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カモフラージュ
ジャングルなどの戦場で、身を隠す—つまり「カモフラージュ」の手段として用いられる迷彩服。
若い人たちの間ではファッションの一部として取り入れられているケースも見受けられるが、
筆者が海兵隊員であったころ、部隊のジープを「カモフラージュ」する才能に秀でていたある軍曹がいた—。
Camouflage
In Okinawa, you occasionally see a young person wearing a green camouflage T-shirt or trousers, imitating the uniforms of the U.S. troops here. I suppose they think it looks good. Sometimes you can also see GIs walking around in these camouflage uniforms. The other day at the Naha Airport I saw a big military truck painted up that way.
This kind of leafy camouflage is designed to hide things in a jungle. It wouldn't work in a desert. In the sandy parts of Iraq, if you lay on the ground dressed like that, it would be like holding up a flag saying, "Here I am!" I wonder what areas of the world the U.S. military is imagining, when it issues its troops uniforms like that.
When I was in the U.S. Marines, I was in charge of a platoon equipped with nine jeeps. Each jeep was fitted with an anti-tank gun called a 106mm recoilless rifle. This gun was nowhere near as effective as the cannons that tanks have. And when you fired it, it raised a huge cloud of smoke and dust, which would show the tank exactly where you were. This meant that you had one shot only. If you missed, you had to put your jeep into reverse and back out of there as quickly as you could, because within seconds there would surely be a big explosion where you had just been.
This also meant that camouflage was everything. Without good camouflage, the tank would find you first, and you would not even have the chance to get that first shot. So the point was not to chase after tanks with these jeeps — that would have been suicide — but to camouflage them and wait for the tanks to come to you.
One of my squad leaders (a squad leader was in charge of three jeeps and their crews) was a sergeant named Luther Sanders. He was African-American, I think from Alabama. Given his soft-spoken, gentle manner, you would never guess he was a Marine if you saw him out of uniform. He was brilliant at camouflage. His jeeps would just disappear, like magic. I remember once the battalion commander came to inspect our camouflage. He said, "Well sergeant, show me where your jeeps are." Sergeant Sanders said gently, "Colonel, if you would just put out your left hand, you could touch one of them." It was a wonderful moment.
This was 1960, one of those rare periods when the United States was not at war with anyone. War seemed like a vague and distant possibility, and training was like a strenuous sport. It was fun if your body is in good shape
I left the Marines the next year; most of my comrades who extended their contracts ended up going to Vietnam. I never learned if the 106mm recoilless rifle was dispatched to Vietnam, or how it fared there. I expect that in Vietnam's jungles, it must have been useless. I also have no way of knowing what happened to Luther Sanders and the other men. I hope they got out alive and sane.
- Camouflage
- カモフラージュ(偽装)
- green camouflage
- 緑色の迷彩模様
- trousers
- ズボン
- imitating 〜
- 〜をまねて
- uniforms
- 軍服
- U.S. troops
- 米軍
- GIs
- 米兵
- in 〜
- 〜を着て
- painted up that way
- その(迷彩模様のこと)ように塗装された
- leafy
- 葉に覆われたような
- is designed to 〜
- 〜するためのものだ
- work
- うまくいく
- desert
- 砂漠
- lay on 〜
- 〜に寝転がる
- issues 〜
- 〜を支給する
- U.S. Marines
- 米海兵隊
- in charge of 〜
- 〜の担当で
- platoon
- 小隊
- equipped with 〜
- 〜を擁した
- was fitted with 〜
- 〜を装備した
- anti-tank gun
- 対戦車砲
- 106mm recoilless rifle
- 106ミリ無反動銃
- was nowhere near as effective as 〜
- 〜の威力には遠く及ばない
- put your jeep into reverse
- ジープをバックさせる
- back out of 〜
- 〜から退散する
- as quickly as you could
- できるだけ早く
- suicide
- 自殺
- wait for 〜 to 〜
- 〜が〜するのを待つ
- squad leaders
- 班長
- sergeant
- 軍曹
- African-American
- アフリカ系アメリカ人
- Given 〜
- 〜からは
- soft-spoken, gentle manner
- 穏やかな話し方をする、物腰の柔らかい態度
- out of uniform
- 軍服を脱いだら
- brilliant
- 優れた
- battalion commander
- 大隊の司令官
- inspect 〜
- 〜を視察する
- Colonel
- 大佐
- put out 〜
- 〜を出す
- rare periods
- まれな期間
- was not at war with 〜
- 〜と戦争状態にない
- vague
- 漠然とした
- strenuous
- 激しい
- in good shape
- 調子がよい
- comrades
- 仲間
- extended their contracts
- 契約を延長した
- ended up 〜ing
- 結局〜した
- never learned
- 一度も聞いたことはない
- was dispatched to 〜
- 〜に派遣された
- fared
- 活躍した
- have no way of 〜
- 〜するすべはない
- sane
- 正気の