I debated about writing this, but in spirit of sharing with your readers the recent usage of a Ghillie suit in a real world situation, with very surprising results.
This event occurred as a what to use for the neighborhood halloween, trick or treat crowd, and it was quite a crowd. We live in a fairly large suburban subdivision on the outskirts of Phoenix. My wife and I have as much fun as the kids who are almost always with parents or a group of adults. My problem was what to “dress up as”, the wife has her ghost outfit, and mine was a an idea to try out Ghillie suits, to determine just how effective it might be in a “real world” situation. I am 6 feet tall and weigh about 200 lbs. I tried both a forest multicolor, and a snow pattern which is white with black highlights.
The crowds, start about 4:30 in the afternoon, it still fairly light, and continued till about 8:30. Our light gray stucco home is on a corner lot, with a couple of 20 foot tall palm treess that have trunks about 2 feet in diameter with large green palm branches hanging down to about six feet off the ground. These palms are in the front yard about 5 feet out from the front of the home. We have two, two-car dark brown garage doors separated in the middle by the dark brown recessed front door that has about a 5 foot wide inset alcove. (I want to give you an idea of the layout.) There are two large streetlights, one on the corner by the palms, and the second across the street about 30 further down from this one they utilize the softer yellow sodium type bulbs that provide a less intense light output.
I positioned myself against the stucco wall by the front door, or against the palm trees throughout the evening. I expected nothing, but was blown away by the results. My wife positioned herself with the treats on a chair in front of the garage door, where she stood out like a headlight. I was about 10 feet away standing as still as I could. from the very first both the children and adults concentrated on the ghost in the chair or came to ring the front door bell. During the fading light period I was noticed with little interest or the person(s) trying to ascertain who or what I was from as close as three feet to as far away as perhaps about 20 feet. If I jumped out the effect was total with most of the adults and almost all the kids. My wife would ask them afterwards what they thought I was or what I was. The comments by most of the adults men and women was “Wow, we did not even see him.” One of my neighbors, who is a former Marine and combat veteran told his wife after she had jumped about two feet in the air, “That’s a Ghillie suit, hon.” By the way he was on the sidewalk about 20 feet away and did not figure out what I was until after I moved. I changed from the snow colored Ghillie, to the multi color green one at dark. The comments by the neighbors were we were the hit of the evening, and I was asked where they could get one. I am amazed at the ability to evade the attention of people even during a heightened [attentiveness] event like Trick-or-Treating where the person’s heightened focus is able to be fooled by becoming a part of a tree trunk or a by leaning up against a house [like shrubbery].
I have over my career over 40 years in several fields tried homemade, and store bought Ghillie suits, there are a lot on the market, I am not marketing or endorsing products here, just letting you know this one worked and I had a lot of fun besides. These suits were purchased on line, they are about $70 and are made in China under the name of Red Rock outdoor gear. This is a XL/2XL and is a five-piece suit with a gun cover, it has a stuff sack which works very well. I would rate the suit very high on the buy list, and during a time of need it I think its a smart purchase item. My only modification was to buy a pair of suspenders to hold up the pants as the drawstring does get it done. As far as negatives the suit will wear and maybe tear if you are trying to crawl or move through brush, and so forth, but as a stationary usage items or in open country it should work.
Bottom line this was a perfect opportunity to test out a survival item with out ‘standing out’ as a oddball with the locals. Of course OPSEC and common sense always rule.
God bless or Godspeed in your survival preparations. – John in Arizona
Letter Re: A Suburban Ghillie Suit Test
