6°f "real feel" -8° due to wind chill. Lets see if I can last 5 hours.

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In that lab we started at 80 went down to -55 then back to 125 (160 on the blades to see if they would come apart) then back to 80. Took almost three months.

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I was part of a reliability and maintainability testing team on the very first production UH60A helicopters in 79-80. We did stuff real life in Delta Junction, Alaska and Yuma Proving Grounds.
 
I was part of a reliability and maintainability testing team on the very first production UH60A helicopters in 79-80. We did stuff real life in Delta Junction, Alaska and Yuma Proving Grounds.

Followed right behind you 80 to 82 for the Navy. We did real life too took her out in the Atlantic in Sea State 8 from Coast of Florida to the Arctic Ocean. The lab was more fun :)
 
Followed right behind you 80 to 82 for the Navy. We did real life too took her out in the Atlantic in Sea State 8 from Coast of Florida to the Arctic Ocean. The lab was more fun :)

You are a better man than me, Gunga Din. I want nothing to do with sea state 8. As it was, we had nothing but trouble with those first Hawks. Not the most reliable things that ever flew.
 
My grandfather fought in the Bulge and Hurtgen Forest. He told my father that during the battle of HF he and other GIs had to lay in the snow for days. Anyone who even raised his head was likely to be shot. I sometimes think about trying to get a sense of the excruciating cold they must have felt. For many years I've thought about researching the clothing US GIs wore in the European theater during the winter and then trying to source similar for myself. Then go out and hunt for a day in those clothes in December with my Garand. I won't have the same terrifying motivation to endure the cold, but I'd just like to know a little bit of what it was like for him.
 
My grandfather fought in the Bulge and Hurtgen Forest. He told my father that during the battle of HF he and other GIs had to lay in the snow for days. Anyone who even raised his head was likely to be shot. I sometimes think about trying to get a sense of the excruciating cold they must have felt. For many years I've thought about researching the clothing US GIs wore in the European theater during the winter and then trying to source similar for myself. Then go out and hunt for a day in those clothes in December with my Garand. I won't have the same terrifying motivation to endure the cold, but I'd just like to know a little bit of what it was like for him.

You don't have to grab WW2 gear, although replica stuff is there for enactors. We continued to use the same basic stuff right down to the boots right up to 1980 or so. The boots were especially a problem in the cold and wet of Germany. That really sucked for me. Cold wet boots make you miserable and they don't dry out very fast at all. I was wearing Corcoran Jump Boots in 1975 that were the same as WW2 except mine were black.
 
My grandfather fought in the Bulge and Hurtgen Forest. He told my father that during the battle of HF he and other GIs had to lay in the snow for days. Anyone who even raised his head was likely to be shot. I sometimes think about trying to get a sense of the excruciating cold they must have felt. For many years I've thought about researching the clothing US GIs wore in the European theater during the winter and then trying to source similar for myself. Then go out and hunt for a day in those clothes in December with my Garand. I won't have the same terrifying motivation to endure the cold, but I'd just like to know a little bit of what it was like for him.
My father was in the same battles as armored infantry with the 3rd Armored Div.

He didn't talk much about the war, but he said more than once the most important thing was a pair of dry socks. He wound up in the hospital with trench foot. That winter in Germany was record cold.
 
You don't have to grab WW2 gear, although replica stuff is there for enactors. We continued to use the same basic stuff right down to the boots right up to 1980 or so. The boots were especially a problem in the cold and wet of Germany. That really sucked for me. Cold wet boots make you miserable and they don't dry out very fast at all. I was wearing Corcoran Jump Boots in 1975 that were the same as WW2 except mine were black.
I can only imagine. I always wear waterproof boots and usually Lacrosse 800 gram thinsulate rubber boots. And my toes still get cold if I sit in the stand for hours.
 
My father was in the same battles as armored infantry with the 3rd Armored Div.

He didn't talk much about the war, but he said more than once the most important thing was a pair of dry socks. He wound up in the hospital with trench foot. That winter in Germany was record cold.
Grandfather was in the 4th Divison
 
I can only imagine. I always wear waterproof boots and usually Lacrosse 800 gram thinsulate rubber boots. And my toes still get cold if I sit in the stand for hours.

Well, I live in the desert, so not a whole lot of chance to get my feet wet anymore, but if I do end up in snow in the mountains, I have Pac boots just sitting in the closet. Normally I wear my 5.11 desert boots.
 
That sounds like a fairly typical cold snap for mid-November in Northern MN. We usually get one like that, sometimes worse, during firearms season. I've had a couple mornings over the years when the mercury read 15-20 below and just chucked some wood in the stove and crawled back under the covers.

Deer have a lot in common with us. We're both warm blooded mammals, driven by the same primal urges. Ever notice how by mid-winter, a cold snap that would be teeth chattering in November ain't so bad now? Deer are the same.

The first bitter cold of the season, say single digits or colder in my part of the world will lock them down. They're still fat and happy from the summer greenery and fall mast, and other than the rut, have little inclination to wander about. They'll flop down in tight cover under a balsam, white pine or cedar, and be content to browse a 50 yard radius. Even the local corn field won't tempt them much unless snow is coming, that seems to trip a different primal urge and get them feeding. By muzzleloader season in late November, that same single digit cold snap won't phase them much. They'll be much more food oriented, and happy to come out in the late afternoon before the mercury drops. Even towards the end of the first cold snap, they will show signs of acclimating and become more active in the cold. By mid-winter, zero is happy weather. It takes -20 to lock them down in January here. After prolonged cold, they will become very food oriented and most active at the warmest feeling (not necessarily warmest mercury) locations and parts of the day, favoring sheltered and sunny areas with food resources. The higher calorie food, the better.
 
I get cold below 70 degrees now. I don't do astronomy in the winter.
That comment brought back memories. When I was a kid my brothers and I got with the neighbor kids on full moon winter nights to go sled riding down the hills around home. After we would often climb on top of the chicken coop and brake out the telescope to star gaze or sometimes catch a meteor shower. Great times. Many a time we would have to bail off the sled so as not to hit deer. Several of our paths were old logging roads through the woods. Thanks for bringing back those memories.
 
That comment brought back memories. When I was a kid my brothers and I got with the neighbor kids on full moon winter nights to go sled riding down the hills around home. After we would often climb on top of the chicken coop and brake out the telescope to star gaze or sometimes catch a meteor shower. Great times. Many a time we would have to bail off the sled so as not to hit deer. Several of our paths were old logging roads through the woods. Thanks for bringing back those memories.

Well here is a picture I took off the top of the chicken coop, lol. This is Tranquility Base, where Apollo Eleven landed in 1969.
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I picked up some frost bite on one cheek once upon a time skiing in the wind when I was young. I am sure I thought I was having fun.
Got frostbite on my toes during NATO winter maneuvers. Coldest snowiest winter in Germany since 1944. Frostbite is no joke have a helluva time trying to keep my feet warm on deer stand. The Muck arctic sport boots are the first civilian boots to do it. I can bet there are many veterans on here that can guess the only other boots to work.
 
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