Environmental Survival
THE REAPER’S WEAPONS
Again there has been a lot written about extreme climate survival techniques and not much has changed over the years, short of, maybe the equipment. We will try and impart some of the little things that may help a would-be survivor's chance to beat the Reaper. The more time that an individual spends in an extreme climate or terrain, the more that the little things seem to be magnified.
Cold Climate
One of the things that most evader's don’t realize is the need to stay hydrated in cold climates. The first question out of our medics mouths when that grayish, usually wrinkled and blistered skin shows up is, "what was the exposure time of that body part and how much fluid have you taken in the last 24 hours ?" Not staying hydrated is a ticket on the fast track to frost bite. And when hydrating the fluids being taken in should be body temperature or preferably higher. Sounds obvious, but it is a pain in the ass having to worry about the temperature of water in your frozen tubed hydration unit while your laying in a objective surveillance/observation position. One way that we take care of that problem is by placing cheap WALMART chemical heat packs in the pouch with the hydration unit. Then add your flavored powdered drink mix into the unit. It makes a person want to sip on that hose a lot more. One of our cadre carries two units side by side. One for water the other with MRE cocoa packs in it. A thermal sleeve for the tube and unit are also a must.
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For the body to produce internal heat it must have calories to burn. So, our people eat something every hour of the day, as they are operating in the field. And a wake up call after the first 4 hours of sleep and eat again, in extreme cold. Your body gets used to it after awhile. If eating frequently becomes a habit cold weather, casualties will drop. We are not talking about Starburst fruit chews and Jolly ranchers either. More on the lines of peanut butter and crackers, instant soups with jerky chasers, Gorp, summer sausages, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches etc. And when it can be had, hot blubber steaks (sounds delicious doesn’t it). It's doubtful that they can be had in the lower forty-eight, so fried SPAM will have to substitute. Another one is real butter patties melted in sweet tea.
If you want to warm your body, hold something hot. Somewhere in the lines of a hot mug of steaming something. The body conserves heat by lowering the blood/heat flow to the extremities and keeps it in the core of the torso. By placing your feet or hands on something hot (not scalding) it warms the blood right where you need it the most, the quickest. Then that heat is drawn back toward your core.
Using a wind barrier when sleeping in the extreme temperatures in a must. Whether it is a shelter like a snow trench with blocks of snow pitched over head as a roof or a Gore-Tex sleeping bag cover, you must not let wind blow over your body (even when in a sleeping bag). Even the mildest wind will cool your body down just like blowing across a cup of hot coffee to cool it down. If you are awakened in the night with the urge to release a river from your swelling bladder do it quickly. It takes more heat away from your core to heat that liquid. Our cadre carry a spare NALGENE CANTENE and shove it down in their sleeping bag. That way all we do is get up on our knees and use it inside of the sleeping bag. Put the cap on tight and go back to sleep. Unless your operations take you to the polar ice caps you should not sleep in a sleeping bag with clothes on. As little as operationally possible. Toss your boots in a plastic bag then into the bottom of the bag, so they will not freeze in the night air. If you have problems with cold feet in your bag, toss a chemical heat pack to the bottom of your bag or wear light as air down sleep booties. Don’t laugh these can mean the difference between a well-rested trooper on point or a dull drag ass the next day. Wearing a watch cap to bed is advisable as well as a neck gaiter. Neck gaiters or head-overs will warm the entire body.
Special Gear
Specialty equipment for extreme cold can really improve the odds of survival while operating under extreme conditions. The first is the Gore-Tex watch cap. It can be worn when it is drizzling or snowing and of course provides great warmth. If that isn’t enough a POLAR FLEECE watch cap can go underneath it. POLAR FLEECE and Gore-Tex for every part of the body is a must, although our commander still wears those heavy wool, British sweaters in place of fleece.
The next piece of specialty equipment is a small backpackers stove. There are many to choose from on the market that burn an array of different fuels (whitegas only, unleaded/white gas, propane/butane mix, diesel/kerosene, and all of the above). They are so lightweight and compact that no man should go to a winter environment without one. The propane/butane are the most efficient and easiest to use. But, that canister needs to be kept warm so that it will burn at its highest BTU output. Keeping the canister close to the body for a half and hour before using is not unheard of. Then wrapping a scarf around it as it is being used. We have shot these canisters with most calibers and they didn’t explode (although it could happen on a freak throw of the dice). The unleaded stove is of course highly inflammable. But, it runs better than most in the cold. Weigh the pro's and con's of all of them. Our cadre either own or have tested all of them on the market. They are all well built and there is clearly no favorite among the ranks. The stove on the equipment page is made by MARKILL of Germany and is the smallest and cheapest on the market (don’t read into cheapest as poorly made, it is good quality). Deploying without a "flame unit" is senseless. It’s about being prepared, not being pampered, learn the difference. No one says that it has to be used for anything other than a survival situation. The bottom line 10 - 12 military fuel tabs should be carried if nothing else is.
Chemical heat packs for extreme conditions will help save fingers and toes if used before the damage is done. They can be used for many uses. Pack double the amount if they are used for rudimentary tasks. Placing them on the stomach of an immersion casualty is our first primary use.
One of the last items is a sleeping pad. In the old days a piece of sheet plastic was thought of as a high-speed invention to keep the cold and wet off of your body when lying in the snow. Now, it is better understood that snow is not the body heat thief like the moist earth is. Either way a THERMAREST foam mat or a self-inflator mattress is a piece of survival equipment without equal. It’s not about a more comfortable night’s sleep. Spend a few days on your belly pulling surveillance without it and you will realize what a mistake you made.
FIELD EXPEDIENT SHELTER
Chute Shelters in the Desert
When the doors of the C-130 opened the heat felt like the proverbial blast furnace. It was just about dark over the desert terrain below when the green light went on and the first man exited the bird. No one was under canopy for very long before they did a dynamite PLF (parachute landing fall), which went something like feet, ass, head (airborne guys will get it). With in 30 minutes it from dark, visibility 50 feet to black, visibility 5 feet. Nothing looked right or felt right about the DZ. Instead of slightly mountainous with rolling scrub it felt like flat with hard crust and scrub. The GPS was popped out and calculations were made. We were 5 miles off of the hill range that we were supposed to be in. Not 500 meters, but 5 miles! Then four klics into the range just to the DZ. Then 10 more klics to the original objective. The only good thing on our side was the heat was dissipating from the ground quickly and the temperature was starting the drop. And drop it did. From 100 F degrees during the day to 29 F degrees at night. Each man carrying two 5-gallon water jugs, weapons and ruck. We hauled ass trying to make the hills before morning, not only would we be hiding from the Reapers wrath of blazing heat, but unfriendlies as well.
Drenched with sweat and able to see our breath in the frosty night air we reached the hill country. Without a word being said we all dropped the plastic jerry cans full of water in shallow gully and set up a perimeter. Two LP/OPs were posted on higher ground so that they could see the tight perimeter and cover the outside as well. Every other man started digging a shallow grave like hole while the others pulled security. As soon as that was completed the chutes came out. Chutes are nothing more than 3 sections cut from an O.D. nylon, military parachute that we carry with us everywhere. They are used for everything from shelters to sleeping bags to hammocks. The chute was draped over the hole and rocks or dirt were mounded around the edges to hold the chute in place. Then it is folded back over it's self and more rocks and dirt are mounded right on top of the first mounds. This makes two layers of chute over the hole, with 6 - 8 inches of gap or dead air space in between each layer of para-silk. The doubling of the over head cover is to stop the direct broiling rays of the sun obviously. The first layer takes the direct beating and what heat that passes through it is stopped by the second layer. At one end of the hole a sloping entrance is dug so that you can back slide into the hole feet first and still be able to face out and see outside of the perimeter if need be with in reason.
The LP/OPs set up "Wadi" shelters. Which are above ground shelters that are basically four, 3 - foot long sticks, stuck in the ground in a rectangle. Each stick represents one corner post of the square or rectangle. Then a long thin stick 5 - 7 feet long is lashed to one corner post and then lashed to the diagonal corner post. Front left is lashed to back right. Front right is lashed to back left. The two long sticks will cross each other in the middle. They are lashed together at that crossing point. The long over head sticks should be at least a 2 feet longer than the distance that they are spanning. That way they will bow up. This creates the roof structure. The chute is draped over the frame and tied at all four corners. The sides can be left up or down. If the frame is wobbly a few support sticks can be lashed from corner post to corner post. Lash the support stick at the top of the front left corner post then to the bottom of back left corner post. Chute shelters work well for keeping light snow and frost off of you as well as the sun. By the time everyone was finished with his shelter and chow it was 0600. It is against our SOPs to travel during the day so we slept. At 1100 it was already over 90 degrees, by 1300 it was 104 blazing degrees in the direct sun light. This was winter!
