Sick of the Color Green

I wanted to throw up.

I was getting quiet sick of seeing so much green. But I had no choice. I needed to see in the dark to walk back to base. Using Night Vision goggles (NVG's) was the only method available.

The mount on my helmet held the small and extremely expensive lens to my least dominant eye. My vision was limited to the small green circle. I scanned the forest floor back and forth, trying to differentiate what was the ground and what was branches. My right eye was shut tight, as keeping both eyes open only increased my dizziness.

Our squad sized patrol moved through the black tree line in a single file. The barrels of our weapons were still hot from the previous ambush. Our movement was slow due in part to using the NVG's. The other part was pure exhaustion from preforming assaults and patrols in the forest for 20 hours strait.

I looked ahead. The officer in front of me moved several branches away from her. I moved forward slowly then reached out. I missed. The branches were much further ahead than I thought. I adjusted the small knob on the lens and brought the closer branches into focus. I reached again and missed.

I continued to walk, keeping 10 feet or so behind the person in front of me. Looking back, the rest of the officers walked in a line slowly. A few stumbled over the fallen logs, using one hand for balance and the other to hold their weapons. Others walked smoothly without any trouble at all. But overall, movement was extremely slow.

The patrol stopped temporarily. I looked ahead in the trees and saw Lt. Jimmy looking down at his compass. He pulled out his map and propped the NVG's up on his helmet for the moment. I did the same.

I rested my hand on my knees and took a deep breath. The NVG's cause what is equivalent to motion sickness due to poor focus and decreased depth perception. Other Lt.s did the same and rested their eyes in the darkness.

As the patrol started to move through the woods again, I shook my head in frustration.

Why does everything have to be green?

We all wore green camies, so differentiating marines from the trees with the NVG's was almost impossible, especially if they were not moving. The forest was... well ALL green of course. Then looking through the NVG's themselves just made everything green.

I decided to take a try and walk without them. Immediately after only two steps, I stumbled and nearly fell into the brush. I stood back up and put the NVG back to my eye.


It made me feel sick, but I would rather feel like I'm going to hurl and see than stumble blind through the tree's.



Maybe I'll feel better using them in the dessert.


Thanks for reading.