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  2. Once upon a time in the winter of 1967 I went through a ten day ‘Jungle Warfare’ course called Tactical Training living in pup tents getting just a little bit of sleep in sleeping bags and crawling on our bellies in snow and slush eating C-Rats heated in trash cans wearing great hand-me-downs from WWII, wool uniforms and Field Jackets with liners. We did that shave using our helmets and by the ninth day we were nasty, the only good thing was the Mickey Mouse rubber boots which were large and heavy but our feet stayed warm and sweaty, nasty socks. We did a lot of live fire with M-14s and some with M-60 machine guns and the M-79 grenade launcher which was fun, it really is hard to shoot well when your hands are half frozen and the rifles needed regular cleaning so they would work when they were half frozen, this guy has my admiration along with all of the other people running through those simulations.

    On our last night out in the woods they brought in the aggressors and half way through our supper sitting on logs we were pulled out and put in tunnels which came out on a river bank, had to orient ourselves and one by one make our way through an evasion course over the next 12 hours including crossing the river standing on a wire cable hold on to another four feet higher, not too hard but there were chunks of ice flowing down river so we knew we did not want to take a swim. I made it through without getting caught and messed with, picked up my gear and took a cab to the little house my wife and I had rented (I was married living off-post) when I took a long shower for the first time in ten days I saw the skin on my finger tips start to curl up and peel off, like a bad sun burn and my fingers were sensitive to cold for about another year.

    I had mostly forgotten all of that cold weather crap, which was probably good for me, until I watched both segments of the brutal competition and remembered how difficult it is to function in the cold, no idea how standing in cold water would work with a man’s balls shrinked up to the backside of his belly button. How the Finns were able to kill f’n Russians so well during WWII with their excellent snipers and ability to live in that extreme cold weather. Now I will refill my nice hot mug of coffee sitting in my nice comfortable home in a nice easy to live in part of Texas, the Hill Country, where we don’t get too hot and usually, except for last year, seldom get below freezing for more than a few hours and not too often.

    That tactical kilt thing was funny too, I have seen a few of them in competition over in Bandera and have no reason to ever try that even thought my DNA is about 80% Scots. Thanks Kim for all the interest stuff you have for us every day.

  3. My Finnish side of the family were a tough bunch. Worth googling the Finn concept of SISU. Whining not allowed, just grit your teeth and move forward. Thats how they fought the winter and continuation wars.

  4. Can’t take doods in kilts seriously.
    And, it’s an unnecessary handicap.
    I lived in heavy snow 1974-78 in Wildflecken, Germany doing advanced combat simulations. My blood is still cold.

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