The Whistle: Low-Tech Tactical Communication

ONCE EVERYWHERE, NOW FORGOTTEN

Radios are sexy, and cool. Very popular to talk about on the internet lately. But as anyone who's ever used them in field conditions knows, they fail all the time. You know what are not very sexy, but are absolutely, rock solid, until-the-heat-death-of-the-universe reliable? Whistles.

It's amazing how completely the whistle has disappeared from the fighting world. A hundred years ago, every infantry officer in every military in the world carried a whistle, and him and his men had learned and rehearsed an entire language of whistle commands for communicating on the battlefield. Whistles were absolutely ubiquitous in every army of the first world war, and probably the second world war. But as radios became common, the whistle disappeared.

It still held on in some places: In the Vietnam War, the People's Army of Vietnam basically had no radio sets below company or even battalion level. So, in classic low-tech but effective fashion, they used whistle commands to direct their troops to great effect. Plenty of accounts from US Vietnam vets describe eerie whistles blowing from the jungle during PAVN attacks.

WHY WHISTLES?

This brings me to the first advantage of the whistle: if the American troops could hear the whistles clearly, then you bet that every single PAVN fighter could hear the commands his leader was issuing. Whistles are LOUD. Loud enough to hear when you're a half mile or more away. Loud enough (and distinct enough) to hear over quite a lot of gunfire. With few exceptions, everyone in your area will receive your whistle commands.

This might raise a concern about the enemy receiving your whistle commands. Yes, they can hear them, but the chance that they understand them is very slim. Even among tactical circles, discussion about whistle commands is unheard of. Specific whistle commands are far from universal. They can vary depending on the group using them, and they can be changed now and again for security purposes. So consider your whistle commands as encrypted traffic. Someone that detects them knows that something is going on, but they don't know what.

You and your guys, on the other hand, know your whistle commands very well. That's because they're very simple and foolproof to teach. Much easier than teaching guys how to use a radio, and much, much, MUCH less to go wrong. At training and milsim events, I've taught squads of guys whistle commands and gotten them reasonably proficient at them in like, 20 minutes. It's super easy.

Lastly, whistle commands are cool, and they scare the bad guys. In Vietnam, hearing those whistles in the woods at night had an intimidating psychological effect on the GIs. Vise versa, they probably have a morale boosting effect on those who use them. They bring a sense of unity: everyone can hear them, everyone is in communication with their unit, everyone is on the same page and doing what they're supposed to do at the right time.

You certainly don't have to abandon your radios; they have a ton of advantages, and they superseded whistles for a reason. But anyone who's taken any comms training should have a PACE plan for communications, and whistles are a great resilient, cheap, easy-to-train backup for your standard comms.

WHICH WHISTLE?

Ok, so now you're whistlepilled and you want a whistle. Pretty much any whistle will work, even the cheap ones. My recommendation is to get a pealess whistle, since I've actually had the peas get stuck sometimes. I like the Fox 40 whistle, or any of its chinese knockoffs on ebay. Cheap, lightweight, grippy in the hand. You'll want a subdued color, because in combat this thing is gonna hang loose from your gear. I secure mine to the non dominant shoulder strap of my 2nd line rig with just enough shock cord to comfortably hold it between my teeth (this lets you blow the whistle while watching your sector with your rifle). I actually bought a bulk order of my favorite whistle, and have them for sale on our site here, with the aformentioned shock cord for mounting included.

BASIC WHISTLE COMMANDS

Just like morse code, whistle commands rely on short blasts ("dots," represented by * ) and long blasts ("dashes," represented by - ). You could get pretty in depth with making up commands, but it's best to keep it simple, so your guys can remember them all. Here is a table of commands that I've used at training events and found worked well:

In using whistle commands at training events, we have found that having a mnemonic helps a lot with comprehension, as does keeping the list of commands rather short and sweet.

By the way, the above image is sized to fit on a business card. Feel free to download and print for your own personal use. A version printed onto a waterproof card is also included with every whistle we sell (three of them actually), and you can buy six packs of the cards here, for distribution among your group.

Though radios are cool, they're not the most resilient system out there, and we've all had them fail on us. Whistles are a rock solid, resilient backup system for communicating that costs less than one pmag, but may prove lifesaving one day. I strongly recommend you work them into your preparedness plan. Cheers!