Advantages of Being Color Blind

[Gbro]

Reading a very interesting article in the morning paper about a WWII Veteran who was turned away by the Navy because of being color blind and being taken by the US Army Air Corps because they believed he would be able to detect camouflage better from the air and they wanted him. He served as a Gunner on a Flying Fortress.
This story also goes on to tell of his many years as a School Buss Driver
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/256448/
We survey all of our Firearms Safety Students for Color Blindness and although I have a hard time remembering more than 3-4 in over 25 year of showing the slide with The word ONION in the circle, and I could not find my slide on-line, but the thing is when talking about how they have to be so much more careful because of their condition I alway regroup at that point and stress that we all have the obligation of being just as careful wether or not we are color blind.
My FIL was also color blind and a deer in tall grass was invisible to him, he was always looking for the white spots to help him but could only see the head many times.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

What is the significance of color-blindness to safe gun handling?

In terms of the test, these are samples of what I usually see. I know they use these for aviation physicals...

 

[Evan Thomas]

What is the significance of color-blindness to safe gun handling?

My father was color-blind (red-green only). He taught me to shoot when I was 9, and it had no significance to that. He wasn't a hunter, so I don't know how much it would have affected his ability to see blaze orange in the field. That's the only safety-related issue I can think of offhand. But we did sometimes go for walks during deer season in Vermont, and he knew which hat was his blaze orange one; I just don't know how much it would have stood out for him in the field.

There were no advantages to it that I ever noticed -- he was terrible at picking out his own clothes.

 

[Gbro]

The Onion

This is the Onion copied from the old slide presentation,

Brian asks;

What is the significance of color-blindness to safe gun handling?

Then follows up with,

I know they use these for aviation physicals...

I say, [ what is the difference]?
They are both to make aware of the condition one may have, however we dealing with it in a FAS class would maybe unveil to the student for the 1st time that what they see is different from what others see.
Looks like there is no test or evaluation for School Bus Drivers and although i only have a Passenger endorsement on my CDL I never-the-less was surprised.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

I don't see a significance of color in gun handling, ordinarily.

The 4 rules are what I'm thinking about, color has no meaning.

In aviation, it's fairly obvious. All sorts of things are red/green light based. If a radio goes out and you have to use light signals to approach and land in controlled air space, they are white, red and green.

Guns, I don't care what color you are, I don't point at you unless I want to destroy you.

Not being a jerk, just don't understand the significance.

 

[MikeG]

Aren't some firearms safety positions denoted by red dots for armed and green dots for safe?

As an Air Force bomb loader I was tested for color blindness. Most of the fuses used color to indicate safe (green) or armed (red). Confusing the two could be bad, in either guns or bombs.

 

[locnload]

I am red/green color blind. I have hunted since I was 12 and had no idea I had a problem until I joined the Navy in 1970. I have no problem seeing hunter orange at all and in fact am often the first to notice movement of game and people in the woods. I also have had a 35 year career as a "Electro/Mechanical" tech and I do a fair amont of electrical wiring on machines and have never had a problem getting wires crossed because of color. One rule, when in doubt, get the ohm meter out.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I'm also red/green color weak (red/green deficiency is not color "blind," it is color weak). I didn't know it until the U.S. Army told me during Combat Engineer AIT that they would prefer I not be the guy attaching colored wires to those little stick thingies that we put into the big clumps of explody stuff.

I see red, and I see green. Blaze orange is orange. It's when greens get light and red shades off into pink that I have problems. I suppose my first clue should have been kindergarten, when a classmate asked why I was coloring the ocean purple. Hey, to me purple was just a nice, dark blue ...

 

[Glenn E. Meyer]

If you are color blind - in the most common sense, you lack either the medium wavelength or long wavelength cone and are dichromatic. The reds and greens are indistinguishable on the dimension of red vs green perceptual hues.

If you are deficient then you have three cone receptors but the absorption spectrum of the three cones are abnornal. Usually one of the receptors has a peak too close to the other causing you to have limited discriminability compared to normal color vision.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I forgot to mention that red-green weak is more prevalent in males than it is in females, and it varies in severity. Across the spectrum, to a greater or lesser degree red-green weakness affects a surprisingly large percentage of American males. (And many of them don't know it. I didn't know it until the Army told me at age 22.)

 

[Glenn E. Meyer]

X linked recessive.

 

[Ronbert]

For sailors they need to be able to see what color another vessel's side lights are so as to tell geometry.
Same for pilots. They also have to read the tower light gun signals (as mentioned).

You'd think the Army guys might like to know what paint colors are on the tips of their ammo though..... trace, AP,etc

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I've been a sailer since I was twelve years old (I'm now a senior citizen). Even though my old optometrist told me mine was the worst case of red-green weak he had ever seen, I never had any trouble distinguishing a red running light from a green running light. They just aren't in the shades that tend to tail off into grey.

Ammo in Vietnam wasn't a problem ... whatever they gave me, I put it in my weapon and shot it.

 

[gbran]

I spent most of my military time up in the air or looking at aerial photos for camoflage (late 60's, early 70's). Conversely, I have a real challenge spotting animals when hunting. If they're not silloueted or moving, I have a real tough time spotting them.

Then there's my doctor who gives me my physicals. He asks me what I do at intersections, I say I do what everybody else does. He says, what if nobody else is there, I say then it doesn't matter.

 

[egor20]

Been hunting and shooting most my life and never had a problem being R/G colorblind. I also spent 22 years in the Navy as a Boatswains Mate, never had a problem..................except for one Commander who asked me if I might want to go to EOD school.

CUT THE RED WIRE PETTY OFFICER!!

 

[okiewita40]

I didn't find out I was color blind til 1985 when I went into the navy. The only thing they wouldn't let me do was electronics. Oddly enough though my uncle owned a computer harness house.

I used to assemble apple computer harness' which had 26 different colors of wires. I never got a rejected harness.

 

[Gbro]

gbran,
We're you encouraged to preform the,

I spent most of my military time up in the air or looking at aerial photos for camoflage (late 60's, early 70's). Conversely, I have a real challenge spotting animals when hunting. If they're not silloueted or moving, I have a real tough time spotting them.

Because of your condition like the old timer in the New Paper arctical?
My first Red Head duck I bagged years ago was mounted by a local guy that did taxidermy. When I got it back I had to return it to him as the bill was all black.
When I got it back again it was still wrong and then learned he is Color Blind.
I remember the puzzled look on his face when I tried to explain that the bill color was all wrong.
I had the duck suspended from the ceiling for years and when it got knocked down when we were removing the front door one time old neighbor that thought it was his fault was sure I was going to be upset and was shocked when I thanked him, it was time to put that misfit duck to rest.
He specializes in Deer heads and other furry critters mostly.

 

[jib]

I am Red/Green deficient and yes, I do see movement in the woods before others do. Orange is not a problem for me.

 

[Tom Matiska]

If the moderators will allow some latitude that vision is gun related.....

11 of 12 "color blind" are male, inherited it from mom's side of the gene pool, have a green not red problem, and aren't "blind", just a little weak.

Failing the dot test and Farnsworth lantern test kept me from a Coast Guard or Naval Commission. But I was able to pass the CTT test and the Air Force allowed me to fly high performance jets... go figure...

If you are bordeline weak, the dot test can depend on type of ambient lighting. Photographers, fashion designers, makeup artists, etc.... all seem to know that incandescent, fluorescent, mercury bulbs, and natural sunlight bring out color differently, but not every doctor seems to know that office lighting matters. Unless you are hunting deer with lots of dots on them inside an office you may not really have a problem.

 

[bob.a]

I've taken the CB tests several times. When I was young (25-30) there was one panel I could not differentiate; all the rest were visible to me. By the time I went for my first FAA physical for a pilot's license, at about age 43, i had a lot of trouble with red-green. I had to go to a local airport and show them I could interpret the colors on a light gun from the tower. No problem with that - I can easily distinguish red from green in all but those picky tests.

So apparently this CB thing can change as your eyes age.

FWIW, I had cataracts removed a couple years ago; while colors became more intense, it did not improve the CB tests.