By Lee Miracle

A snowy December left the Badlands covered in snow. This was the perfect situation to begin the 2001 training season.

Several hard core militia people deployed hence to check their cold-weather gear. It was also our intent to do a cold-weather function check on some of our weapons, but it didn't get cold enough to make for a strenuous test.

Temperatures throughout the day approached thirty degrees, with a nighttime temperature around twenty or so. This was not the extreme cold weather that we would have liked, but the plentiful snow made things interesting, nonetheless.

I finally got to try out those military surplus skis. Anyone who knows me would have objected to me even looking at skis, much less strapping a pair on and gliding off across Monroe County....

The skis only really worked where the snow had already been packed down by previous foot or vehicular traffic. In fresh, untrampled snow, all I did was sink. This is not a tactically sound thing to have happen.

One of our cohorts also tried the skis, with basically the same results. We could easily run faster without the skis on, even where the snow was relatively deep. The ski poles, however, served as a nice, steady firing platform for the rifles.

The winter camouflage was impressive, alleviating a complaint I had from last year's winter training. Much of the winter camo was easily improvised from bed sheets and medical tape. I have to remind everyone here to ensure that any camo, especially on your weapon, does not interfere with the function and/or action. Tom's Mini-14 looked really cool with its winter camo. Some of these improvised camo sheets were impressive, and reflect the type of improvisation and adaptability inherently present in your local militia people.

A quick word or two about winter camo should be inserted here. Wear your web gear/LBE over your camo poncho or sheet. This breaks up the outline, and prevents the cloth from billowing about. In the Badlands, even some good grey or brown camo would have worked. TreeBark camo probably would be an excellent choice. The winter white had its greatest effectiveness when we hit the ground.

After some weapons checks, there was a small cooking fire (where somebody ate what was called "a bowl of warm animal fat with bread.")

There was no large campfire allowed.

A couple of us did a night patrol, to check night vision, and to work on trying to move a bit more quietly in the snow. The nearly full moon combined with the snow to provide great night visibility. The snow, however, can throw off your depth perception.

On a nice, clear, moonlit night, it seems like you can hear every little noise. This goes double in the snow. These are good opportunities to check for rattles, bangs, and squeaks in your gear. Also, a good night movement through the woods lets you find out if any of your gear will get hung up on branches.

To sleep, one member wanted to try out his 4 season Eureka tent, which seemed to hold up nicely. The rest of us just scraped out a spot in the snow, threw down our sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and that's where we slept. My particular situation consisted of a lightweight (thirty degree) sleeping bag, a poncho liner wrapped around my feet (which were warmly enveloped in a nice new pair of wool socks), and a wool blanket, which ended up being a pillow.

A word of caution here. My sleeping bag has a nice waterproof shell, which I left open most of the way, for ventilation. This was not good enough. Anywhere that the waterproof shell came into contact with the bag, there was moisture. A GoreTex shell would be okay, if not a bit cost prohibitive, but a cheap, rubberized waterproof shell could be disastrous in cold weather. If I had to use it to keep dry, and I couldn't effectively make an improvised shelter for that purpose, I suppose that keeping a wool blanket between the shell and the bag would help. So consider this a word of warning against totally waterproof shells in cold weather.

Since it never really got below twenty degrees or so, I slept okay. A better sleeping pad might help, as I have a bottom of the line Ridge Rest pad. The old military pads worked well, and there are new military, self-inflatable pads which have gotten excellent reviews from some of our militia cohorts.

For most of the daytime, I wore my 200-gram Thinsulate Danner boots. As long as I was moving around, they were fine. At night, I put on my old Red Ball boots with the removable inserts. If it had gotten colder, I could have left the inserts on my feet inside the sleeping bag, but that wasn't necessary.

It was what promises to be the first of many successful, and enjoyable training events this year.

Hope to see you next time. Until then, stay warm and dry.

-Lee