Worst WET

[Smokin Joe]

Originally posted by Sacamuelas
LOL.... alright.. guilty as charged Team Sergeant #1.

I will delete my entire post when you say the word Team Sergeant #2. Was just trying to help resize and edit it for you.

Hey hey hey.....since when do virtual push-ups count?

Cool pic Jawbreaker.

[Bill Harsey]

Ok, This doesn't count but since your talking about inclimate winter weather. Logging thru the winter in the high Cascades could get interesting. One December it got cold enough that my cork (caulked, spiked) boots didn't stick in a big frozen buckskin log (bark had been knocked off). While running across the top of this log my boots didn't stick and I fell on my running chainsaw. I broke the handle bar off the saw to keep it from ruining a good rainjacket.

[Firebeef]

Ok..so I am just gettin to this...but I was reading the thread, and thought I had to put my 2 pfennigs worth in.

When 10th GP started the move to Colorado...our first WET was in Jan-Mar 94...and of course, having moved to Colorado to have access to the awesome terrain and extreme weather, on 3 January we merrily boarded busses and drove 10 hours to Camp Harrison, Montana, near Helena. (there was absoloutly NO griping, bitching or grousing...I swear to God!!) Of course, the snow was pretty sparse, so we eneded up after a week or so, bussing 4 hours a day round trip to Bridgers bowl, near Bozeman. That wasn't so bad. Our big "winter mass tac jump" ended up being a bunch of morons jumpin skis and snowshoes...into a brown dirt field and the temperature was about 60...good thing we didn't have any heat casualties

The real scheisse happened when we went into our team festivities. We went into ISO (which was awesome, btw) and were given a mission which related to a real world scenario in an unnamed country on the Balkan peninsula. The only autonomy we were NOT given was our method of infil. Of the teams participating, our dart landed on Static line parachute infil. I guess S-3 had the air assets and by Gum...we were gonna use em!! ISO and rehersals went awesome....probably the best I saw....backside and backbriefs went incredibly well....everything was great until....

yup...there I was
.....Oh dark thirty...
MC-130 on the taxiway...
9 SF troopers gonna earn their pay....

Exited into the blackest darkest night I think I ever saw or quite actually.....didn't saw....LOL. At some point I lowered my ruck...which I think weighed about 12 or 13 lbs....oh OK....maybe 20lbs !! and not because I had any reference to where the ground was...I just figgered I'd rather not land with my ruck attached (been there, done that) I remember hearing my ruck hit.....and immediatley a tumbling and whooshing sound as my ruck was being dragged...before I made contact with the ground. this is gonna suc.... ouch! bang! boom!...and ....silence. I checked myself... all was intact, and I got my weapon outta my M-19 ....uhhh ya know... the canvas thing you put your weapon in....lol... anyways.... I did surveillance. I had seen a single parachute near me under canopy (i was second off the ramp) but had not heard anyone else "contact" the ground. I began quietly packing up my -1B, and off in the distance I heard some faint yelling, a vehicle start....and then again...nothing but the wind....fuck...the wind was hawking I realized....and it was probably around 10 degrees fahrenheit. My hands were freezing stuffing my chute into the kit bag. I was kinda on a slight upslope hill....no trees, and a few rocks which I began noticing...woulda really hurt if I had landed on them.....hmmm this wasn't the way the DZ had been desribed in ISO......imagine that!

I waited some more....I started doin small circular patrols around my AO to see if I could find someone else...damn it was hawking!! Nuttin! Suddenly I could hear people approaching...this was all tactical... we were in Badguyland as far as anyone was concerned....so I crouched down, weapon at the ready, and issued the challenge.. a gaggle of men approached....I could see it was the BN cdr, BN CSM and a couple other staff types... (this was the first "blind drop" we'd done in a while I guess and I guess they were the Gforce DZ party?!?!) the CDR, blew right past the password, walked right up to me and goes.... "who's this??" "Me" I replied...
"are you OK?" he asked? "Sure" i says.....he freakin hugged me....."OK" he says...."change of gears.... follow me, some of your guys are hurt." Things changed rapidly from that point. As it turned out...and believe me the next couple hours would take 5 pages.....but for brevities sake... I was the only member of the team who was uninjured....due entirely to blind luck. The 2 closest guys to the DZ were 400+ meters away....in the only 2 trees for probably 10 miles. Our Fox.....Spike, broke his leg in 10 places....and as far as I know...this was his final jump. Our Tm Sgt tweaked his back, our Team Ldr tweaked his knees...all 3 of them were exfilled....we Rangered on, and the 2 guys who had been hanging in the trees feet started screamin once we moved as the blood flow returned...and...
ENDEX. The powers that be decided that a 3 man team couldn't do it. I dunno why....we had an Echo, a Charlie and a Medic....they were limping, I was fine, but I think we coulda Rangered on ....anyways.... thats my story....and I'm stickin to it. Gonna go hit the gym

[12B4S]

One of mine, I mostly described in another thread awhile back.

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ighlight=akios

WET is ANOTHER new term to me. I'm catching up though.

There is something I didn't get around to in that thread. Before we headed out, we were issued a new piece of gear. The Bladder Canteen. The Army wanted it tested and seems we were the guinea pigs. We were told to leave our canteens behind and issued these things. I suppose they may have been the forerunner to today's 'Camelback'. They were around a couple quarts, designed to wear on your gear or with a shoulder strap. They were designed to be less bulky and lighter (especially as water was used). Another reason was 'noise discipline' no sloshing noise with half or one third empty canteens. They filled just GREAT from a faucet, spigot or whatever.

Try filling them up in the mountains in a small fast running shallow stream on skis, in a blizzard. Even off skis on a clear day. Your hand will go numb long before you get a couple ounces in the thing. We were also packing LRRPs... LOL. We just figured screw it. We found ways, but that thing was worthless. At least in a situation like that.

So, I'm wondering about these 'Camelbacks'. I don't own one, have checked them out in stores. I realize they have a much bigger opening and such. Just don't know how they would fill or workout in that situation.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Unless you are fighting the Rooskies.

Germans learned the hard way about that.

TR

Or the North Koreans and Chinese. Ask Trip Wire about that one . . .

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Roguish Lawyer

Or the North Koreans and Chinese. Ask Trip Wire about that one . . .

But unlike them, we stopped the horde and held the line.

You could add the French to those who tried and failed though.

TR

[Firebeef]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

But unlike them, we stopped the horde and held the line.

You could add the French to those who tried and failed though.

TR

2 part reply: you could write a novel of things the French have "tried" and failed at over the course of history. The only thing they seem to do and do well is point out other nations shortcomings.

In response to Camelbacks: yeah they are great, if you can fill them from a tap, or are gonna be in a rear area each night, but it is tough filling them on the fly, even with the wide mouths. Remember, they are built by civilians....for civilians, and filling from a stream "...ewwww, are we out of Evian already, Blake??" or during a blizzard off of skis isn't one of the things they had in mind in the advertising boardroom meeting.

.02 worth

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by Firebeef

When 10th GP started the move to Colorado...our first WET was in Jan-Mar 94...and of course, having moved to Colorado to have access to the awesome terrain and extreme weather, on 3 January we merrily boarded busses and drove 10 hours to Camp Harrison, Montana, near Helena.

some things never change...December 1977, 2/10 departed from Hanscom AFB in a near blizzard to jump into Camp Ripley MN for WW training (WET training for you FNGs)...seems like the BC watched alot of NFL football on television, and back when the Vikings played outside, it seems they always played in snow in December...so we geared up, had a Wx forecast predicting lotsa snow in Mn...had a telephone call that confirmed snow was on the DZ, so we had on skiis and snowshoes, rigged just like FM 57-220(?)...the door opened, i peeked out ( i was one of the JMs) and there was brown stuff everywhere...looked like dead grass...we jumped in, spent the next week and change on the one ribbon of snow they had for ski training and returned to four feet of white stuff on the ground at Fort Devens....

the absolutely worst WET i ever experienced was in Alaska, as a straight-leg infantry company commander...what used to be Jack Frost/Brim Frost, had been name Arctic Warrior...sholy hit, it got cold...the weather dropped to -40°F as we began deploying and as soon as most of the troops got across the ice bridges on the Tanana River, the weather started getting cold...at places in the exercise AO, temps got as low as -85°F, while the average temp during the operation was -65°F...we had SUSVs for command and supply vehicles (a Norwegian contraption that looks somewhat like a tracked Gamma Goat)...folks left them idling to keep the engines warmed up, not realizing that the trannies froze up...i was out on the screen line with the scouts and was called to the TOC for a commanders' meeting...i borrowed a snowmobile from the scouts and rode back, (as i was not authorized a vehicle of my own)...we had been running the screen line for several days on skis and snowmobiles and were puzzled about the lack of any activity to the front...when i got back to the TOC, folks were mightily vexed that i had ridden a snowmobile (the Division Commander had declared the weather too extreme for such activities)...when asked what my troops were doing, i told them the AT platoon and scouts were on the screen line, we were doing okay, that i had shortened the OP time to four hours instead of eight...then the grown-ups were mightily vexed because, except for us, the remainder of the battalion was still in the assembly area (as was everyone but the scouts and AT platoon of 4/9 IN) hanging out in tents...seems no one bothered to notify us that the exercise, once we got everyone across the river, had come to a stand still due to the weather...i was told to cease and desist all outdoor activities until further notice, told that once i got back to the screen line to not ride a snowmobile until further notice and told to send someone back for hot chow and cocoa...the Hummers were having a hard time moving and the only vehicles i had were snowmobiles so it was determined that as long as i was the guy riding it, i would have to pick up the hot chow and cocoa, which by the time i made it the five or ten KM from the trains to the screen line was frozen food and fudgesickles...

it was an in-tents training exercise, although in all seriousness, 18 Canadian Special Service Force Regiment troopers died in a crash on Wainwright Army Airfield...seems the navigator of the RCAF C130 did not believe the atmospheric pressure provided by the tower (it was extremely high) and upon landing, the plane was too low, too slow, clipped the towers at the leading edge of the airfield and crashed heavily....

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

Here's one for you. I was a certified Winter Northern Warfare Warrior. .

tell me you posted that with a straight face...

[12B4S]

The guys that took out the 'Heavy Water' and plant in Norway during WW2 might attest to folks that are winter capable.

Great question Steve........ Sir.

[Abu Jack]

I was on the same infil jump as Firebeef. I was one of the guys in the trees. The evaluator sometimes known as the Bridge Troll, and me were the last 2 guys out of the aircraft. We were the closest jumpers to the DZ, about 500 meters away. I figured out pretty quickly that I was going in the trees because I couldn't see anything but trees. I released the chest strap before I hit the trees. I rode my ruck in and bounced through some pine tree branches until I came to a stop. As it was pretty dark I didn't have a clue how high up I was, I wrapped a leg around a tree branch just in case the parachute didn't want to stay in the tree, although it seemed to be holding. Since this was a tactical infil I figured that the DZ party wouldn't be out to help anytime soon. As it was about 5 below out I lowered my ruck then jettisoned it. It seemed like it fell for a while before it hit the ground. Next thing I did was drop my helmet and pulled my watch cap out of my cargo pocket and put it on. Once that was done I deployed my reserve so I could climb down. This is when my problems started, it seemed like every suspension line on that reserve got caught on something. for some reason I was thinking that if I cut it some bean counter would make me pay for it additionally I knew I needed to climb down it to get out of the tree. After about 30 minutes of trying to untangle every thing I thought I was ready to go so I undid the waist band and the leg straps. The suspension lines were still tangeld so every few feet on the way down I would have to stop wrap my legs around the trunk or a branch and get them untangled. By the time I got close to the bottom of the chute I had been in the tree for about an hour. I hung from the bottom of the reserve and let go... and fell about 4 feet. I policed up my ruck and started for the DZ and along the way linked up with the Bridge Troll. 1 and a half hours after TOT we finally linked up with the DZ party. They were in the middle of trying to medevac the Team leader, Team Sergeant and Intell Sergeant and hadn't even got close to looking for anyone else. Fortunately me and BT were the last two to make it in. Oh by the way I couldn't feel my ftoes but I figured that after we started moving to the next linkup site they would warm up. Wrong. It was at least another hour before the injured were medevaced and we moved out. We moved about 3ks or so to a linkup with a vehicle. I still couldn't feel my toes so I said something to our medic Diamond Dave. He looked at them and started to warm them with his hands and that's when they started to hurt. BT the evalutator decided that things had snowballed to the point were he called Endex.

[Firebeef]

Dude

All I can say is....sucked to be you!! LOL. I still couldn't say for sure if your feet or your face was redder!

Yup...we fell from the sky, alright!

Airborne

[lurp]

I love snow

Just wonder if any of you have been on training in Norway, during the winter time?
how did you like that?

(posse pic)

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by lurp

Just wonder if any of you have been on training in Norway, during the winter time?

yes...

Originally Posted by lurp

how did you like that?

white fish, black bread, aqua vitae...been warmer, been colder...

[MtnGoat]

I just LoL when I read this. It was a bad one. SO I thought I'll add some PIX

Originally Posted by Max_Tab

Mistake number 1-we decided to leave all the tents. Since this was my first WET and I had come from Hawaii I didn't know anything about cold weather, and the advice I was given was go with the NATO death slats (the name should have given me a hint) and since we knew we had a good slog, they said wear your Reichle's. That would be mistake number 2 and 3.

Well I'l have to say not everyone did the Reichle thing. Becuz I remeber getting razed over me walking in my Booties for the first movement. But after that I had my Hard Lowes for the MVNTs. God what a good idea.

Originally Posted by Max_Tab

We had a long ski movement to our final location and we just kept pushing through, setting up a differant camp each night. Well using hindsight, we should of stopped and set up camp and waited out the storm, but we kept moving. We were on average getting about a foot of snow a night. The final straw, was the 5th night of the storm. We had used poncho's to try and cover our snow pit, but it snowed so much it broke through the ponch and cover us in snow, and because we had so much snow that night the snow from the side of the pit caved in and covered a couple people who were in there fart sacks, one of the guys while trying to crawl out of his sleeping bag unzipped it and the snow came inside his sleeping bag, drenching his bag.

Picture one.
Well the whole snow into your bag thing I thing it happen for 3-4 night at a time. To different people, some like monkey see monkey do. The I got tay piss becuz I forgot to unpack my piss bottle or FORGOT to bring one!! I had it done to me, and I had the Wiggy Bag. After that WET I got my Mountain Hardwear bag. Becuz the person MAX TAB is taling about had a North Face Down bag that did have much effect. The Wiggy's just couldn't take what Pain we put them through, well not has good as the two North Face bags(TS and our MEDIC had).

Originally Posted by Max_Tab

Well the next morning there are only a few people who do not have signs of frost nip, hypothermia, or trench foot. The Cpt makes the call and the NG guys from Vail (HATS) fly in through the blizzard and pull us out. We recover for a day and then we go back out and finish up the exercise.

We had our Chief light is hand on fire after spilling White Fuel onto it, he said it was better than trying to wiping it off. After that the CPT came over to me and DOC What do you think. IMHO - yes or just Stop moving. TS didn't want to stop so HATS came to in. Picture two That night and the next were the wrose in the area for sometime from what HATS said.

Originally Posted by Max_Tab

Of course for the rest of the time we have great weather.

After 1-2 days back at HATS drinking beer and eating Pizza we re-inserted back into the Flattops for about a week more of fun in the sun.

I'll load the PIX soon