Finding the Yowie
Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 8:23 pm
Some interesting trivia...I always wondered where the suits came from...
Finding the yowie
I SPOKE to retired Brig. George Mansford last week. George, whose army nickname is `Warry', lives just south of Cairns. The nickname is a badge of honour and is bestowed on only the best soldiers by their peers. George was given the job of starting the Battle School in the jungle near Tully in 1979 and while he was there his team created the Yowie suit now popular with snipers the world over. He said he started a sniping course there because this particular branch of warfare had not been pursued at the training level in Australia since before the Korean War. He said the instructors designed the suit after stealing some ideas from a World War I photograph. They used camouflage netting, dyed blankets and whatever else was at hand and which cost nothing, to make the suits. "They improvised. That's something the Australian Army is good at," he said with a loud laugh. When the brass came up from Canberra to see what was going on they got a hell of a fright when a sniper in one of the freshly minted Yowie suits jumped up, literally a couple of feet in front of them, 'scoped sniper rifle at the ready. He'd been lying there on the rainforest floor in front of them for ages and they hadn't spotted him.
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/ar ... north.html
Ruby
Finding the yowie
I SPOKE to retired Brig. George Mansford last week. George, whose army nickname is `Warry', lives just south of Cairns. The nickname is a badge of honour and is bestowed on only the best soldiers by their peers. George was given the job of starting the Battle School in the jungle near Tully in 1979 and while he was there his team created the Yowie suit now popular with snipers the world over. He said he started a sniping course there because this particular branch of warfare had not been pursued at the training level in Australia since before the Korean War. He said the instructors designed the suit after stealing some ideas from a World War I photograph. They used camouflage netting, dyed blankets and whatever else was at hand and which cost nothing, to make the suits. "They improvised. That's something the Australian Army is good at," he said with a loud laugh. When the brass came up from Canberra to see what was going on they got a hell of a fright when a sniper in one of the freshly minted Yowie suits jumped up, literally a couple of feet in front of them, 'scoped sniper rifle at the ready. He'd been lying there on the rainforest floor in front of them for ages and they hadn't spotted him.
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/ar ... north.html
Ruby