Barracks Observation | These "Camouflage Soldiers" Who Conceal the Real and Display the False Write an Extraordinary Chapter of Army-Building Through Perseverance and Choice
**Editor's Note: The True Color of Youth**
■ Yang Yue
How many forms should youth take? How many colors?
In the blazing years of military service, some people's youth means galloping across the battlefield, facing the smoke of gunfire, charging forward in the eyes of thousands; others' youth means hiding in the wilderness, keeping company with grass and breeze, quietly taking root in a corner where no one notices.
For the officers and soldiers of the camouflage specialty (伪装专业), who spend every day manufacturing illusions, the color of youth seems to resemble that unremarkable camouflage net. Yet they interpret, in their own way, a sincere and pure true color of youth (青春底色)——
Laying camouflage and correcting details requires an enormous amount of painstaking, foundational work; they fulfill every duty of their post with a down-to-earth "authenticity" (真实). Without the hot-blooded excitement of cannon fire, far from the spotlight of cameras, they hone their camouflage skills with a single-minded "sincerity" (真心). For the sake of victory, they are willing to serve as the cornerstone; with a "genuine devotion" (真情) to strengthening the military, they build a barrier that protects the battlefield safety of their comrades……
Youth has never had a single template. Making a resounding impact is struggle; silent perseverance is also struggle. For the broad ranks of young officers and soldiers at different posts with different responsibilities, as long as they "integrate personal pursuits into the cause of the Party and the nation, seizing every moment and not squandering their prime years," every posture and every choice will be transformed into the most moving true color of youth.
Pave the road with youth; let ideals shine. At their posts, these officers and soldiers who conceal the real and display the false tell us through their perseverance and choices: as long as one holds belief in one's heart and keeps running, even an ordinary youth can write an extraordinary chapter of army-building (强军篇章).
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**Feature**
**The Heartfelt Account of a Group of "Camouflage Soldiers"**
■ Zhu Jun, PLA Daily Special Correspondent Liao Xiaobin, Ni Xinlei
*A camouflage detachment of an Army brigade conducts smoke-screen camouflage training. Photo by Yuan Dekun.*
In the early summer, the sun blazes like fire. At a field training site of an Army brigade, the main force has yet to assemble, but the battle belonging to the "camouflage soldiers" has already quietly begun.
The camouflage detachment has a tradition: every year during field training and exercises, they are the first to set out and the last to return to camp. Because of the special nature of camouflage missions, the detachment's officers and soldiers keep company with wilderness and mountain forests year-round—"sweating all over on sunny days, covered in mud on rainy days" is their normal state.
When the reporter asked "isn't this kind of life exhausting?" they simply grinned: "We are the protective barrier for our comrades. Sweat more in peacetime, and there will be less bloodshed in wartime!"
As "battlefield magicians" (战地魔术师) who conceal the real and display the false, the camouflage soldiers' mission is not to create brilliance but to hide targets and deceive the enemy. On the smoke-filled battlefield, these officers and soldiers who are skilled at "fabricating falsehoods" use the most sincere emotions and the most steadfast efforts to build a line of defense that their comrades trust, and to make ordinary youth shine with dazzling light.
**"Set the false image before the adversary sees the truth, and you can outrun time and seize the initiative"**
"Faster, faster!" The thing the officers and soldiers of an Army brigade's camouflage detachment are most familiar with is the sound of urging that frequently rings in their ears.
"Set the false image before the adversary sees the truth, and you can outrun time and seize the initiative." Staff Sergeant First Class (一级上士) Feng Junlin still remembers how, when he first transferred into the camouflage specialty, he found it very difficult to adapt to this fast pace. The first time he executed a false-target emplacement mission, he was still waiting for assignment instructions when he discovered that his fellow soldiers had already launched into action at full speed. "Every minute earlier we get the false position set up, the real position gains one more minute of safety," an old soldier, seeing Feng Junlin's confusion, told him.
It was the first time Feng Junlin realized that he was not completing a task—he was racing against an invisible adversary. An exercise not long afterward gave him an even deeper appreciation of this "race."
That day, the detachment had just arrived at the target area when an urgent report came over the radio: "Enemy reconnaissance satellite is about to pass overhead!"
The difficulty of completing concealment camouflage on all vehicles in the shortest possible time went without saying. Feng Junlin watched every comrade running and working frantically: one person had worn blisters on his hands but gritted his teeth and kept gripping the camouflage rope; another, heedless of being covered in mud, lay flat on a dirt mound tending to camouflage details…By the time the satellite passed overhead, the vehicle column had long since merged with the mountain forest.
Feng Junlin sat on the ground, exhausted, gasping for breath, yet his inner understanding of the urgency inherent to this post had grown ever deeper—for a "camouflage soldier," every race against the clock is a matter of buying a survival window for comrades and seizing the initiative for the battlefield.
From that point on, he began training with a stopwatch—from fabrication to emplacement, he repeatedly refined every step, working to compress the time to the absolute minimum. Through repeated humble consultations and optimization of details, Feng Junlin quickly worked out a method of operation that was both fast and reliable. "But this doesn't mean I've already done my best. To guarantee 'outrunning' the adversary, I must always keep the string of saving time taut," he said.
Private (列兵) Ji Poke Zi also has his own understanding of "racing against time."
The first time Ji Poke Zi participated in a command post camouflage mission, he ran straight into a typhoon. At the mission site, the squad leader's urging mixed with the sound of lashing rain and hurried footsteps, leaving him not a moment to relax.
In the heavy rain, Ji Poke Zi went back and forth again and again to reinforce the fixing poles of the camouflage net. The rain blurred his vision; the camouflage net rose and fell with the howling wind; his heart could not help but tighten along with it.
"As the advance force for the exercise, only after we finish can the follow-on detachments enter the area. We must buy time for them!" Squad Leader Liu Yifan told Ji Poke Zi. In that moment, Ji Poke Zi suddenly understood: their race against the clock was not to respond to the squad leader's urging, but to shoulder that weighty responsibility.
After the rain cleared, the mission was accomplished perfectly. On the return journey, every comrade's face showed exhaustion, yet Ji Poke Zi saw in it a sense of pride—an emotion rooted in a "camouflage soldier's" recognition of the value of his own post.
Very soon, Liu Yifan noticed that Ji Poke Zi seemed to have "become a different person": training no longer needed urging; he voluntarily put in extra practice during rest time; he even proactively sought out veteran cadre to ask professional questions. Not long ago, higher authorities organized a "all-round top performer" (全能尖子) competition, and Ji Poke Zi stood out in company- and battalion-level assessments, becoming the only conscript soldier to earn an "entry ticket."
**"Only when every detail is taken to the utmost in authenticity can a more precise camouflage be achieved"**
For the camouflage detachment, precision is the "high standard" (高标) that must be upheld in camouflage operations.
Every time a camouflage net is laid, Staff Sergeant Second Class (二级上士) Ji Hei Wa Tie steps back a distance and carefully observes from different angles. He patiently adjusts every detail, as if tending to a work of art nearing completion. His apprentice, Sergeant (中士) Shangguan Zijun, assists at his side while also offering his own suggestions for deeper camouflage.
When Shangguan Zijun first enlisted, he did not understand Ji Hei Wa Tie's "pickiness": "The net is laid and the colors roughly match—isn't that enough?"
Then one training day, after painstakingly completing the camouflage of a simulated observation post, Shangguan Zijun's face already showed fatigue. Ji Hei Wa Tie flew a drone up into the sky, then handed him the remote control: "Help me check the camouflage effect." Looking at the image on the screen, Shangguan Zijun was suddenly stunned—the area they had been busy with for several hours had now completely merged with the surrounding mountain forest; the outline of the observation post had vanished entirely from view.
"Beyond astonishment, what I felt more was the power that comes from striving for perfection (精益求精)," Shangguan Zijun reflected. "Only when every detail is taken to the utmost in authenticity can a more precise camouflage be achieved." From that day on, he too learned from his "master" Ji Hei Wa Tie, carefully scrutinizing the surrounding environment and becoming exacting about every detail.
For Staff Sergeant First Class Cui Penghui, the meaning of "precision" is embodied in the study of weather conditions.
Smoke-screen obscuration (发烟遮障) is an important means of camouflage operations, with very high requirements for the timing, angle, and density of release. Cui Penghui still remembers a mission in which, due to an error in predicting wind direction and speed, the smoke screen he and his comrades had set was blown open at a critical moment. Although they quickly closed the gap, that brief exposure still allowed the adversary to capture key information.
This setback sounded an alarm for Cui Penghui. From then on, he kept meteorological observation instruments with him at all times, recording data on wind direction, wind speed, humidity, and temperature at every training session, repeatedly studying the patterns of smoke behavior under different weather conditions.
Dedicated effort pays off. The following year, Cui Penghui accurately predicted a wind direction change during an exercise, seamlessly connecting the smoke screen with the morning mist, and the target was never detected throughout the entire operation.
"Precision on the battlefield is won through countless rigorous repetitions on the training ground," Company Commander Chen Qi told the reporter. To calibrate an error of one centimeter or one degree of angle, the "camouflage soldiers" study diligently and refine repeatedly. Though they carry no guns or artillery, they have placed an invisible safety lock on combat effectiveness through precision and meticulousness.
In recent years, as technology has been updated, various new types of equipment have been progressively fielded to the camouflage detachment, and the efficiency of camouflage operations has improved substantially. In Chen Qi's view, the tools have been upgraded, but that relentless pursuit of detail can never be replaced.
"New equipment has improved our camouflage efficiency, but the difficult problems in camouflage operations still require the most sincere craftsmanship (匠心) to resolve," he said.
*Detachment officers and soldiers carry camouflage nets. Photo by Yuan Dekun.*
**"Persisting in studying the craft of 'fabricating falsehoods' is for the purpose of forging genuine skills that will not be eliminated by the times"**
In the early part of this year, Sergeant First Class (三级军士长) Liu Meng was unusually busy.
It was the period of a group army engineering support backbone training course (集团军工程保障骨干集训), and as an instructor for the training class, he incorporated all the tactical case studies he had personally experienced into his lesson plans, imparting his professional knowledge without reservation.
In the classroom, an unexpected question sent Liu Meng into reflection: "Can traditional military camouflage methods cope with modern high-technology reconnaissance means?"
Looking out at the young faces below the podium, he proactively shared with the students a personal experience.
That year, Liu Meng and his comrades received a camouflage mission. Using dozens of old-style smoke canisters, they built a dense white smoke screen that quickly made the position "disappear" into the haze.
Just as they thought the mission had been accomplished brilliantly, the exercise control group (导调组) projected onto the large screen the footage captured by an infrared reconnaissance aircraft—through these "eyes" capable of seeing heat, the outline of the command post, the not-yet-cooled engines of vehicles, and even the heat-radiating human bodies were all clearly visible to the camera.
"We blocked the naked eye, but we could not block the eye of technology." That image lodged itself in Liu Meng's heart like a sharp thorn. It coldly announced a fact: old methods cannot cope with the new battlefield.
From that point on, Liu Meng and his comrades actively coordinated with reconnaissance detachments to conduct joint training, proactively studied the principles of their advanced equipment, and attempted to optimize camouflage effects by borrowing the reconnaissance perspective, researching corresponding countermeasures.
"Persisting in studying the craft of 'fabricating falsehoods' is for the purpose of forging genuine skills that will not be eliminated by the times." At the end of his lecture, Liu Meng said this solemnly. His words were like a stone cast into water, sending ripples through the hearts of the students.
Sergeant Tan Xuhu recalled an exercise several years ago in which higher authorities ordered them to set up a false artillery position. Tan Xuhu, then a Private First Class, worked with his comrades through great hardship to fabricate a series of false targets, but because they did not understand the configuration patterns of a real artillery position—the spacing between guns, the location of ammunition sites, the layout of personnel shelters—the "position" they set up was seen through by the exercise control group at a glance.
"That lesson made me understand that there are still many gaps in the knowledge we possess. To deceive the adversary, we must manufacture plausible false appearances according to the logic of the real battlefield," Tan Xuhu reflected.
After that, he and his comrades began systematically studying the knowledge of various arms and services in their spare time beyond daily training. They came to understand not only the tactical-level "order of battle" (布阵图) but also deeply researched the dimensions, external appearance, and radar signatures of different types of equipment—all so that every detail they fabricated could withstand the test of actual combat.
It was also because of this experience that this group of "camouflage soldiers" began to cultivate a shared hobby: handcrafting military models.
"Once you've worked through it with your hands, you have it in your heart. On the battlefield, you can do it both fast and accurately." Tan Xuhu picked up a finely detailed model and said earnestly to the reporter.
Day after day and night after night of persistent study transformed into solid confidence on the battlefield. In recent years, the "camouflage soldiers" have converted newly learned technologies and knowledge into a series of practical innovations. In a recent exercise, the brigade's camouflage detachment employed unmanned technology means to conduct camouflage operations within the prescribed time, successfully countering multiple "enemy" reconnaissance methods and accomplishing the mission with distinction. On the journey of army-building (强军征程), this group of "camouflage soldiers" writes, with running strides and tireless struggle, a chapter of youth that honors their mission and does not squander their prime years.
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**Eyewitness Account**
**From "Finding the Adversary" to "Concealing Oneself"**
■ Lieutenant Colonel Zhao Lu
That year, I came from the headquarters reconnaissance section to serve in the camouflage detachment. With the change of post, my understanding also underwent an iteration.
Previously, my mission was to study how to find the adversary by following the faintest of clues. In the face of the ever-proliferating modern reconnaissance means, many traditional methods of concealment are difficult to bring into play—heat "speaks," color "informs," and radar waves can easily see through simple false appearances. As technological means have been revolutionized, the battlefield has become increasingly transparent.
Arriving at the camouflage detachment with this understanding, my sense of urgency was intense. Simply "covering" the target clearly does not work; we must think about how to make it blend into the environment, to make something that does not naturally belong there appear reasonable.
So we began attempting to give traditional camouflage methods the wings of technology, incorporating various new types of equipment into operations. This was a process full of challenges, like learning an entirely new language.
In one exercise, we leveraged new technology to successfully create the false impression of "heavy troop concentration" (重兵集结) in a secondary direction. When I heard the report that the "enemy" reconnaissance forces had been effectively tied down, what surged in my heart was not only excitement, but also a calmer, more solid sense of achievement.
In modern warfare, the value of "camouflage soldiers" extends far beyond "hiding"—they must also learn to "weave a fog of war" (编织迷雾). In this cognitive iteration from "offense" to "defense," my post has changed, but my mission has become clearer: in the dialectical thinking of spear and shield, to forge battlefield armor that leaves the enemy "unable to see clearly, unable to strike accurately, unable to penetrate" (看不清、打不准、攻不透).
*(Compiled by PLA Daily Special Correspondent Liao Xiaobin)*
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**First-Hand Scene**
**Thirty-Three Hours Hidden in the Mountain Forest**
■ PLA Daily Special Correspondents Liao Xiaobin and Ni Xinlei
The night was dark as ink; one after another, armored vehicles threaded through the silent mountain forest. As the exercise got underway, a camouflage detachment of an Army brigade received its mission orders and set out first, heading under cover of darkness toward the designated position.
"The camouflage detachment bears the heavy responsibility of protecting key targets and deceiving enemy reconnaissance. From static camouflage to dynamic protection, from single backgrounds to complex environments, we must constantly challenge the limits of vision and engage in sustained contest with enemy reconnaissance means," the detachment commander told the reporter.
For "camouflage soldiers," camouflage is an art filled with wisdom—they must conceal the real within nature and dissolve targets into the environment. At the exercise work site, the reporter directly experienced the complexity and precision of this "art."
After arriving at the designated area, Sergeant First Class Liu Meng and his comrades immediately began constructing the command post. The sound of metal frames colliding rang out continuously; everyone was busy with their tasks. By the time the command post framework had taken initial shape, the first light of dawn was already showing on the horizon. Liu Meng told the reporter that the real test had just begun—they had to make the entire command post and several vehicles and equipment disappear from the "enemy's" field of vision within the prescribed time.
Very soon, the detachment's officers and soldiers once again threw themselves into a race against time. They rapidly unloaded camouflage nets and various equipment, completing measurement, erection, and splicing operations in succession.
Private First Class Du Zuodong followed Squad Leader Liu Meng in carefully dressing the camouflage net; his fingertips were cut with fine marks by grass blades. "Even one centimeter off could expose us!" Liu Meng earnestly cautioned. The reporter crouched down to observe their work: the orientation of every leaf, the bend of every tuft of dry grass, every point of connection with the vegetation—all of it reflected a pursuit of battlefield precision.
As night fell again, to ensure the concealment effect, camouflage operations had to continue. Liu Meng divided the team into two groups working in rotation; while one group was active, the other seized the scattered intervals to rest. After the officers and soldiers had worked through the night, the command post and vehicles and equipment finally merged completely into the mountain forest, becoming difficult to distinguish. Immediately, Liu Meng used a drone equipped with an infrared lens to conduct an all-around inspection of the camouflaged area. On the screen, the target area was completely consistent in characteristics with the surrounding environment.
"Camouflage effect outstanding!" Hearing the final result, smiles broke out on the faces of the officers and soldiers. Du Zuodong wiped a smear of mud from his face; his eyes were full of pride. After thirty-three consecutive hours of hard fighting, they had completed the camouflage mission to a high standard with wisdom and sweat.
In that moment, a phrase rose in the reporter's mind: to manifest value within concealment; to accumulate the force of thunder in silence.
For this group of "camouflage soldiers," mountains, rivers, grass, and trees bear witness to their wisdom and tenacity; camouflage coatings speak of their focus and dedication. Their existence is like that camouflage net that blends into the environment—unassuming, yet indispensable……