One night I was on a patrol with my platoon. We were conducting a reconnaissance patrol. There was overcast; about 5% illumination, just like there was most days we were in Canada. It had been raining earlier, just like every other day. In fact, it rained nine out of the twelve days we were there; all of which was spent in the field.
At one point in the patrol I had a small "pow-wow" with my squad leaders and platoon sergeant in the middle of the platoon perimeter. I could not see their faces it was so damn dark. I knew my Platoon Sergeant, Sergeant First Class Scott was kneeling next to me because of his breath. He was a smoker and had some of the foulest smelling breath you'd never want to meet. Any who, we conducted our patrol with two recon teams going forward and a surveillance team with a pair of M60 Machine Guns overwatching the objective.
I probed one side of our objective with two security personnel and the Second Squad leader probed the other side while the rest of the platoon remained in the Objective Rally Point (ORP). No, we did not have Night Observation Devices (NODs).
To make a long story short (too late, Gunther), the Squad Leader who probed the other side stepped into a slit trench. If you've ever lived in the woods for extended periods of time you would know what a slit trench is used for. This one had indeed been used and after that event the 2nd Squad Leader's foot smelled worse than the Platoon Sergeant's breath.