Be careful where (and when) you nap

[Utah Bob #35998]

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-army-rolls-out-a-new-weapon-strategic-napping/ar-BB19BqNm?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=mailsignout

[Sixgun Sheridan]

To promote good sleep, the manual warns soldiers to avoid video games, texting and other screen activity before bed, and recommends winding down by “listening to soothing music, reading, or taking a warm shower or bath” instead. It also says to avoid alcohol before sleep.

 

It also helps if the other side is courteous enough to stop dropping mortar shells on you when you're trying to take a nap. How rude.

[Alpo]

I know the Times is made up of a bunch of morons, but that reads more like something you would see on the Duffel Blog.

[J. Mark Flint #31954 LIFE]

Goes to an old saying, "Sleep is a weapon"  I saw it first said by Robert Ludlum in regard to the Jason Bourne charachter

 

[Chuck Steak]

Dear God - if I'd have had access to aggressive strategic napping when I was a private - I am pretty certain I could have become the Highest Ranking Marine Corps Admiral in the entire US Army.

 

 

[Trailrider #896]

Oh, boy! I can just see Beetle telling Sarge that napping is now recommended, and Sarge having a conniption fit!   Seriously, in certain scenarios, sleep deprivation can really cut efficiency.  Over fifty years ago, I was a maintenance team chief on major strategic weapon systems.  Our dispatches often wound up taking 20+ hours bed-to-bed.  Not only that, but our dispatches cycled around the clock...the first day started about 0700, the second day 1600, the third day 2100, followed on the fourth day by the rest of the 2100 dispatch, crew rest and two days off (unless you had to report to the section for a training class, or there was a base-wide alert exercise!).  Your diurnal cycle was thrown completely off!  There were times when you would fall into bed...and just lay there staring at the ceiling!  There were times when out at a site when you had to wait on a 3-hour automatic calibration cycle, that I would lay down on the steel floor of the equipment room, rest my head on an electrical cable and doze off.  We would alternate doing this, or possibly doze in the truck, with someone awake at all times.  I am sure that the lack of sleep must have contributed to mistakes or at least inefficient operations, which fortunately did NOT cause any major malfunctions during my tour of duty, at the particular base.  I also know that even when a "normal" sleep cycle happens, concentrated work over about 14 hours is counter-productive, as you wind up wasting time and energy correcting more mistakes that could have been avoided with proper rest!

[Subdeacon Joe]

I think that "The Army"  (the Brass Mounted Army) is catching on to what every grunt knows instinctively - catch what sleep where you can, when you can.  
 

Quote

“The Army has always had an internal dynamic that real men don’t need sleep and can just push on, and it’s incredibly stupid,” said Lt. Gen. David Barno, who was commander of combined forces in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005. “Combat is a thinking man’s business and your brain doesn’t function without sleep.”

I'm seeing, or think I'm seeing, a failure to differentiate between what happens in training/garrison and in the field. Train for the worst conditions, including sleep deprivation, and then real world conditions might be easier to cope with.  Just like the insane demands put on doctors during their internships.  

While it may sound "incredibly stupid," I think the push in training for decision making and problem solving when short on sleep, tends to help soldiers/sailors/Marines/Airmen stay alive when they have no chance to get solid rest in combat.

Just the uninformed thoughts of a civilian.

[watab kid]

depending on where you nap i might keep that weapon ih hand rather than a few feet away , just me being attentive to my own needs tho 

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

Let's see if I can remember this from my Army days.

 

Never run when you can walk.

Never walk when you can stand.

Never stand when you can sit.

Never sit when you can lay down.

Never lay awake when you can sleep.

[Alpo]

56 minutes ago, watab kid said:

depending on where you nap i might keep that weapon ih hand rather than a few feet away , just me being attentive to my own needs tho 

Would not matter. The gun is empty.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I have a black belt in napping.  I once was in a deuce and a half in Fort Lewis coming back from a training exercise.  No seats left so I was standing up with my rifle slung over my shoulder and my helmet hanging from it.  My fingers were wedged between the bow and the tarp covering and I fell asleep while we were going back to the old North Fort barracks thirty minutes away.  MSgt Strake "The Snake", our senior NCO on that trip, said he'd never seen that done before.

 

It didn't cause me much problem except my knees hurt for a week.

[Imis Twohofon,SASS # 46646]

I have napped sitting on a pile of 105mm ammo boxes as 12 tanks fired their main gun, 20 feet away. And more than once. Also standing ,in a open troop trailer moving down the range roads at Ft Bragg.  Semper Nocturnum  Always Sleepy

 

Imis

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

I fell asleep between two foot lockers without putting them close to each other, so that my legs were stretched out and only my heels were touching the other locker.  My knee sockets caved in a bit, but it was a nice 20 minute nap.  We passed out at just about every opportunity; in the theater when the chaplain spoke to us (he asked the DIs to sit down-they fell asleep as well.) and also during classroom instruction. 

[Badlands Bob #61228]

Classroom instruction in a hot Quonset hut was the worst.  I learned to sleep with my eyes open.

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

If I decide to go to sleep, I will be asleep within 5 minutes.  Aggravates my wife to no end because she can't do the same.  I tell her I attribute my ability to fall asleep so quickly to the Army and a clear conscience.

[Trailrider #896]

One place NOT to fall asleep is while driving! I had been up all night supervising a motor-generator change at a facility. In addition, I might have had a slight case of the flu.  I was driving a pickup truck.  I woke up about 0600...on the wrong side of the road...with an 18-wheeler staring me in the face about a half-mile down the road!   I got back in time, but was wide awake for the rest of the trip back to the base.

Wear your masks and social distance! (I would increase that "six-foot" distance if you are downwind of somebody else!)

[watab kid]

22 hours ago, Alpo said:

Would not matter. The gun is empty.

then load it first - what good is an unloaded firearm ? 

[Utah Bob #35998]

On 10/1/2020 at 9:50 PM, Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 said:

Let's see if I can remember this from my Army days.

 

Never run when you can walk.

Never walk when you can stand.

Never stand when you can sit.

Never sit when you can lay down.

Never lay awake when you can sleep.

Never step over anything you can walk around.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

10 hours ago, Badlands Bob #61228 said:

Classroom instruction in a hot Quonset hut was the worst.  I learned to sleep with my eyes open.

Me too, and if called on my mind would snap open and I could respond.  Wish I could still do that.