If they were SF then it is almost certainly due to personal preference. It's not the way I'd choose to roll, personally, but to each their own. The two pluses I can think of are: 1.) Batteries don't ever die on iron sights 2.) Iron sights are always ready to go, no need to flip them on like on an Aimpoint or EOTech. But you can get the same benefits with a back up iron sight and still use your powered optics. And ACOGs don't need batteries. Maybe the guy was just seriously old school about things.

Do you know it was really a SF soldier? Combat arms types will always have some kit hanging from the weapon.

well dunno,maybe he is oldschool.but i saw many navy seals photos without optics,especially in jungle warfare.my choice would be acog 4x for sure,if there wasnt acog i would still put aimpoint instead of ironsights.

In jungle warfare I would imagine the moist air would lead to the scope fogging up.

>>well dunno,maybe he is oldschool.but i saw many navy seals photos without optics,especially in jungle warfare.my choice would be acog 4x for sure,if there wasnt acog i would still put aimpoint instead of ironsights.<< Any possibility the photos are a few years old?

yimmy you are right,that might be the reason but still aimpoint or acog is still used in jungle warfare,i still think that no optics are an exception.yeah pictures might be old but i dont they are not so old,i mean optics arent so new.and i saw discovery channel programme about SEALs,in parts in jungles and some other parts most of the seals had 'naked' m4 and some had m203 attached.

If it is the SEALs, perhaps the lack of optics is because they were doing training runs after simulating or actually doing some sort of amphibious op? Or maybe there was some other artificial reason they were running without optics due to their training event.

yeah it was an amphibious exercise,why dont they use the optics then ?

>>yeah it was an amphibious exercise,why dont they use the optics then ? << I don't know how well Aimpoints, ACOGs, and such handle submersion in salt water.

well it might be true for aimpoint because of the electronics but i dont see the reason why acog 4x shouldnt work,sniper rifle scopes work altough exposed to water.