Winter Bivouacs?

Started by Pylon, November 02, 2006, 05:39:39 AM

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Psicorp

Quote from: Pylon on November 02, 2006, 05:39:39 AM
A cadet has dropped the idea of a winter bivouac in my head and I've been wondering how good of an idea it might be?   Has anybody else in the Northeast run a winter bivouac?  (I mean, the kind where you're probably in the woods deep in snow?)  Has it been worth it for other units?

What kind of things would one focus on?  Winter survival skills obviously come to mind. 




Our Squadron CC recently asked the cadets to come up with a list of activities that they would like to do over the next six to twelve months and a winter bivouac was on the list as well, pretty high up there actually.

When the CC read the list at an Officer Staff meeting, I could already see the look on some Officers' faces of "Will there be room for an RV??".      Winter in Michigan can be rather unpredicable at best, if Meteorologists are right more than 20% of the time they're banned from the area's casinos.   I think I was the only one who was genuinely excited about it :)   I can plead insanity, right?

The pictures of the "Ice Bowl" are great, I'll have to share those with the cadets, looks like fun!   Thanks!!

Jamie Kahler, Capt., CAP
(C/Lt Col, ret.)
CC
GLR-MI-257

SarDragon

Quote from: arajca on November 02, 2006, 08:27:16 PM
Quote from: Becks on November 02, 2006, 08:06:09 PM
Whats that white stuff on the ground?  ???

;)
It's angel-s***, dude.

Naw, man, in Maine, we used to call that "partly cloudy".
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

CLB

Quote from: Becks on November 03, 2006, 06:13:15 PM
Quote from: Matt on November 03, 2006, 03:33:48 PM
Quote from: Becks on November 02, 2006, 10:58:03 PM
Quote from: BillB on November 02, 2006, 10:26:27 PM
In Florida, we call that white stuff on the ground...beach sand

Much more desirable than snow in my opinion.

Traitor to Wisconsin!
Haha dont worry my old service coat still has the 62'nd on the sleeve :)

Yeah.....the OLD one....Save the new one he just bought.   

All your Drew are belong to SCWG......MUAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
Capt Christopher Bishop
Coastal Charleston Composite Squadron

LtCol White

While with GA WG, we conducted one every year called Frostbite.  It was very popular with the cadets. It was always held in the NGA mountains and we tried to arrange it when there would be snow. The focus was the same as any normal FTX but had the added elements of snow and extreme cold. Survival skills were stressed as well as normal groundteam SAR since airplanes dont always go missing on sunny 75degree days. GA WG still conducts these each winter.
LtCol David P. White CAP   
HQ LAWG

Admiral, Great Navy of the State of Nebraska

Diplomacy - The ability to tell someone to "Go to hell" and have them look forward to making the trip.

Stonewall

Check out my posting in the Tall Tail" thread in the ES forum.  I ran several Winter Exercises and I think they were ver valuable.  Even if there is no snow on the ground lessons can still be learned when temps are in the single digits and the wing ain't no joke.

I did Winter Hawk back in '02 and that was cold, yet valuable.
Serving since 1987.

Pylon

Quote from: Stonewall on April 07, 2007, 05:15:18 AM
Check out my posting in the Tall Tail" thread in the ES forum.  I ran several Winter Exercises and I think they were ver valuable.  Even if there is no snow on the ground lessons can still be learned when temps are in the single digits and the wing ain't no joke.

I did Winter Hawk back in '02 and that was cold, yet valuable.

Thanks Kirt, I did take a look at that post; great stuff!  Thanks for sharing!

Though most of the snow has thawed around here, it's definitely something I want to plot on the calendar for early next winter.
Michael F. Kieloch, Maj, CAP

jimmydeanno

The last winter bivouac I attended was WIWAC.  It was the winters of '97, '98 and '99.

The first one was held at a boy scout camp.  We didn't sleep it tents because it didn't come above -20F the whole weekend.  Even with the fireplace going, it was still a balmy 35 degrees in the cabin.  Good thing for the surplus ECW sleeping bags :)

The second and third ones were at our Sq CCs cabin in VT.  The Senior Staff spent all weekend in the cabin (mission base), and we carved out the snow to put our tents on the ground.  Since said cabin was on a small mountain, we set up our campfire on the summit, and the snow was about mid thigh deep...

During the weekends we conducted winter survival training, fire building, ELT Search stuff, and went for a few hikes.

It was definitely a good bonding experience for us as cadets and something that I can now check off my list of things to do.
If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law. - Winston Churchill