Originally Posted by Gato
I'm not going to throw in whether I think he's Mil or not, but Z, you need to understand something here. Most of us don't give a rats ass about proper terminology, brands or technical shit when it comes to issued kit. It's free shit we get to use for a while, whether we want to or not. Chances are, it gets handed to us and we get told to use it, there's no training involved for shit like NVG, there's no skill testing questions or shit like capabilities and specs you have to remember. Hell, you're lucky if they tell you what it's designation is when it's given to you, but more likely, you just get told "Take this, don't fucking break it".
Personal example: I'd been in about a year when I got handed a set of 504-B (Pretty much a PVS-7 I think), didn't even get told what it was, told to put it the fuck on, get in my truck, and go out on a training convoy in Blackout conditions. Blackout condition means you've shut all your vehicle lights off. ALL of them, headlights, breaklights, dash lights, everything, there's not a single light except two tiny, barely visible red lights on the rear bumpers to let you see the vehicle in front's location and allow you to stay in line/keep spacing, unless you've been authorized, as lead vehicle to use the Blackout Drive Light, which is a dull ass white light that MIGHT illuminate about a foot in front of your bumper.
I've heard many guys refer to bino setups as "Dual setup" or "The two peice one" and various other terms along those lines. The Two into one thing was a common way for us to describe the PVS504/504B as well. Pupillary adjustment mechanism? The answer you'll get every time will be along the lines of "No fucking clue dude, I just got these little nobs and flips that make the fucker move around a bit".
Working on the logistics side, at one point, the U.S. Military was, in fact, grabbing NVGs from "anyone" who could provide them tubes and units that met the MIL specifications. When a war is in full swing and you haven't had time to prepare before hand, or you need replacements faster than a company can provide them, you find other companies to augment the numbers, so it is very possible that ATN did in fact help supply the U.S. Military, I've seen a few of their products when I've worked with Americans. Now, in terms of the numbers game or the possibility of sub-contracts, I have zero clue, but having used the Catalogue system out of curiosity in the past, I can tell you that ATN is in fact in the system for NVG, and under a U.S. NSN.
Now, my last two points.
PVS-7 Phase out: On paper..... yes, they were phased out years ago. Reality is different, there are units STILL in possession of PVS-7, there were units in Iraq and Afghanistan USING PVS-7. There's footage and images of it all over the place. Was it ideal? No. Were the guys given it happy about it? Probably not.
Theft: Welcome to reality in the Armed Forces. Soldiers steal shit from each other all the time, it's a fact of life, and why we have out name and Service Numbers permanently marked into literally everything we get, from underwear to helmets. You won't steal from your section or unit mates, but if you head somewhere and your rain jacket is fucked, and there are shortages at your base? It's good betting odds that you're gonna swap name tags and rank slips with someone else's in the coat area and walk out with it. It sucks at times, it can be a huge piss off, and you'd like to think you could expect better, but this is an age old reality, as old as the existence of any Military. So, do I think it's possible he stole an NVG from someone? Damn right I do.
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