H.E.A.T. Camouflage

I haven't written too much on camouflage before, just citing a few articles about camouflage here. My thought is that if someone(other than as part of a military unit) is wondering around in full camouflage after a disaster, of any magnitude, they are simply asking for trouble. My other concern is that most camouflage is terrain specific, and its efficacy can change based on lighting and the type of lighting. 

For instance, I have some hunting gear that is in RealTree's AP (all purpose) pattern. It works great in a grassy area or area with lots of bare wood, but not so well in conifer forest or where there is a lot of green undergrowth. It also is better for sitting still, but less effective when moving because it has light colored highlights that tend to catch the eye when moving. Finally, again because of the light colored highlights, it isn't as effective at night. None of this is a big deal for most types of hunting (I primarily bought it for turkey hunting, and secondarily for deer hunting), but degrades the effectiveness of a particular camo pattern if, for some reason, you were trying to be inconspicuous during or after a period of natural or social upheaval.

Conversely, one of my sons has a Mossy-Oak jacket (which is mostly dark grays, dark browns, and dark greens) which seems to be very effective as a general pattern: because there are no light colors, it doesn't catch the eye when moving or in dim light, but there is enough of a difference to break up your outline. However, it might not be ideal for a desert environment.

My thoughts have always been to use the "grey man" approach--natural colors in your everyday clothes. Solid grey or brown are probably better, overall, than any particular camouflage pattern. Warrior Talk News recently had an article on this very topic--what they called "Hippy Earth Tone (H.E.A.T.) camouflage." It reported:

... The matter at hand arose this last weekend when we held the Small Unit Tactics class in Kingman, AZ. 

We had twenty guys attending. Some wore the very popular and effective Multicam camouflage. A couple of guys wore some derivatives of MARPAT, ACU, and various other "Green" camo. And we had several that were wearing civilian outdoor clothing, but in what I would term "muted earth tones". These were various shades of drab green, gray, brown and tan. Nothing blue or red - nothing white or black. And the tans were more brown than sand...so they were not "light".

This is not Urban camo to blend into groups. The objective is to sport a drab colored image based on shades of grey, brown, green, tan. Nothing blue...nothing red...nor any derivatives such as bluish grey or pinkish salmon. The idea is that the clothes blend into the woods/weeds, yet can go into the city as well. The wood/weeds takes precedence over the city in terms of colors.

Patterns would also be contraindicated unless there are plaid plants or stripped trees in your AO.

In any case we had students do a walk back from 100 to 350 yards as the other students watched them for contrast, effectiveness in blending with the area, and how easy it was to see them. Not scientific I suppose, but good enough for what our purposes where.
Anything moving is easy to see as nothing moves like a man. As well, a human head is distinctive and different from anything in nature. But aside from that what the class saw was that the Hippy Earthtones difused light and allowed the wearers to be nearly as "camouflaged" as the multicam wearing guys. Don't believe me? Ask they guys in class that saw what I am writing about.

The advantage of the Hippy Earthtones over the Multicam is this. If it is probable that one may need to go from rural weeds to city streets and back, the multicam would be contraindicated as while it would camouflage well in one zone, it would call attention to the wearer in another. The Hippy Earthtones would work well in both.

 The general report on the class similarly points out:

When they got back, we talked a bit about camouflage. The students had a variety of camo patterns on so Gabe had some examples to work with. Rather than camoflage, several students were wearing shirts and pants in browns, tans, and greens. These aren’t quite as good as camo patterns at hiding you out in the weeds, but they can be surprisingly close. Where they really shine is that you can dump your rifle and LBE and walk into a hotel or nice restaurant and not get a second look. In the insurgent fighter context, this can be as useful as being able to go unseen out in the wilderness. Gabe coined the acronym HEAT camoflage (Hippy EArth Tone) to describe this kind of setup.

Gabe sent a few downrange: one in Woodland MARPAT, one in Multicam, and two in HEAT camo. Even out at 300 yards, when they were standing up or walking along the bare dirt of the range, they were pretty obvious. When they kneeled or went prone, even on the bare range, it was a lot harder. Coming back they moved off to the right or left of the range, into some vegetation (sparse brush from hip to shoulder height). There they were still visible when moving, and fairly evident when standing, but everyone practically disappeared when they dropped down.

The MARPAT woodland was a bit dark for the environment. Some parts of the background it blended pretty well, but on others it was fairly obvious. The Multicam was probably the best overall. The two guys in HEAT camo did almost as well as the multicam, save for one guy’s very light colored (slightly off white) hat. Faces and hands could be quite visible, as where shadows on the front of their body when they leaned over while kneeling.

Frankly, a sniper veil would have been a simple solution to covering heads and faces.