, it might be the same pair doubling back and using the road to bypass the steep terrain.  They casually were walking along the edge of the road, biting and chewing small clumps of plants as they moved, fattening up for the upcoming winter.  He would have shot one for the food if he wasn’t working right now, but he knew they weren’t worth blowing the operation.  Executive orders had been signed that banned everything but bow and arrow, even though in his area, no one was enforcing such laws.  The only people who really engaged in enforcement were the federal government when they showed up and the Executive Enforcement Office.  EEO had basically pulled in sympathetic civilians and military personnel, gave them some training, and sent them to quiet any resistance with overwhelming firepower.  Unfortunately for the EEO, the half-trained civilians led by what few military personnel hadn’t deserted weren’t doing a very good job in his neck of the woods.  Merril was just a cog in the partisan movement; he was capable, but he never wanted to be in charge. He just wanted to do a good job, and there he sat, watching some very tasty animals move up a trail without a care in the world.

The op was simple: secure the egress for the Wireless Telegraph operator and crypto guy, a milk run for all intents and purposes.  All he had to do was make sure nobody came down a few roads as his radio operator did his magic and sent out some critical intel.  They had started calling the HF radio operators WTs or  Wireless Telegraphers, in homage to the WWII SOE branch, which ran spies and partisans throughout the war.  If the WT and crypto were worth their salt, they would have set up their little radio, pressed the button at a specific time, and then moved out. The window was coming soon, and if everyone played their part, the Direction Finding teams(DF) working in the region wouldn’t have a clue as to where they were.  Merril didn’t understand any of that and left it to those who were trained to do that job.  He was here to watch, observe, and hopefully prevent any issues.  He glanced at his watch from time to time as he scanned the dirt road from his vantage point.  Everyone knew when they were to be in place and when they could leave that area and move back towards their cache and then home.  The narrow time window was upon him now, and he redoubled his efforts, scanning for anything.  The few partisans covering this operation were separated from each other but able to interlock fire, radios set with headphones so they could listen to one another.  They all had been trained to stay off the air, leave different cache points in pairs, take different paths, and then ultimately be in the line of sight of their battle buddy.  He occasionally glanced at his fellow partisan, a friend and coworker he had recruited, as the seconds passed.  As the short window closed, he readied himself to move out of his hide.  He checked his gear slowly, making sure everything was secure, and he had nothing loose lying around him.  It would take under 30 seconds to remove any trace of his presence before he started to backtrack to the rendezvous point with his teammate before they exfiled.  With one last look through the thermals, he hesitated to move out; the hands of his mechanical watch seemed to strain against some invisible force keeping them from moving faster.

The two deer lept and dove down the rocky ridge, diving out of view for an instant behind rocky boulders.  Jerking his weapon in the opposite direction, the animals were fleeing; he started scanning.  As he scanned the ridgeline above and behind where the deer were, he caught a thermal signature moving in and out of the cedar shrubs. Quickly, he jerked his tablet from its pouch.  The tablet was connected to his radio, allowing the AR-152 to do a digital burst of information. The stubby antenna restricted its transmission distance, but it still could get to the Partisans with no problem.  He punched the pro word for contact and the degrees where he was looking.  His thermal had a compass built-in, making this far faster than pulling out his main compass and getting a bearing. Hitting the transmit button, the digital message leaped out of the AR-152. Zooming in with his thermals again, he looked and saw a six-man team moving through the brush. A bright glow came off of one of the men from an obvious device attached to his back.  Merril quickly took a few photos with his thermal and began recording them as he waited for a message.

Precious moments passed as he tracked the small team. Pulling out a monocular, he looked through it. The 8X magnification gave him a far better picture than its thermals. As the small force moved, he noticed the telltale sign of shrubs moving from an antenna array attached to the man with a large pack. The very one that had caught his attention from the thermal bloom he had caught in the sepia setting. His tablet updated with the reply from his team leader. EVANGELICAL BLESSED populated, telling him EXFIL plan BRAVO, which took him and his teammate the long way home.  Quietly, he cleaned up his area and made his hide look natural again, then packed up his monocular and tablet and slid it quietly away from his location.  Keeping an eye on the enemy forces moving along, he knew now the EEO was out hunting for his WT, but they really hadn’t figured out what area the transmission was truly coming from yet. The next scheduled transmission would be done in a totally different area, and Merrill would be waiting again just in case the EEO showed up, or the WT messed up. A few minutes later, behind a large rocky outcropping, the challenge and passwords were given to his teammate, who lost sight of him as they stealthily moved from their hides, and both began tracking as quickly and quietly as they could, knowing his other teammates were doing a similar thing.

ARMASIGHT is a direct competitor to AGM, and I’m going to tell you right now that I am a big fan of AGM products. So why in the hell did I buy an ARMASIGHT? There are many reasons, but a lot of them came down to bank accounts, car repairs, and the necessity to have another radio because I am transferring my backup radio to a friend. I asked someone who knows more about thermals to guide me.  I also made a new friend who knew his stuff about thermals that weekend,