Interesting Training Exercises That We Should Be Doing:

Veterans hospital, police work together to combat PTSD | ksl.com

And it's sheer coincidence that we were discussing sunglasses Thursday and the way that they can interfere our ability in control interactions with the public, victims, witnesses and suspects.  From the article:

"During the CIT session at the VA, Vietnam veteran Rick Miller recounts the time he was pulled over for doing 110 miles per hour down the freeway and the patrolman, approaching Miller, took off his sunglasses.  'The guy took off his sunglasses," Miller said. 'I saw a human being trying to do his job. For me, to see a cop doing his job, seeing his eyes, really helped center me.'"

I know nothing about Afghan culture, but when watching video of military personnel meeting with or talking to indigenous, rural Afghans while wearing dark sunglasses, I've always wondered if that may actually hinder effective communication.  Students know I'm a mega-believer in eye pro all the time, but we should be able to withstand a few minutes of the same sun while wearing clear lens that that nation's citizens have tolerated for eons.  While I sure as hell wouldn't remove any of it in those field conditions, full camo and Kevlar, plus all the second and third line gear, let alone an eleven pound M4, probably sets up enough psychological barriers to effective communications that switching to clear lenses for a couple minutes may just be enough to get someone to pay attention to what we are trying to say, particularly when our spoken words are filtered through a translator.

And again with the same caveat that's in the course outline - when working on snowfields, glaciers, high desert, mineral flats, some aerial and marine environments, yeah, sure, occupational safety may dictate mirrored or extremely dark lenses that may need to be kept on during contacts.