[Miss Behavin]

It's all about night vision my friend. My brother, who was in Armored Cav, said the tanks are the same way (at least back in his day, cannot speak for the newer ones).

At night, it is said that red lighting will not affect your night vision as much as bright lighting. I remember during my time in the military, that during the fire watch at night, many of the buildings had red lighting for the same reason. Enough to see by but not enough to make you blind as a bat if you had to go out in the dark.

Same for sub crews, If the bright lights are on at night and the watch goes topside, not very effective if they can't see.

Hope this explains it.

Cheers!

Oops, Captain Nemo beat me to the draw. Anyway, same thing.