Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

People and animals leave marks as they pass: footprints, broken vegetation, disturbed ground, dropped things, the small changes that show something has been there. A soldier with an eye for these tracks and signs can read what has passed and when, and a soldier aware of the signs they themselves leave can avoid giving themselves away. This is track awareness, the fieldcraft skill of reading the signs others leave and minding the signs you leave yourself. The earlier lessons taught the soldier to conceal themselves and to observe; this lesson teaches a related fieldcraft skill: reading the ground for the marks of passage, and being aware of the marks one leaves. It matters because the signs a person leaves can reveal where they went, which a soldier can read to follow or find, and which an enemy or a searcher can read to follow them, so a soldier benefits both from reading signs and from controlling their own. For the Royal Kaharagian Army, whose search-and-rescue work often turns on reading the signs a lost person left, and whose fieldcraft depends on awareness of the ground, track awareness is a valuable skill. This lesson teaches it: why tracks and signs matter, reading the signs others leave, and minding the signs you leave yourself. As with the rest of the course, this is the knowledge layer; the skill of reading and minding signs is built by practice in the field under instruction.

The lesson takes tracks and signs in three parts. First, why tracks and signs matter: that people and animals leave marks of their passage, that these can be read to reveal what passed and when, and that a soldier benefits both from reading signs and from controlling their own. Second, reading the signs others leave: what tracks and signs are, the kinds of mark to look for, and how a soldier reads them to learn what passed, in which direction, and how recently, the eye for the ground that fieldcraft builds. Third, minding the signs you leave: the awareness that a soldier leaves signs too, that these can give them away, and the track discipline of reducing and controlling the signs one leaves. Throughout, the lesson holds that the ground records what passes over it, that a soldier with an eye for signs can read that record and a soldier aware of their own signs can control it, and that track awareness serves both the finding of others and the not being found oneself.

By the end you will be able to explain why tracks and signs matter and how a soldier benefits both from reading them and from controlling their own; read the signs others leave, recognising the kinds of mark and reading what passed, in which direction, and how recently; mind the signs you leave, applying the track discipline of reducing and controlling them; and explain why this skill serves both the search-and-rescue finding of others and the soldier's own concealment.

Key Terms

Tracks and signs: the marks a person or animal leaves in passing, footprints, broken vegetation, disturbed ground, dropped things, the changes that show something has been there.
Track awareness: the fieldcraft skill of reading the signs others leave and being aware of the signs one leaves oneself, an eye for the ground and what has passed over it.
Reading signs (tracking): the skill of reading tracks and signs to learn what passed, in which direction, and how recently, by which a soldier can follow or find.
A sign: any mark or change that shows passage, from a clear footprint to a bent stem, an overturned stone, a scuff, or a dropped item; the small evidence of something having passed.
Direction of travel: the way the maker of the signs was going, read from the signs (such as the direction footprints point or vegetation is bent), which lets a soldier follow.
Age of sign: how recently a sign was made, judged from its freshness, which tells a soldier how far ahead or how long ago the maker passed.
Track discipline: the discipline of reducing and controlling the signs one leaves, so as not to give oneself away to anyone reading them.
Giving yourself away by sign: the danger that the signs a soldier leaves reveal their passage, position, or direction to an enemy or anyone tracking them.
The ground records what passes: the governing truth that the ground keeps a record of what has moved over it, which can be read by one with the eye for it.
Reading and minding: the two sides of track awareness, reading the signs others leave and minding the signs you leave, both built on the same eye for the ground.

Why tracks and signs matter

The lesson begins with a simple fact about the field: the ground records what passes over it. A person or an animal moving through country leaves marks, footprints in soft ground, vegetation bent or broken, stones disturbed, dropped or discarded things, the small changes that show something has passed, and these signs remain for a time after the maker has gone. The ground is, in effect, a record of what has moved over it, and a soldier with an eye for that record can read it, learning what passed, which way it went, and how recently. The untrained eye walks over this record and sees nothing; the trained eye reads it. So the first thing a soldier learns is that the field is full of signs, that these signs hold information, and that an eye for them is a real skill worth building.

Tracks and signs matter to a soldier in two connected ways, because the soldier is on both sides of the record. First, a soldier can read the signs others leave, to follow or find them: the signs a person left reveal where they went, and a soldier who can read them can follow a trail or find someone, which is of great value in search and rescue, where reading the signs a lost person left, the footprints, the dropped item, the disturbed ground, may be the key to finding them. For the Royal Kaharagian Army, whose work so often is the search for a lost or missing person, the ability to read the signs they left is directly valuable. Second, a soldier leaves signs too, which can give them away, so the soldier benefits from being aware of and controlling their own signs: just as a soldier can read the signs others left, an enemy or a tracker can read the signs the soldier leaves, following them or finding their position by them, so a soldier aware of the signs they leave can reduce and control them and avoid giving themselves away. So track awareness serves the soldier both ways: reading the signs others leave, to find and follow, and minding the signs one leaves, to not be found and followed. This ties to the fieldcraft the course has taught: the concealment lesson's aim of not being seen extends to not being tracked, and the observation lesson's eye for the ground extends to an eye for signs. A soldier with track awareness is more capable on both sides of the field's record, better at finding others and better at not being found. The recruit of fieldcraft learns, then, that the ground records what passes, that this record can be read, and that a soldier benefits both from reading it and from controlling their own part of it, which is why track awareness is a fieldcraft skill worth building.

   WHY TRACKS AND SIGNS MATTER

   the GROUND RECORDS what passes over it: a person/animal leaves marks --
   FOOTPRINTS, broken vegetation, disturbed ground, dropped things -- that
   remain a while after the maker is gone.
   the untrained eye sees nothing; the TRAINED eye reads the record (what
   passed, which way, how recently).

   it matters TWO ways (the soldier is on both sides of the record):
     READ the signs OTHERS leave -> follow or FIND them (great value in
        SEARCH + RESCUE: read the signs a lost person left)
     MIND the signs YOU leave -> an enemy/tracker can read them + follow you
        -> aware of your own signs, you can reduce + control them

   track awareness serves BOTH: finding + following others, and NOT being
   found + followed. (extends concealment = not being TRACKED, and
   observation = an eye for SIGNS.)

Reading the signs others leave

The first side of track awareness is reading the signs others leave, and the lesson teaches it as the skill of reading the ground's record. Reading signs, tracking, is the skill of finding and reading the marks a person or animal left to learn what passed, in which direction, and how recently. It begins with knowing what to look for: the kinds of sign that passage leaves. The clearest is the footprint or track in soft ground, but signs are far more than footprints, and a soldier learns to see the fuller range: vegetation bent, broken, or brushed aside; ground disturbed, scuffed, or marked; stones or objects moved or overturned; things dropped, discarded, or left; and the many small changes that show something has passed. Much of tracking is simply learning to see these signs where the untrained eye sees nothing, developing the eye for the ground that notices the bent stem, the scuff, the out-of-place mark.

Having found the signs, the soldier reads them for what they tell. They read direction of travel: which way the maker was going, from the way footprints point, vegetation is bent, or signs lead, so the soldier knows which way to follow. They read the age of the sign: how recently it was made, judged from its freshness, the sharpness of a print, the wilting of broken vegetation, the weathering of a disturbance, which tells the soldier how far ahead or how long ago the maker passed. And they read what they can of what passed: whether a person or animal, how many, perhaps something of their condition or burden, from the nature of the signs. Reading signs is thus reading the ground's record to reconstruct what happened: something passed, this way, this recently, and so. The soldier follows a trail by finding sign after sign in the direction of travel, reading each and looking for the next, and so can track a maker across the ground. This is a real skill, built by practice, learning to see the signs and to read them, and it is of great practical value, above all in the search and rescue that is so much of this Army's work: a lost person leaves signs, and a soldier who can read them, the footprints by the path, the dropped glove, the disturbed ground where they rested, can follow the trail and find them where one without the skill would walk past every clue. The recruit of fieldcraft learns to read the signs others leave as an eye for the ground and what has passed over it, a skill that serves the finding and following the Army so often needs. The skill is deepened by practice in the field under instruction, but the foundation, seeing the signs and reading what passed, in which direction, and how recently, is laid here.

   READING THE SIGNS OTHERS LEAVE (tracking)

   KNOW WHAT TO LOOK FOR (signs are far more than footprints):
     footprints/tracks in soft ground · vegetation bent/broken/brushed ·
     ground disturbed/scuffed · stones/objects moved · things dropped/
     discarded · the small changes that show passage
   -> much of tracking is learning to SEE the signs where the untrained eye
      sees nothing.

   READ THEM for what they tell:
     DIRECTION of travel -- which way the maker went (prints point, veg
        bent) -> which way to follow
     AGE of sign -- how recently (print sharpness, veg wilting, weathering)
        -> how far ahead / how long ago
     WHAT passed -- person or animal, how many, condition/burden

   FOLLOW a trail: find sign after sign in the direction of travel, read
   each, look for the next.
   great value in SEARCH + RESCUE: read the signs a lost person left (prints,
   a dropped glove, a rest spot) -> follow + FIND them.

Minding the signs you leave

The other side of track awareness is minding the signs you leave yourself, and the lesson closes with this, because the soldier is not only a reader of signs but a maker of them. Just as a soldier can read the signs others left, anyone with the same eye, an enemy, a tracker, a searcher, can read the signs the soldier leaves, and so follow them, find their position, or learn their direction. A soldier who leaves a clear trail can be tracked along it; one who leaves signs at a position can be found there; one whose signs show their direction can be followed. So a soldier benefits from being aware of the signs they leave and controlling them, which is track discipline: reducing and controlling the signs one leaves so as not to give oneself away to anyone reading them. This is the natural extension of the concealment lesson's aim of not being seen: a soldier who would not be found must avoid not only being seen but being tracked, and track discipline is the not-being-tracked half of staying hidden.

Track discipline rests first on awareness: the soldier who understands that they leave signs, and what signs they leave, can begin to control them, while one who never thinks about it leaves a clear trail unknowingly. So the soldier becomes aware of the signs they make, the footprints in soft ground, the vegetation they break, the ground they disturb, the things they might drop, and minds them. Then the soldier reduces and controls the signs: moving in ways and on ground that leave fewer signs where it matters, taking care not to break vegetation or disturb ground needlessly, not dropping or discarding things that mark their passage or position, and generally leaving as little trail as the situation requires. The soldier cannot leave no signs at all, since any passage leaves some, but they can greatly reduce and control the signs they leave, making themselves far harder to track. A soldier also learns to think about their signs in light of who might read them: where being tracked matters, the soldier takes more care; where it does not, less, judging the effort by the need, as with all fieldcraft. Track discipline ties to the other fieldcraft disciplines, the noise and light discipline of not giving oneself away, the concealment of not being seen, all part of the one aim of not betraying one's presence, position, or movement. So minding the signs you leave is the second half of track awareness: aware that the ground records the soldier's own passage as it records others', the soldier controls that record, reducing and managing the signs they leave so as not to be tracked. Taken with reading the signs others leave, track awareness makes a soldier capable on both sides of the field's record: able to read what others left, to find and follow, and to control what they leave, to not be found and followed. The recruit of fieldcraft learns both as one skill, the eye for the ground turned outward to read others' signs and inward to mind one's own. As with the rest of the course, this is the knowledge layer; the skill of reading and minding signs is built by practice in the field under instruction. But the foundation is laid here: the ground records what passes, a soldier with the eye for it can read that record to find and follow, and a soldier aware of their own signs can control that record to avoid being found and followed.

In Practice: Reading the Trail and Hiding the Trail

A soldier of the Royal Kaharagian Army uses track awareness on both its sides during a task, and the two uses show this lesson. First, the finding side: the section is searching for a person lost in difficult country, and the soldier, having an eye for the ground, reads the signs the lost person left. Where others see nothing, the soldier sees the record of passage: a footprint in soft ground by a path, vegetation brushed aside, the disturbed ground where the person stopped to rest, a dropped item. The soldier reads these signs for what they tell, the direction the person was going from the way the prints point and the vegetation is bent, how recently they passed from the freshness of the signs, and follows the trail, finding sign after sign in the direction of travel, reading each and looking for the next. By reading the ground's record, the soldier follows the lost person's trail and helps find them, where a section without the skill would have walked past every clue. This is the direct value of reading signs to the Army's search-and-rescue work.

Then, the not-being-found side: later, where the soldier must move through country without being tracked, they mind the signs they themselves leave. Aware that they leave a record as the lost person did, and that anyone with the eye could read it, the soldier applies track discipline: moving in ways and on ground that leave fewer signs, taking care not to break vegetation or disturb ground needlessly, not dropping things that would mark their passage, and so reducing and controlling the trail they leave. They cannot leave no signs at all, but they leave far fewer and fainter, making themselves much harder to track, the not-being-tracked half of staying hidden that complements the concealment of not being seen. The same eye for the ground that let them read the lost person's trail lets them control their own.

The value is a soldier capable on both sides of the field's record: able to read the signs others leave, to find and follow, and to control the signs they leave, to not be found and followed. Because they had track awareness, they could follow a lost person's trail to help find them, and could move without leaving a trail that would betray them, both of real value to the Army's work. A soldier without the skill would have missed the lost person's clues and left a clear trail of their own unknowingly. This soldier understood that the ground records what passes, that the record can be read and controlled, and that track awareness serves both the finding of others and the not being found oneself, which is the whole of this lesson, the eye for the ground turned outward and inward at once.

Check Your Understanding

Explain why tracks and signs matter, using the idea that "the ground records what passes over it." How does a soldier benefit on both sides of that record, reading the signs others leave and minding the signs they leave themselves?
Describe reading the signs others leave: the kinds of sign to look for (far more than footprints), and reading what passed, in which direction, and how recently. Why is this of great value in search and rescue?
Explain minding the signs you leave, and track discipline. Why can anyone with the same eye read a soldier's signs, how does a soldier reduce and control the signs they leave, and how does this extend the concealment aim of not being seen?

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson teaches that the ground keeps a record of what passes over it, that a soldier with an eye for signs can read that record to find and follow others, and that a soldier aware of their own signs can control that record to avoid being tracked. Think about how much information a person leaves in their passage without realising it, and how the same eye that lets a soldier follow a lost person's trail lets them hide their own. What would it take to build the track awareness that reads the signs others leave and minds the signs you leave yourself?

Summary

The ground records what passes over it: people and animals leave marks of their passage, footprints, broken vegetation, disturbed ground, dropped things, that remain a while, and a soldier with an eye for them can read that record while the untrained eye sees nothing.
Tracks and signs matter on both sides of the record: a soldier can read the signs others leave, to follow or find them (of great value in the search and rescue that is so much of the Army's work), and a soldier leaves signs themselves, which an enemy or tracker can read, so the soldier benefits from being aware of and controlling their own signs.
Reading signs (tracking) is finding and reading the marks left to learn what passed, in which direction, and how recently: knowing the kinds of sign to look for (far more than footprints), reading the direction of travel, the age of the sign, and what can be told of what passed, and following a trail by finding and reading sign after sign. It is the key to following a lost person's trail and finding them.
Minding the signs you leave is track discipline: aware that the soldier leaves a record as others do, and that anyone with the eye could read it, the soldier reduces and controls the signs they leave, moving to leave fewer signs, not breaking vegetation or disturbing ground needlessly, not dropping things, judging the care by who might read them. This is the not-being-tracked half of staying hidden, extending the concealment aim of not being seen.
Track awareness makes a soldier capable on both sides of the field's record: reading what others leave, to find and follow, and controlling what they leave, to not be found and followed, the eye for the ground turned outward and inward.
This is the knowledge layer; the skill of reading and minding signs is built by practice in the field under instruction.
Cross-references: extends the concealment of Lesson 06 (Concealment: Why Things Are Seen) to not being tracked, and the observation and eye-for-the-ground of Lesson 07 to reading signs; the reading of a lost person's trail serves the search-and-rescue work tied to Lesson 15 (Attracting Help) and the wider relief work; and track awareness supports the patrolling and movement skills of Patrolling and Tactical Movement (FLD 230).

Tracks and Signs: Awareness in the Field