Ambush Light Has Faded Into the Darkness of History

(Newswire.net — February 17, 2016) Richland Hills, Texas — During the Vietnam war thousands of U.S. troops were killed during nighttime ambushes when North Vietnamese soldiers would suddenly attack under the cover of darkness.  When these attacks would begin the almost pitch black darkness created a profound sense of both horror and confusion.

When one of these nighttime ambushes would occur, American troops would shoot flares up into the air in order to illuminate the surrounding ground area.  Doing so would allow the U.S. troops to see the incoming North Vietnamese soldiers, but by launching these flares the U.S. troops were also giving away their own position.

As an alternative to launching flares when an ambush began, in some cases American troops would place trip-wire flares in strategic spots surrounding their established location.  When Viet Cong soldiers would begin to approach during a nighttime ambush, they would activate the trip wires sending a flare into the sky and thus identify their position for U.S. soldiers to return fire.

In an effort to improve upon these methods and enhance the personal safety of U.S. soldiers on the battlefield, in 1968 the U.S. Army’s Limited War Laboratory created a prototype ambush light.

The device was designed to produce a beam of light forty degrees wide and five degrees high that would brightly light up the area within its cone of light for a distance of more than fifty yards.  It was powered by twelve common D batteries and had the capacity to operate for more than fifteen minutes continuously.

In field tests, however, it quickly became clear that Vietnam’s damp environment caused ongoing electrical problems for these devices.  The high level of humidity that was common in Vietnam simply wrecked havoc with the inner workings of the electrical components of the ambush light unit. 

The project was eventually scrapped and the idea of the ambush light quickly faded into its own kind of darkness.