1NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities Night Navigation Developed as part of the National Emergency Services Curriculum Project

2NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities What’s Different? Typically teams move much slower Why? –Vision impaired Seeing Black and White Mostly –Simply not comfortable Is there a solution? –Not total, but workable

3NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities What do we do? Wear reflective vests Use Red Lens in Flashlight Avoid especially dangerous areas Only send experienced personnel to the field at night Wait until daytime if necessary - Use the Night for planning and crew rest

4NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities How do we do it? The point person moves on a reasonable distance in the general direction of travel. The point person stops at a point where the compass person can direct them left or right by voice or signal until they are directly marking the proper bearing for travel. The group moves to the point person and the procedure takes place again.

5NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities While you can follow your compass- there is less chance of drifting by using steering points.

6NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities Why use a red lens? As light decreases, the sensing tasks are passed over from the cones to the rods of the eyes. The sensitivity of the rods involves a pigment called visual purple (rhodopsin) which is bleached in bright light and takes time to re-constitute Because the rods are less sensitive to red light, we use red lenses in our lights to keep our limited night vision

7NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities Why else should we use a red lens? It takes on average 40+ minutes to regain your night vision Younger people tend to adapt quicker than adults to the dark

8NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities

9NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities Vision While the red lens will protect night vision for navigation and other tasks- remember white light might be needed for search tasks, medical tasks, tracking, and in some terrain, even for travel. Red lens flashlight, head lamp, glow stick, spot light- pick your equipment to meet your need.

10NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities Be careful out there! Less visibility means less time to react to environmental and other hazards!

11NIGHTNAV..PPT LAST REVISED: 9 JULY 2008 Citizens Serving Communities QUESTIONS? THINK SAFETY!