"We train in the cold, in the snow. Some of us sleep outside, on the ground, with no tent. If we don't die, or get anything amputated, I'd say we're successful. What do we gain? We KNOW we can do this. That's as valuable a lesson as you're going to learn anywhere..." -Weapon M
SNOW DOG 2006 Page 3
With the snow partially melting, and the range turning to a festival of mud and slush, nobody was eager to dive into a four-pin shoot. After the good day that we were having, this turned out to be acceptable. We promise a good slathering of four-pin shoots when the range is in better shape.
For the second time in as many months, Corporal Punishment's vehicle extraction services were required. The ground is good and hard-frozen when some of the trucks come in, but then it melts into soggy, tire-trapping mud as the day wears on. This is something to be aware of.
Now that it was dark, Rude Guy stuck close to the schedule by busting out with a seriously bad-ass night vision scope (I will post more details about this scope as soon as I talk to him). Since we had a bit of moonlight, the scope really did the trick. Out of curiosity, I wondered if my camera could take a picture through his scope, and he let me try. This could be great for night recon missions. just make sure that you turn your camera's flash OFF when using it for low-light recon.
The adjustable reticles are not visible in these pictures, but are visible to the eye. Pictures are reduced to 16% of their original size, so some detail has been lost. They are really clear. This is certainly a high tech approach to low light shooting. If you can afford something like this, get one. More details as we get them...
Seven hardy souls stayed over Saturday night, five of them were on their second night. According to the weather.com website, it dropped down to FIVE degrees that night. Staying outside in this weather was no longer a matter of tolerating some minor discomfort, it could lead to hypothermia, frostbite, or worse...This is where you need to pay very careful attention to what gear works well, what is merely adequate, and what will fail in an emergency situation. This is why we do this every year, to test, measure, and evaluate.
In my case, the US old style down extreme cold weather bag worked wonderfully, except that it is not really big enough. The fold out German sleeping pad was only adequate, and my US Arctic canteen froze solid, while the metal bottle included in the European "Volcano stove" set up was only partially frozen, and thus drinkable. My Danners were frozen solid, and I was unable to put them on. This is the problem we have reported before with leather boots of any type or quality. They freeze solid. Period. My 8 or 9 dollar French extreme cold weather boots were fine. Cheap and effective is a good combination. My "booties" were actually good enough for me to walk around in, until I got a ride to my truck to actually get my cold weather boots.
Above: The cold weather canteen, the round one with the white cap, was frozen solid, the metal bottle was slushy. if I had needed to thaw water, I would have just set the metal bottle on the volcano stove and placed a heat tab underneath. The older (1992) MRE heater thawed the MRE entree to a marginally edible condition, but did nothing to thaw the boot. (Try and get newer MRE heaters if you buy them...) The orange mess in the cup is where my orange drink mix turned into a slurpee as I mixed it up. You can also see the very thin German sleeping pad, and note the frost on my sleeping bag cover.
More pistol work was done Sunday, as well as some closer range practice. Hunter had added a new sight to his 8mm Mauser, and needed some more time on the range. He was decked all out like a WW2 trooper, complete with Mauser.
Jester, Hunter, Mak9, and Super Six. Right: Super Six covers his metal stock with a bit of Fleck fabric, to keep his cheek from freezing. He is also wearing extreme cold weather pants to keep his other cheeks from freezing. Make sure that anything like this on your stock does NOT interfere with the action on your rifle, as it may on an AR type.
Later on in the morning, Camp Commander Frank Stasa come out to chat. He is a spry 81 year old WW2 combat infantry veteran. We appreciate him letting us come out there. He kicked around some ideas for the range and nearby area, and went over some thoughts about the coming MFD in April.
This weekend was better than I had anticipated. I hope that we have good turnouts like this from now on. I also hope to see our friends from out of state (and out of country) back as well. This was exactly what we planned on it being, a good test of winter skills, a good bit of tactical and medical training, some marksmanship thrown in for good measure.
Left: Six challenges the group to get out here when the weather is good, too. Right: Always good to have a paramedic on hand. His sled is from Dunham's, for $24.
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Operation Snow Dog 2006
Supplementary Field Report – Second Squad
Submitted by Bishop
Second squad formed up and readied itself for action.
Bishop was to be squad leader.
Mak9 was fireteam leader alpha-team.
Razor was fireteam leader bravo-team.
Each fireteam consited of four patriots.
We headed out into the woods in a traveling overwatch formation. Two fire
team
wedges. The purpose of this exercise was to practice some basic fire team
maneuvers. Noise discipline was to be upheld when possible but was deemed
secondary to dialog essential to the learning process. Radio frequencies were
established with emergency alternates noted. Rally point was back to the
bivouac area.
Our first exercise was a basic assault on a position. Mak9 approached the
objective and called out “Contact Front!” as we had pre-arranged. Alpha
immediately went on line and returned fire. Meanwhile, Razor led bravo on a
left flanking maneuver. As the assault command was given, alpha shifted fire
and bravo assaulted through the position. Alpha followed after bravo set up
some security beyond the position. ACE reports followed and all went well.
Next up was bounding overwatch movements. We used both alternating and
successive bounding. Finally as we approached the range, we went to squad
online and slowly walked it in.
After action, the squad leader de-briefed the squad. Most things went very
well. It was noted that due to limits in training area available to us,
intervals between fire teams were a bit too close and should be opened up in the
future and in critical situations.
Next up was a short road march with a practice crossing of a linear danger zone.
Much simpler than our trek through the woods, all went well. It was noted that
there was some confusion regarding the sequence for crossing the danger zone.
But that problem would be easily fixed with additional team practice.
Second squad arrived back a base camp at approximately 1300 hours and was
dismissed for lunch.
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Pioneers - "WE CAN TAKE IT !!"