US soldiers conducts extreme cold tests in Alaska

[rangerrebew]

US soldiers conducts extreme cold tests in Alaska
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Feb 22, 2017
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Photo Credit: David Vergun

During the winter of 1939 and 1940, winter-camouflaged Finnish ski troops for a time held off a much larger Soviet army that had neither skis nor winter camouflaging.

The effectiveness of the Finnish army in snow and freezing temperatures was a real eye-opener for the U.S. Army at the time, said Sgt. Sarah Valentine, an instructor at the Cold Weather Training Center here. “I think we as an Army have forgotten a lot of this stuff.”

With their 15-day Cold Weather Leaders Course, Valentine and other instructors here said they’re helping bring those kinds of skills to the U.S. Army, so U.S. Soldiers will be just as prepared to survive and win wars in an Arctic environment.

http://defence-blog.com/army/us-soldiers-conducts-extreme-cold-tests-in-alaska.html

[thackney]

When it gets 50 or 60 degrees below zero, vehicles — even tracked ones designed for the cold — quit working, Decker said. Those temperatures are not uncommon here, with minus 30 and minus 40 fairly normal for winter. It can get so cold that even engine oil and transmission fluid will freeze, rendering vehicles inoperable.

When vehicles aren’t in use, they’re kept plugged into outlets featured at every parking spot. The electricity powers heating pads and engine block heaters. Oil and transmission pans have silicone heating pads directly attached to them. Block heaters or freeze-plug heaters are heating elements that actually stick into the side of the engine.

For those who haven't experienced trying to live and work in such an environment, it can be quite a change.

While working in the North slope, I experienced wind chill of -72°F.  I really wished I had zipped up my jacket and put on my gloves first as I exited the plane that day.

A different time with no wind at all, we had -48°F.  That was really bad because we were in Alpine on the Far West side of the North Slope.  They wouldn't fly in the Twin Otter plane at those temps.  We had to make a bus convoy across an bridge built of ice over the Coleville River for several hours drive to Kuparuk to catch a 737 we could fly out.

[Sanguine]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Bear_Expedition

I had a relative who was with this expedition.  Fascinating bit of history.