Day #1 went pretty well and here’s day #2. Today, two lucky readers will receive High Loft Jackets from WT Tactical.
Designed to be worn over body armor, the High Loft Jacket provides ultimate warmth, featuring 6 oz PrimaLoft® Sport synthetic insulation. The shell is made of 70 denier textured nylon, with 330d Cordura® reinforced abrasion resistant panels on the elbows. The two hand warmer pockets are lined with 2 oz quilted PrimaLoft®, keeping your hands safe from frostbite. Two interior mesh pockets provide storage and a place for wet goods to dry out. An adjustable shock cord hem blocks the wind, and adjuster clips are located in the hand warmer pockets to make cinching the wind out even easier. A fully adjustable helmet compatible hood with laminated brim keeps the head warm and protected. A separate collar keeps the neck nice and warm even when the hood is down. The wrist cuffs are adjustable with Velcro® wrist stays and half elastic, allowing the wearer to put a gloved hand in and out.
Don’t forget, today’s winners as well as every other winner, will receive a 2012 Tac Girls Calendar. (Just the calendar, not any of the girls)
To Enter
In the comment section of THIS post here on SSD tell us about the worst weather you’ve ever encountered. In a few hours we’ll close the comments section and randomly select a winner. Remember to use a valid email address so we can inform you in case you win. One entry per email address.
Details at soldiersystems.net/the-12-days-of-tactical-christmas.
Tags: Wild Things, WT Tactical
-35 degrees Celsius with a stiff wind, directing traffic for 4 hours at a serious collision. with windchill, was below -60 degrees Celsius.
The snowstorm that followed Xmas 2010. Was driving from Virginia to NY, we hit the wall of snow in NJ. Was driving on I95 north watching other cars and trucks slide right off the road. At one point the road was closed behind us and we were the only vehicle on the road. We had to cross lanes and snow drowned islands that separated opposing traffic to thread our way around all the closed roadways. But the Tacoma and some good driving skills persevered 😀
The worst weather I have seen was in Korea, February 2002. I was a Bradley commander in a Scout Platoon training in the Twin Bridges Training Area. It was -20 f, blowing snow and ice, a foot of snow on the ground. The dirt roads had iced over and we had M1A1 Tanks spinning tracks. On night number two the heater in my Bradley breaks… we had 10 more nights to go.
93 Ft. Benning freak snow storm during our ftx. From rain to snow in no time and no one had cold gear.
January in the HighPeaks region, Adirondacks, New York. The weather was like a poorly medicated manic depressive: 40* and raining one day and -20* within 24 hours. Everything was melting, and then everything locked up in a flash freeze. Miserable.
Haven’t been overseas, but the worst weather has to be any amount of snow in Atlanta. Everyone panics and strips the grocery stores, then drives like idiots to get home on black ice! Snow paralyzes us here, as we only get it once a year if at all. As I was kitting up during the last snow storm to head out with the GSDF and GA National Guard, I saw a live video of a guy who couldn’t get his new BMW out of an iced over gas station parking lot. He kept the engine floored for at least 5 minutes trying to get traction and get out. Guess the car got so hot it caught fire, and all of Atlanta got to watch it burn on a sheet of ice, live on TV. That must’ve been difficult to explain to the insurance company…
2 years ago in February, in Syracuse we literally had a week long blizzard. I would be done shoveling the driveway to look back and realize the whole driveway was covered again with about 2 feet of snow. I didn’t even have school for 5 days.
In Jan ’11, I was training at MCB Quantico. We had 65 degree weather in the afternoon, followed by sleet in the evening then snow at night. The weather started to warm back up and turned to straight rain from about 0600-1500. A winter storm rolled through and dropped the temp to about 20 degrees which caused freezing rain and then dumped 12″ of snow on us during the next several hours. All of our gear was obviously soaked so the weight was nearly doubled. Comms were lost due to dead radio batteries and we lost all comm/corpsman/motor-t support because all base roads were closed due to fallen trees from the ice. We were stuck in an LZ with a GP tent for 40 Marines with wet and frozen gear. Finally, later the next day, we hiked on a military road with all of our wet/frozen gear out of the field.
Snow and blizzard during Mountains in Ranger School
Iceland. 60+ mph winds. Blowing snow. Tried to walk to chow but when the wind would gust I would stop dead in my tracks.
Summit of Pen Y Fen, Wales. Was bedding down with my unit for the evening on a New Years Eve hike, wind was to strong to set up a tent so I dug into the side of a snow drift, after rolling out my sleeping bag and unlacing my boots I crawled inside for the evening to sleep out the blizzard. I woke up later unable to move and in a state of panic felt like I had been buried alive, I reached for the zipper of my bag and found that luckily I wasn’t buried but my condensation had hardened my sleeping bag like a shell around me. After cracking my bag back into its stuff sack I decided no matter how windy it gets I’ll be setting up at least a bivvy.
Mike
USAF
The coldest I ever felt was -40 Celsius with the wind, in middle January. It was snowing so much that as soon as I would shovel all the snow, I would be all white again. Even with the severe cold outside, my dog was really enjoying himself. Goes to show how a little hair or fur really helps in cold condition.
Snowstorm last winter at West Point, NY
Any weather outside for work. Rain, sleet, snow, and cold won’t stop the U.S. Infantry.
union county arkansas flood of 1975…12 inches in 12 hours plus softball sized hail (ouch!!)
-40 C and 50 mph winds. Heli Skiing in British Columbia and a storm blew on after we got dropped on the top of a peak. Had to hunker down for an hour while the wind nearly blew us off the top.
Worst cold weather I’ve seen in recent memory, possibly ever, was the blizard of ’93. Hip-high snow, with drifts up to second story windows and all the associated pleasures of cold weather. The worst part wasn’t the weather so much as the region’s total lack of ability to deal with it. We were fine, our family hailing from more northerly lands, but we had a grand old time marveling at the frozen antics of our new Alabama neighbors. But now that I’ve been here a while, I realize I’m not much better prepared for a winter storm now than they were then.
Growing up in the Fairbanks, AK I missed the school bus one day in the 4th grade when it was around -30. I had to walk back home, but my house was locked and my parents were at work. I had to walk about a mile to my neighbors house and by the time I got there my left ear and nose were both severely frost bitten. I had to spend the next two days at the hospital.
1994 spent 10 days in the field a fort drum. Never got above freezing.
the worst ever weather i have ever experienced, was in wardak province Afghanistan this winter. my platoon went on a night patrol thought the valley. i think it was about -5 degrees that night. about 20mins out i took a drag from my camelback, it was frozen solid on my back. at one point we stopped for about 45mins to overwatch one of our convoys move thought a certain area, then we got the word to RTB. i tried to get up from where i had been sitting, i hear a sound like like breaking ice and tearing fabric. the back of my pants had frozen to the ground.
Afghanistan 02′ — below freezing temps with only some old school poly pro and a poncho liner for cold weather gear on a winter mission … nearly died on that ridgeline.
spent 5 days in the Oregon high desert last year before i went to MEPS.
snow, rain, 50 mph winds.
we were way under prepared but i learned my lesson and will spend money on ONLY THEE BEST GEAR now…
after we walked back to the truck we found out my dad had minor frostbite and i had major wind burn…but thats what happens when you try to use us issue rain jackets as sleeping bags.
Worst weather was the blizzard of 2010 (Seattle). Commute from Seattle to the suburbs that evening was the worst ever, we had 4hr backups on the highway, buses stuck on highway running out of gas, passengers told to get off and “walk” home. My bus was stuck on I-5 southbound, we were told to disembark and “hoof” it home. Walked the 15 miles home in 3 hrs in below freezing weather. Didn’t think I would ever feel my hands again that night.
4 solid weeks of snowing and ice storms. It was pretty incredible considering it never snows at all up here. You could ice skate to the convenience store
It was in 1997 @ Cultana on the El Alamein training range in South Australia.
I was a young assault trooper and was sitting in the rear of our M113A1 waiting to move up to take part in a live fire battle run when I noticed that the sky to our West had started to turn dark green, a tad disconcerting I thought!
Within 10 minutes, the worst thunderstorms to hit the area in over 100 years had unleashed gale force winds, torrential horizontal rain and golfball sized hailstones. The storm passed in about 30 mins but had left a massive trail of destruction. Guys had been knocked out by hailstones and to make matters worse, as I went in to my pack to get my goretex out, a bloody huge spider had crawled in to my pack the night before and revealed itself as it clung to my hand as I bought it out of my pack!
Worst weather was just above Boise, ID when an electrical storm hit. All wildfire crews had to retreat to vehicles until lightning moved away, about 40 minutes.
One summer I was playin ball down in arizona and we had to play a doubleheader mid day in 115 degree heat. It was brutal. 4 guys threw up from heat sickness when our cooler ran out.
That’s it for Day #2. Thanks to our sponsor and everyone who entered. Be on the lookout for an email telling you you’ve won.