Instructor: Hurry up! Move!
Keep moving! [man grunting]
Narrator: These US Army Sniper Course students
are participating in what's known as a ghillie wash ...
an event designed to test the durability
of a soldier's ghillie suit.
Snipers rely on their ghillie suits in combat
to disguise themselves from enemies.
Ryan Davis: The purpose of the ghillie suit is
to achieve a blending.
We use natural vegetation as well.
We tie that into our suit,
and it helps us to blend in with whatever environment
we could potentially be working in.
Narrator: These future snipers will take the ghillie suits
made and tested in training into actual combat.
We give them steps and places of the body
where we want to cover
that helps us look like nothing.
They could even know that they're looking for us,
they know someone is there,
but they cannot find us.
Narrator: Commercially made ghillie suits
can cost anywhere from $200 to $400.
It all starts with the base layer.
For many, it's one of their old uniforms
or a used one they can buy for roughly $100.
Yeah, I just cut a bunch of pieces out of it,
sewed a bunch of mesh into it for venting,
and then sewed netting onto the outside of it.
Narrator: Netting is used to break up
the sniper's silhouette
and to attach natural and artificial camouflage to the suit.
The most common artificial camouflage is jute,
a fibrous plant-based material.
Davis: You just strip it into pieces,
and that is the hair-looking stuff all over a ghillie suit.
But just be mindful of this color. Right?
If you're not in shade, that's not going to do you any good.
That's going to make you stick out.
Narrator: Instructors inspect students' ghillie suits
several times during the sniper course.
Davis: We do a 360 inspection ensuring that
their points that generally get blown out,
such as the crotch of the pants,
armpits, elbows, stuff like that,
those high-wear-and-tear areas are reinforced,
they're sewn down, they're glued.
Moore: I know you got it extended here.
You might want to try to extend this some here
to break up this straight line.
Every student's ghillie suit isn't going to be the same.
We give them left and right parameters,
and they fit wherever they fall in.
Instructor: Get your head out of the dirt!
Narrator: The durability of the suits is tested
during an event known as the ghillie wash,
which happens in week two of the sniper course.
Instructor: Hurry up! Move!
Keep moving!
Davis: The purpose of the ghillie wash is to
season and condition their ghillie suit,
not only to help it soak up color
and to have it kind of more natural and earthy,
it also allows us to find any weak points
they could potentially have in their ghillie suits.
Just kind of see how if anything would tear,
like the netting and stuff on the back.
Narrator: The ghillie wash starts
with students crawling and rolling across various terrains.
Instructor: Go to your left. Go to your left.
Narrator: Including gravel,
pavement, and sand.
Davis: We soak them down, get them wet.
That's going to start creating a lot of weight.
It's going to make it a little bit harder for them as well.
Narrator: Exercises such as lunges,
squats, and push-ups test the suits' ability
to stretch under pressure.
They're just kind of testing out their ghillie suit,
in the sense of, how able was it to take a beating?
Narrator: After roughing up their suits,
students crawl on their stomachs
and backs through wet and muddy trenches
to add color to them.
It's not necessarily we're trying to find a weak point
at that point, but we're trying to get that color
deeply rooted into the fabric.
There is really, really deep clay mud
that's pretty prominent here.
So it's a good source
for when you're trying to get that earthy tone here.
The clay around here in Georgia tastes pretty good, so.
Narrator: The last section of the ghillie wash
takes place in a 200-foot-long trench
filled with water reaching up to chest-high.
Davis: We have them low-crawling over
any obstacles and stuff like that to see if
the area that they drag themselves on
will possibly peel up.
And, again, any kind of stitching is going to rip.
Narrator: After climbing out of the trench,
the students get hosed off to remove any excess mud
before hanging their suits out to dry.
Davis: It is a very physical event,
but it's completely necessary.
We have to test out these ghillie suits
to make sure they're going to withstand the test of time.
Narrator: The culminating test of the ghillie suits
comes during stalk events.
Students must navigate through wooded terrain
without being spotted
by the instructors walking around them
or by those observing from afar with binoculars.
Before the event begins,
the class covers themselves in natural vegetation
that matches their surroundings.
Charlie Reynolds: On their ghillie suits,
they have a number of tie-downs
on the hat and the top of the pants.
They'll tie natural vegetation that matches
the environment they're currently in
just to give them an initial base layer of camouflage
as they move through the land.
Narrator: Students are taught to use
a 30:70 ratio of artificial to natural camouflage
and must carefully pick which kinds of foliage to use.
Davis: Here in Georgia, it's so hot and humid,
everything dies kind of quickly.
The only thing that's going to really live on you
a long time is the pine leaves and stuff.
And the smaller, the shorter the plant is,
the longer it'll live.
Narrator: Once the class enters the woods,
they must keep a low profile,
moving slowly and deliberately
to avoid drawing the eye of an instructor.
As the foliage around them changes,
the students swap out the natural vegetation
on their ghillie suits to match their environment.
But even the smallest of imperfections
in a student's camouflage will get them spotted.
Not a bad position at all, all right?
If you would have vegged more on that spotting scope,
you guys probably would have been all right.
Erwin: I had a screen over the top of my tripod,
and it was an off color for the foliage that was around.
I mean, you're not going to go out there
and not learn something.
So it's definitely fun.
Davis: They don't put it on and just disappear.
It's not like the movies or a video game,
but you put it on and it helps us to achieve
a blending effect with our environment.
Narrator: A well-constructed
and properly maintained ghillie suit
can last a sniper's entire career.
I've done multiple washes in my ghillie suit,
and I've had it the entirety of me being a sniper.
The only time I have to do anything to it
is just replace jute,
'cause it's natural and it's going to wear away eventually.
But all the stitching, everything like that
has continuously held up over the years.
That's the beauty of a ghillie suit,
is that it can be manipulated in so many different ways
to kind of tailor it to whatever environment you're in.