I watched a show on Discovery last night about paratroopers and the dangers they face. One of the biggest dangers is getting shot after they bail out. I saw some actual footage of guys getting shot at and I can only believe that they made a good target because their parachutes were Orange!
Why wouldn’t they use a blue parachute for daytime jumps and black parachutes for night time jumps? Wouldn’t those make less of a target???
Two words = military intellegence.
No such thing.
Never expect anything in the military to make sense.
I suppose they are easier for the rescue folks to find. Of course if all they are finding is bodies, I fail to see the advantage. I imagine they never thought of it. And then they would have to give the guys the right color chutes. They’d probably screw that up as well!
But everyone knows that they’re supposed to be dressed as nuns. 
Not sure who these guys were, but I know the Army uses Olive Drab colored parachutes. And according to the Rules of Engagement (ROE) set forth by the Geneva Convention, you are not allowed to shoot at paratroopers. And paratroopers are not allowed to shoot back.
And I’m sure everyone obeys ** that ** rule…
I’m not getting it either. 
Oh – you’re talking about something else…never mind.
Iguana Boy:
If you don’t obey the rules of war and you lose, you will be brought to trial. If they can decide on an appropriate venue, that is. Of course, they also have to catch you first, kind of tough if you are still commanding an armed forces that has nuclear weapons.
There’s two issues here, paratroopers and folks bailing out. Paratroopers are active soldiers who are entering combat, and it’s expected that they’ll be shot at, and shoot back. As such, it’s to their advantage to use inconspicuously-colored parachutes: Green might have been chosen rather than blue to make them less noticeable once they land.
On the other hand, a person bailing out of a crashing aircraft is a casualty, not a combatant, and is therefore protected by the rules of warfare. Provided that everyone’s playing nice, they aren’t at any risk from getting shot, but they are potentially at risk from starvation, exposure, wild animals and such until they get rescued or otherwise get to safety, so it’s to their advantage to have bright-colored parachutes.
The rules of war aren’t just something that matters if you lose: Violating them is likely to get a lot of folks mad at you, and may well turn a lot of nations from “neutral” to “enemy”.
In WWI, during the first tank battles, the Brits shot Germans abandoning tanks. The geting folks mad at you theory espoused by Chrosos seems to fit here; it could be the Brits leaving their tank next.
The Japanese routinely shot guys bailing out. I don’t hink they signed the Geneva convention, though. After all, the guy is going to get into another airplane and come back after you again.
Someone said of the Q ships-raiders disquised as merchantmen - the Germans used in WWI (I paraphrase):
“This sort of thing would work if 1) Nobody found out or 2) You won the war. The Germans failed in both cases.”