(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



The Combatant Winter. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2022-11-28

I grew up in cold weather and I’ve soldiered in all weather extremes. My first regular army duty station used a place called Oxbow, Denmark for winter training. I’ve fired and, further, operated and used an artillery combat section in weather that was springtime fresh and lovely, Autumn beautiful, but cold, wet and deceptively deadly, Summer so hot that N.C.O’s regularly demanded that troops pee in front of them- so you could see if they were hydrated- no water coming out means not enough water going in. Chew his ass and force feed him two canteens of H2O.

It’s all different and all doable with a LOT of training and care.

Then comes The Combatant Winter.

Now. back in the day, we didn’t light fires of ANY kind- that was very, very verboten. In the transition into the new and modern army of the ‘80’s, I watched as the old WWII C-rations were phased out and the new M.R.E came in. Believe me, every soldier in service at the time died a little bit when we saw that the heating tabs were no longer part of the meal packets. No warm food, no warm hands, no cheery light on a miserable day alone in a foxhole. You could put those under a can of beef and light them, you got a warm meal- no one said tasty, but it was warm. Turn your steel helmet upside down and pool resources, add water, you could make a stew and several of you could warm your hands at the same time.

But, well, light discipline is a real thing, if they can see your little blue flame at night, they can rain artillery down on you and even send like, a squadron of armor to ruin your dinner. If you don’t think that is a threat, take a clear night with no moon or one with clouds, close your eyes for thirty minutes so that your eyes will be adjusted to the dark like a scout’s would be, turn on a tiny LED light and put it on a field a mile away. See if you can pick it out. If you can, the enemy can too- especially if you have a 200 man unit with half of them deciding to light little fires to warm up dinner.

That said, with the help of officers that think and N.C.O’s who think even harder and walk their legs off while doing it- you can operate in all of the seasons- but Winter is special.

War, soldiering, it just isn’t the way it looks in the movies. Oh, they get some of it right- but the minutiae is left out in the interest of telling the story. Winter where I was operating was nearly always presaged with rains and mud. The rains and low temperatures bring about (Insert very many, very colorful curse words here) mud and, yeah, hypothermia.

I KNOW about hypothermia, I was forgotten in a foxhole one lovely morning as a brand new private. My first general order told me that I would guard my post and only leave my post if properly relieved. That didn’t happen. It was a day of drizzling rain, about 45° F. I was in a field jacket and poncho. (Ponchos suck). Emplaced at 0600, by the time the first sergeant found me at 2000, I was unable to talk, unable to move, unable to stop my body from shaking and damn near got tossed into a helicopter and sent to a hospital. But I obeyed my orders, so, the people who forgot me in their busy day, they got plenty of trouble- I got hot broth, once I could actually hold the cup.

And there was nothing malicious about any of it. Shit happens. It should not, but it does- we are all human.

That was during training- we were only out for a thirty day exercise and the United States Army makes EVERY effort to get you every bit of gear you need to fit the environment and still, we lose people to hypothermia, heat exhaustion and cold weather accidents every year. War isn’t training and it can’t be called off to fix an emergency.

Mud, armored vehicles and walking across what will become frozen muddy waves of incipient broken ankles and guaranteed exhaustion is the order of the day. Everything is more difficult. That rope you tied and untied so easily three or four days ago is now a frozen mass of ice at the knot, bring a hammer or use a tent peg. The camouflage net that weighed 100 pounds when you got it from supply is now full of frozen mud, it weighs at least 400 now. Oh yeah, and it has to go up and down every damn time you move. No exceptions. The hydraulics, they get cold. They are slower- slow means you fire slower, that means counter battery fires can find and kill you. Engines need ether to start so you can unass the A.O. (Area of operations) and batteries take a crap. It is ALL more difficult. Everything is more difficult.

I grew up in Northern Illinois and made the move to Wyoming at the age of 16. I KNOW cold. But there’s a difference between “Hey, dress warm, we’ll be out in the weather for at least eight, maybe up to sixteen hours” and “Duty uniform is winter dress until further notice” further notice meaning four to seven months. That means your only surcease from the cold will be your sleeping bag at night or a hot tent ever so often. (I loved my sleeping bag, it was rated for arctic weather and it was warm!)

You don’t fight The Combatant Winter, you appease him. you set up a hot tent so you can rotate cold ass soldiers in and out of the heat. thirty minutes for every fourth hour. you shorten guard mounts so that those people can get warm, this takes a toll on manpower. Sleep is a rare commodity anyway and you just shortened it- for everyone. Nights are….

Nights are just a bitch.

Did I mention that you don’t work well in the cold either. I don’t care if it’s unfolding an entrenching tool so you can chop at frozen dirt to dig a foxhole or if you’re trying to tie your boot laces over feet already blue with cold using fingers that just will not move correctly.

During one of my my rotations up there in Denmark, well, someone, somewhere in the Command, (Usareur) had fallen asleep in a warm humvee and killed themselves by driving off the road. So, the Command had the wonderful idea that we should remove all vehicular heating systems from all vehicles. Well, except the 6 vehicles. (6 being a command designation. The commanders got to keep their heat) Their answer to our complaining was that no one anywhere would ever stop us from dropping and doing pushups for warmth.

Those of us not in command of battery level or higher units were expected to use our very good training and our even better non commissioned officers to not only stay alive, but to achieve every mission we were tasked with.

We did it, we were very, very good at what we did and we were well supplied.

Now I look at the situation in Ukraine and as much as I’m angered by Russia and their stupid war- fuuuuuuuuck me, I feel for those guys trying to stay alive in summer field outfits and no training. The Ukrainians look like they are trained and willing to do things right so their soldiers live until spring. The Russian command looks as though they have no fucks left to give- which seems absolutely crazy to me.

Yet. on a human level I do feel for them, deeply. I’ve jumped out of an ammo carrier only to fall to my knees in pain. When my boots came off, section chief laughed and said “Dude, White, you almost got frostbite! Better get up and move around a little more when your feet are on steel plates next time. Warm them up slowly with your hands- then get back to work when you can feel your toes.” another hour,maybe two and I’d most likely have lost those toes. You see, you stop feeling any pain after awhile.

All I keep thinking is “Those poor men”. Yes, I know, their government placed them there and they could have said no. I still feel for them.

The Combatant Winter cannot be defeated but it can be lived with, even used as an ally if you know what you’re doing- but if you take it for granted, yuk it up and joke around with it, it will kill you as dead as any 7.62 round to the head will do and just as quickly.

The problem with war is that it doesn’t slow down, but when Winter comes to your little piece of it, everything else does- up to and especially humans.

That dichotomy kills people.

So, what can I say as a final thought on the enemy that is Winter?

Bundle up, cuz baby- It’s cold outside!

Kell

(Edited for grammatical/spelling errors. Kell.)

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/28/2138727/-The-Combatant-Winter

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/