Hawk's a civilian, too, IIRC, though well versed in many things.
Yep, and a decidedly low-speed one at that!! (Though I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express and took tour during PPW)
Tried to make that clear in my earlier post:
"Maybe others can comment on current regular army practice is, I'm more familiar with current Research from a pilots perspective."
NVG - night vision goggle (not glasses).
NOD - night observation device. The term NOD is mostly a ground-pounder term, and is an all-encompassing term for any low-light vision device. It evolved in the early days of night optics when the devices were larger and not wearable (like a starlight or Nitehog scope).
The term NVG was born out of the adaptation of night optics for pilots, which required dual monocular vision (one tube for each eye). This led to the first goggles, which later gave birth to the whole AN/AVS line (also called ANVIS).
So if you hear someone say "NVD" or "NOD" they are almost certainly a ground soldier.
Scout has probably forgotten more about usage of Aviation oriented night vision systems than I will ever know. My insight is more around how they work technically, various generations, who makes them and where, etc.
I will say that some of the terminology has taken on broader use. The technology also somewhat split now across aviation & infantry lines. AN/AVS is aviation centric. AN/PVS is soldier (non-aviation) centric.
From DS's description what they used at USMA training was older tech PVS-7 "cyclops". (But maybe a cadet can comment) I'll just say that your average yacht or podunk police department has newer/better NVG. And even some civvy's.
Hold or wear a PVS-7 and you'll see why the term NOD is a double entendre. It also has a distinct problem in that it's a monocular device, yet blocks both eyes. OK for some purposes, less than optimal for others. Newer PVS devices are monocular and much lighter/smaller. And scout is (as usual) right, officially NOD is army-speak for "Night Observation Device", though that's not as commonly known, nor universal across branches. You'll hear both in use.
The problem with improper use of flashlights (even red ones) is that the PVS's autogate (blank) around bright lights. Which is not what you want to have happen when on watch, or similar. Since they are sensitive down into infrared ranges, the red lights might as well be bright white.
But we've gone far afield. Next thing you know we'll have PVS-14's listed on the suggested Beast packing list!!!
My point was mainly that while a headlamp may be handy early on, it's not required and will most likely not be that useful once into the later USMA field training phases.
You can revisit when headed for ranger as recent grads are saying they found their headlamp invaluable.