A US Marine sniper wearing a ghillie suit.

A ghillie, or yowie suit is a type of camouflage clothing designed to resemble heavy underbrush. Typically, it is a net or cloth garment covered in loose strips of cloth or twine, sometimes even made to look like leaves and twigs. Snipers and hunters with extreme requirements for going undetected in wilderness areas use a ghillie suit to blend into their surroundings. Image:Marine sniper ghillie suit. ... Image:Marine sniper ghillie suit. ... United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the second smallest of the five branches of the United States armed forces, with 170,000 active and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2002. ... Countershaded Ibex are almost invisible in the Israeli desert. ... Clothing protects the vulnerable nude human body from the extremes of weather, other features of our environment, and for safety reasons. ... Underbrush is a term used to describe the low shrubs and young trees that grow on the floor of a forest. ... For other uses, see Sniper (disambiguation). ... This article is about the hunting of prey by human society. ... For other uses, see Wilderness (disambiguation). ...

The ghillie suit was developed by Scottish gamekeepers as a portable hunting blind. Lovat Scouts, a Scottish Highland regiment formed by the British Army during the Second Boer War, is the first known military unit to use ghillie suits.^[1] In 1916, Lovat Scouts went on to become the British Army's first sniper unit.^[2] This article is about the country. ... A gamekeeper is a person who looks after an area of countryside to make sure there are enough (game)birds for shooting. ... A hunting blind is a cover device for hunters, designed to reduce the chance of detection. ... The Lovat Scouts was a yeomanry regiment of the Territorial Army, now a platoon of the 51st Highland Regiment. ... Combatants British Empire Orange Free State South African Republic Commanders Sir Redvers Buller Lord Kitchener Lord Roberts Paul Kruger Louis Botha Koos de la Rey Martinus Steyn Christiaan de Wet Casualties 6,000 - 7,000 (A further ~14,000 from disease) 6,000 - 8,000 (Unknown number from disease) Civilians...

The name derives from ghillie, the Scots Gaelic for "boy", in English especially used to refer to servants assisting in hunting or fishing expeditions. A ghillie dhu is a type of tree spirit that is supposed to disguise itself in leaves and vegetation.^[3] Look up ghillie, gillie in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

Construction

High-quality ghillie suits are commercially manufactured, but military snipers generally construct their own unique suits. Proper camouflage requires the use of materials used in the area a sniper will operate in. Making a ghillie suit from scratch is time-consuming, and a detailed, high-quality suit can take hundreds of hours to manufacture and season for use; however, Marine snipers are often required to customize their own suits to the environment in a matter of minutes.

Ghillie suits can be constructed in several different ways. Some military services make them of rough burlap flaps or jute twine attached to a poncho. US Army ghillie suits are often built using either a battle dress uniform (BDU), or a pilot's flight suit or some other one-piece coverall as the base. Burlap is a dense woven fabric, usually made of jute and allied vegetable fibers. ... The word Jute is also used in reference to the Germanic people, the Jutes. ... Typical Andes poncho in a flea market in Genoa, Italy A poncho is a simple garment designed to keep the body warm, or if made from an impermeable material, to keep dry during rain. ... Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) in the United States was the standard military uniform worn into combat, battledress as opposed to display dress uniforms worn at parades and functions. ... A flight suit worn by an SR-71 Blackbird pilot, now in an Air Force museum. ...

On the base, rough webbing made of durable, stainable fabric like burlap is attached. A nearly invisible material like fishing line is used to sew each knot of net to the fabric (often with a drop of glue for strength). The jute is applied to the netting by tying groups of 5 to 10 strands of a color to the netting with simple knots, skipping sections to be filled in with other colors. The webbing is then seasoned by dragging it behind a vehicle, leaving it to soak in mud, or even applying manure to make it smell "earthy." Once on location, the ghillie suit is customized with twigs, leaves, and other elements of the local foliage as much as possible, although these local additions must be changed every few hours, due to wilting of green grasses or branches. Burlap is a dense woven fabric, usually made of jute and allied vegetable fibers. ...

Ghillie suits are essentially impossible to clean. Although the underlying garment(s) is tough and washable, the attachments tend to be too fragile to survive washing. In practice, this is a moot point, as dirt is an essential part of the suit's camouflage. Generally, snipers can't afford to be very fastidious. They are rarely inspected for correctness of uniform, and they stay far away from the target.

Safety considerations

Although highly effective, ghillie suits are impractical for many situations where camouflage is useful. They tend to be heavy and hot. Even in moderate climates, the temperature inside of the ghillie suit can soar to over 50 °C (120 °F). Another safety issue is that the burlap is flammable unless treated with fire retardant, as the wearer may be exposed to ignition sources such as smoke grenades and white phosphorus. A fire retardant is a substance that helps to delay or prevent combustion. ... Smoke grenade A purple smoke grenade being used during a military training exercise Main article: Hand grenade Smoke grenades are canister-type grenades used as ground-to-ground or ground-to-air signaling devices, target or landing zone marking devices, or a screening devices for unit movements. ... This article is about the chemical element. ...

In fiction

The video game Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare prominently features a ghillie suit as worn in the game by two SAS snipers. Call of Duty 4 is the rumored upcoming fourth title in the Call of Duty series of video games. ... See also Australian Special Air Service Regiment and New Zealand Special Air Service: The Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) is the principal special forces unit of the British Army. ...

References

The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers is a book written by Maj. ... The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military and Police Snipers is a book written by Maj. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 258th day of the year (259th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Instructional film about German snipers in WW2