Snow Dawg 2007 – 2 & 3 Feb  OCV Field Report 

By Black Jack

2 Feb 07

1400:  Black Jack & Irish arrive on site; unload sleds and rucks and walk into the bivouac area.  We find Godfather already encamped with shelter complete, camp fire set to light, and waiting for others.  It takes two trips to bring in personal and group equipment.  Some of the equipment for the group included a Coleman lantern w/fuel & lantern stand for night time arrivals (first timers mostly) to guide on when walking in the dark and 24 lbs of charcoal for the Griffin’s Den stove for warm ups (there’s enough draft in the tent so that carbon dioxide is not an issue).

1430:  Hunter on site.  Moving in to set up.  Archangel on site.  Moving in to set up. 

1500:  D-Day on site.  Moving in to set up.

1600:  Eagle 1 on site with a chain saw.  Wood cutting a priority for both the Griffin’s Den and the campfire.

1730:  Razor67 & Tank on site. 

1830:  Black Jack holds a briefing for camp security & gate guard duty.  Two man teams will man the gate for two hours to stop all arrivals, direct parking, and put folks on the ½ mile walk into the bivouac area.  1 man will staff the camp fire and/or the Griffin’s Den for 1 to two hours to point arrivals to fairly decent bivouac locations if desired.

Leadership will be awakened at 0545; team members at 0615. 

Stand to commence at 0645.  Black Jack will circle the perimeter once set and look for obvious personnel.

2000:  Camp security & gate details initiated.

0001:  Camp security extinguishes the lantern; no cloud cover, no longer necessary. Intermediate winds. 

1245:  Returning gate detail has “midnight chow” or “mid rats” (depending on your service background) before retiring to their shelters and ever so warm sleeping bags.  It should be noted that it takes time to shut down during winter ops; damp clothes need to be placed between the sleeping pad and bag so that body heat will dry them by wake up call, personal hygiene has to be tended to (teeth brushing, highlight washing – yes, in the tent you can use “hooahs” to “hit the highlights”, etc), turning boots upside down so no moisture will collect inside, and weapons must be checked for safety and surface rust if snow and/or ice has been inadvertently lodged in the inevitable tiny crevices.  All in all, when in a hurry and practiced, you can get all this accomplished in under 30 minutes.

0500:  Black Jack wakes up due to body clock.  Tends to morning hygiene (teeth brushing).

0530:  Chow in Griffin’s Den with obligatory strong coffee!

0545:  Remaining Leadership checked on an awakened.  Not surprisingly, Archangel & Weapon M were already awake.  I don’t believe Weapon M actually slept much due to equipment malfunctions.

0615:  All team members awakened by Black Jack, Archangel, and Weapon M.  Weapon M started singing to several team members who did not want to leave the rack.  Several Snow Dawg participants wondered if the noise generated by Weapon M was pain, rather than an attempt to make musical notes.  A poll was taken.  50.5% of the participants felt that he was actually trying to sing; the remaining members resolutely held their position that he was experiencing some sort of severe pain.

0645:  Stand To briefing conducted by Black Jack and Weapon M.  Discussion on importance, actions to take, and the effect Nautical Twilight has on the senses.  Black Jack circles the perimeter semi-slowly looking for SMVM and other participants’ locations.  While shelters are visible, none of the troops are.  This is a good thing.  Interestingly enough, the ASAT camouflage over parka Black Jack is wearing allows him to become virtually invisible when not moving.   More tests on this pattern will be conducted. 

0715:  Stand Down & Debriefing.  Once completed, personal time for chow & hygiene for the troops.

0830:  Weapon M conducts a safety & organization structure briefing.

0900:  Warm up road march (at least a mile to warm up cold toes and fingers).

0945:  Maneuver Warfare application to Bounding Overwatch briefing conducted by Black Jack. 

1000:  Bounding practice.

1100:  Debrief & chow.

1130:  Black Jack takes Irish, Razor 67 & Hunter to have Weapon M & Holly Green take camouflage comparison photos.

1200:  Weather reports coming in that Stasa is going to be hammered with high winds & 2 to 4 inches of snow (not a big deal) in the next 24 hours and the temps will drop to the minus 30 degree range (a very big deal for those not specially equipped for deep cold operations).  Leadership discusses issue for about 30 minutes.

1300:  Wisdom prevails; nobody wants to find anyone in deep hypothermia or dead from exposure the next morning.  Training is cancelled due to weather.  A discussion is also held to hold a “make up” weekend sometime later in the year. 

1315:  Break camp.

1400:  Depart for home.