A bit after 3 AM, and my phone says it is 4 degrees outside. We managed to find a heater of sorts that somebody rigged up out of a cut barrel and an old stovepipe. The wood in it is damp, so a lot of smoke and not much heat. We started it with C-4 and cardboard. But, it is 22 degrees inside this hole, so that is a marked difference. The smoke says it is drawing well, so we just get close and try to absorb every exited molecule that impinges on us. I wish it would excite my molecules more.
Chris has a bag of meatballs, but they froze solid, so he impales them on the tip of his knife and sticks them in the fire.
I am reading Ruark and listening to Faith Hill, which makes me want to wash my balls and go to town. But, Kreminna does not seem ready for a proper night on the town.
Had a meeting today about SR (special reconnaissance) operations in snow – if and when it ever comes. I don’t have a lot of experience in this realm, other than back in my climbing days, and nobody was shooting at me on those jaunts, and book learning and training…training many years ago.
Actually, the Yooks know more about this than we do, so it was us just adding a bit here and there, and them doing the training. I had forgotten about tree wells, which is a real danger in really deep snow or heavy drifts. It was a good session though, one reason being we were in a heated tent, which, under the circumstances was as amazing as laying on a tropical beach.
Chris added that on skis, the enemy can follow faster in your tracks and catch up with you, so you mine your tracks. But, in frozen snow AP (anti-personnel) mines do not always work well, so you cut out a piece of track, set the mine, then place the cut piece back.
Lot of common-sense stuff like painting claymores to match trees or snow, and painting the forks of bounding mines white for snow. And, it does not take much white paint and an Earl Scheib job on a rifle or grenade launcher to hide it pretty effectively.
One good thing about the AK platform is it rarely freezes-up in extreme cold, like AR platforms can. The problems with both is if you take them from warm to cold, they both can freeze and malfunction. The AR firing pins tend to lock, which can be worked loose with hand cycling or butt stroking. The AK, once fired and heated from being frozen, will rust like hell in no time.
So, right now, under the small amount of heat we have, both our rifles are outside. It is not near cold enough for pin lock, unless moisture was already in there. Am not dissing the AR, it works very well in the cold, the difference is the AK has looser clearances, and has more pin pressure.
From today, looks like we will be doing more front-running for larger exploitation forces. We have one cache left in that neck of the woods, so if we can get to it, can operate forward for a week at the most without dropping-back to the EF (exploitation force). That assumes it has not been discovered, and is either gone, mined or covered.
One of the things we assume, is as we get closer to the main enemy forces, the use of drones with thermals imaging will be more prevalent. Our only real defense is the heavy clothing we are wearing, the use of wool and mylar blankets, and natural stuff like leaves and limbs.
The most danger is when you are on the move, since thermal suppression gear is not much in use, and heat signature is higher. venting heat is also an issue when on the QT in a hide. Getting in a bag and covering-up with snow is effective, but you have to use the same thermal suppression measures to keep your body heat from melting the snow. The way you do it is one guy stays out of cover, and uses our own imaging to check our signature. It is a pain in the ass and takes time, but is necessary.
What we really need is mylar suits with hoods. But, you still have venting from breathing, which would also need suppressing.
If snow is around in significant amounts, one can dig a snow cave, which is highly effective. Or, you can pile snow up and create a hut of sorts. The entrance can be covered with a painted poncho. The problem here is, if you have several people in it, you have to vent the roof, and that can create a thermal signature from breathing and body heat. Piling sticks and leaves over it helps disperse it.
Real “Winter War” stuff!
Yeah, just making sure everyone is up-to-speed on possibilities. I learned a lot.
Laying-up in heavy tree growth helps, since trees do produce heat from radiant reheat and chemical synthesis. It does however reduce significantly in winter time in both respects.
Since we do not typically have the luxury of hot food in the field, we hydrate the bag and carry it for a few hours at least to make it palatable. In this extreme cold, it has to go next to your body, inside your clothes or it will freeze.
Old thru-hiking trick.
Yep. But, hot water sure is nice….:)
One of the Yook instructors told us about a recon group that covered a hide with a poncho, and did not notice the wind got up and the poncho was flapping and making noise. It got all but one of them killed.
Must be some LRRP/Battlefield Recon cold wx tricks applicable.
I know most of them, and they do have things like baffled masks to minimize breathing heat and so on.
They also laughed that some US military manual suggested carrying weapons that work well in the cold, and said “This may require equipping with foreign weapons.” The humor was, they meant the AK platform, but did not specifically say that.
For that matter, the AK worked well in Vietnam. You could submerge it in a river and it would come out cycling. If it got jammed with mud, a butt stroke or two would usually get it going (making sure barrel is clear).
Great country and western music.
All this cold and snow talk is depressing. My next war will be something on the order of the Polynesian War of Independence.
I hear the Waikiki Liberation Front is looking for brave muhajeddin.
The Lanai Convention requires us to fight with only short Leiomanos, and sign a truce every day at dusk for an Imu, cold beer and fornicating.
I think Tahiti would be a great place to fight, the details depending on whether you are a hired gun with the French or the Tahitians. I don’t like Poi, so that is a check mark for the French right there. Good cover, good weather…you don’t have to worry about your re-hydrated Pate de foie gras freezing.
My conversation right now is overly and to an unhealthy degree influenced by the cold. If I was in Vietnam, I would be bitching about the heat and humidity. I am a tender soldier.
It is now 30 degrees in this hole. Chris has been finding and feeding shit in it all night. If we can get another 10 degrees we might have an AirBnB opportunity here. Maybe sell tourist packages…kinda like Everest base camp, it is not the summit, but close enough for most.
Include a added value food option. Frozen meatballs, cold rehydrated rations and treated water.
I just laughed out loud and Chris looked up,”What is so Goddamn funny?”
“You as a tour guide crossing the Siverskyi River.” He gave me the stink eye and went back to reading. But no, that would never work. You can’t double-tap your clients in the brain case when they whine…not good for repeat business.
Back to business. One of the things I asked is if short boot spikes were available. yes. Also, had heard that close-in to their main defensive area, the Russians are using game cameras outside their defended choke points, any evidence? no, but highly possible.
Don’t a lot of game cameras use active infrared lighting that you could detect?
Many do, but you have to be watching for that when you have a lot on your plate already, and there are passive ones that operate by motion vibration.
Chris pointed-out that under the conditions, we will need to send out a double point, even farther than usual, which means we need an organically larger team. Do they have the qualified people? Yes.
Another issue we had a long discussion about was as we get right-up to the Russian strong point, they will likely have better and faster means of detecting us by our phone emissions.
And, one of the real issues here is we have no efficient means of insertion, and even less per extraction. Now that we have deep forward forces, insertion is less of an issue, but extraction, right up against the main force enemy, is non-existent. Is ranging artillery or air support in the cards for that? Yes and no.
Any thought of quick reaction forces for the recon teams?
Right now we are too far ahead for a home base reaction force to work in time. But, now we have the exploitation force behind us. But, they are not tasked with saving our asses, only material support.
It sounds like you fellas are right on the tip of the spear.
We just kinda amble ahead of things a bit. “Pooping and scooting”, I think Kyle Mizokami called it.
Ha, if that was me that was just something I read from books when you were doing it back in the day.
Pretty true though. It is easy to get paranoid about the pooping part. You are in a bad position in many ways. Some guys would take meds to stop them up. Some astronauts did the same..mainly to avoid the hassle and embarrassment.
One of these days you’ll have to talk about combat shits, you mentioned that once.
One Army guy told us how to pee. In your pants, in a river, or squatting like a girl. “Unless you are in the land of waterfalls to mask the noise , a stand-up pee splash is a dead giveaway in the woods.” If there was a river handy, and there usually was, I always took a dump in the water. No cleanup, no noise, and I helped the environment. A few seconds later, a school of fish would show-up to feed. That is how they feed the fish in Vietnam now that you buy at your local grocery store. Bon appetit.
Deal is, every day now that we go out the risk rises. We are not whining about it, but we have to have every scrap of info we can get to plan for it. They know that. Just a note, we do not just head out on a whim. Everything we do is planned in detail. We do most of it based on the mission profile. It takes hours to detail what we think we need, the route, the support, the ammo load, camo and so on.
But, lack of support is not new to me. In Vietnam, once we crossed to border into Cambodia, support was thin at best. Even in the Plain of Reeds or U Minh we had minimal support that was timely. But..ultimately we had it, eventually. In the Rung Sat we had pretty good support, and fast. Problem is, we often went in alone on intel missions. So no prepositioned support was there. You don’t put up a plane to support one guy who is trying to be on the QT.
We would unload in the river off a boat and enter into the small streams, usually wearing VC kit and in a native boat. Just to take a look see, no combat in the cards. The risk was actually pretty low. I carried a higher risk, as at 6’5″, VC garb was not a sure hide.
Well is after 8 AM, Chris is snoring, and I am sleepy. It is warm in here, and I am in my bag and about to pass out. I will see you folks later.
Ukraine Volunteer Transcripts 