Identifying An LZ From The Air
Landing areas are most commonly marked by coloured smoke. The standard procedure is for troops already on the ground at the landing area to "pop smoke" (set off a smoke grenade). The aircraft pilot(s) radio back when the smoke is spotted and what colour smoke they see. Troops on the ground then respond with what colour the smoke should be. Smoke of a different colour can mean that the landing area has been discovered and compromised by the enemy, and the pilot will usually have the authority to cancel any landing.
Read more about this topic: Landing Zone
Famous quotes containing the words identifying and/or air:
“And the serial continues:
Pain, expiation, delight, more pain,
A frieze that lengthens continually, in the lucky way
Friezes do, and no plot is produced,
Nothing you could hang an identifying question on.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)