TESTIMONIAL
Received from Officer Brad Hazelett, St. Paul Police Department-Minnesota
Although I am a police officer with the Saint Paul, MN Police Department, my story dates back to when I was in the Marine Corps in Desert Storm. I was 19 years old serving with an infantry company within the 2nd Marine Division. We had been in Saudi Arabia for only 3 days and on the third day we left the safety of a major military base and departed for the Kuwaiti border. I was a fire team leader on an observation post 1,000 meters in front of the company lines. It was getting dark as we lay in a shallow depression overlooking a vast expanse of open, rolling desert. I took the first 2 hour watch and told my Marines to get some sleep. Well into my shift, I could hear the sounds of heavy diesel engines way off in the distance. I scanned the horizon with a pair of Steiner binoculars as there was still some ambient light shortly after sunset but could see nothing.
By the time my watch ended, we were surrounded in total darkness. Although the sounds of the diesel engines were getting louder, I estimated their distance to be over a mile as sound carries much further in the desert. I woke up my relief; an 18 year old Chicago native fresh out of boot camp. I handed him the AN/PVS 4 night vision scope and gave him instructions to wake me if anything occurred. I had just drifted off to sleep when he shook me awake and with an unsteady voice informed me that tanks were coming towards us. As I cleared the cobwebs, I could hear the tanks and they were much louder now. Since we were only 4 tightly spaced Marines lying in an expansive desert, I wasn't overly concerned. I asked him if he could identify the tanks. He replied, "Lance Corporal, I can barely see the hand in front of my face. There's no way I can see them tanks." I had a momentary feeling of frustration before remembering that he was brand new and probably very scared. So, I politely reminded him to use the night vision scope that I had handed him earlier. As he muttered under his breath, I could tell that he was upset with himself for not thinking of using the night vision scope before waking me up. As I heard him take the scope out of the case and attempt to find the power knob in the inky night, I was glad that I had taken it easy on him.
After several seconds had passed, I asked him what he saw. When he didn't respond, I knew that he couldn't figure out how to operate the night vision scope. By that time, I could tell that the tanks were bearing down on us and were closing the distance by approximately 400 meters. I quickly unzipped my sleeping bag and reached towards the sounds of Pfc. Pitchford who was still fumbling with the scope. I grabbed blindly for the night vision scope and quickly oriented the device in my hands once I recovered it. As it powered up I scanned the near desert through the fuzzy green lens. To my dismay, I spotted two tanks coming straight toward us. As I fiddled with the zoom lens to optimize the clarity, the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I realized that the tanks were not only driving directly towards us, but they were not American.
I quickly awoke the rest of the team and radioed to HQ and advised them of the situation. Predictably, they didn't have any answers for me as to why two non- U.S. tanks were about to crush four U.S. Marines under their treads. As they closed the distance to 100 meters my mind was racing with the possibilities of what could happen in the next 30 seconds. I was fairly certain that they had night vision capabilities as well, if not the new thermal imaging device. I realized that to do nothing meant to be run over and be crushed by the steel beasts. Conversely, I realized that to leave the shallow depression to get out of their way meant that they would see us and possibly open fire on us. We had no anti-armor weapons with us so that restricted our options.
Knowing that time was running out, I decided to high crawl out of the depression and move perpendicular to the tanks and draw their attention with a filtered red-lens flashlight. After moving roughly 20 meters, and having serious second thoughts about my game plan, I rose to my knees and pointed the flashlight at the lead tank. The tension was unbearable as I flipped the flashlight on. I breathlessly awaited heavy machine gun fire to rip through me once the tank gunner fixed his crosshairs onto my chest. Fortunately, they never came. Instead, the tank immediately veered hard to it's left away from my men and came to a stop directly in front of me. I heard the tank hatch open and the unmistakeable English dialect of a Brithish tanker say, "Howdy mate! Can you tell us where we are. We're lost."
After breathing a huge sigh of relief, I instructed him that he was heading straight for the 2nd Marine Division HQ batallion. I gave him a 10 digit grid coordinate and thanked him for not killing all of us. He responded that he had only seen me and didn't know who "us" was. I pointed out our observation post and he quickly realized that he had been on a direct azimuth and would have run us over had I not alerted him to our position. He turned around and went back in the opposite direction he had come. I didn't sleep the rest of the night due to the sheer adrenaline of our close call.
In the morning when the sun had come up, we could see the tread tracks from the two British Scorpion tanks leading right to our position. They were less than 20 yards from crushing all of us. The night vision scope helped save our lives that night. In fact, they have done that many times in my 13 year military career.
Thank you ITT for your dedication and commitment to making products that save the lives of our country's military and law enforcement. You make our job a hell of a lot safer with your techological innovations. As your research leads us into the 4th generation of night vision technology, the "good guys" in blue and the patriots in desert camo truly OWN THE NIGHT.
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