FRIDAY FOTO (December 28, 2018)

Macbeth, Act IV, Scene II

(U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Connor Mendez)

This photo, taken December 12, 2018, shows Army Special Forces (Green Beret) snipers sprinting uphill during advanced skills sniper training at Fort Carson, Colorado.

The camouflage outfit they wear is known as a ghillie suit. We’ve written about ghillie suits several times in the past. Designed to look like heavy foliage in a forest or field, it was originally developed by Scottish gamekeepers as a portable hunting blind and first adopted for war in 1916. The name derives from a Scottish word for “lad” or “servant.”

Speaking of Scotland, these ghillie men remind us of a key scene in William Shakespeare’s drama, Macbeth, by longstanding theater world superstition, referred to simply as “the Scottish play.”

In Macbeth, the murderous title character has usurped the crown of Scotland and fears retribution, but three witches — or weird sisters — conjure an apparition that promises  Macbeth will never be defeated until Birnam Wood marches to fight him at Dunsinane Hill.

Since trees can’t uproot themselves and march, Macbeth thinks he has nothing to fear, but later in the play he is defeated by an army emerging from the woods using felled branches as camouflage — so it looked like the woods were walking indeed.