Yeah, I can't compare ft drum to Alaska as I've never been but I will take your word for it, as clearly Alaska is cold as f! I will say that I have been awarded the Navy Artic Service Ribbon for deploying above the Artic 4 times in my career and have my Blue Nose and I will say that there was only one time the Arctic was colder than ft drum in my experience. Two training experiences at ft drum that stick out... One was When we had to ski out of the training areas with all out gear on our backs EVERY time (3 times in 3 weeks) we inserted bcuz the cold temps prevented the helos from flying due to hydrolic lines freezing and hummers which were our backup extract couldn't get us bcuz the snow was too deep. It was fun skiing for 10 days straight and I lost 15 pounds during that training evolution but a gut check nonetheless. The next time I had about 90pounds of gear on my back skiing in the western training areas when we came across a large pond with the ambient temp around 9* and a foot and a half of snow on the ground and still snowing. We said there is NO WAY this body of water isn't frozen so as a team leader I went first. I got about 40 ft (per my gps) before I broke through the ice on my skis and full gear. My guys were able to get me a line and drag me out and had to change me into dry clothes as I lost all control of my body due to the violent shaking while hyperthermia was setting in. One guy had to hack out one ski that got caught under the ice with an axe bcuz without it, I wasn't getting out! Had to mount up after some warm soup to get my core temp back up or I was done! It worked out but after the fact we found out that the temps were close to 50 the previous week! Something Range control failed to include in their Intel brief!!!! I guess it's all timing based on your experience and it sounds like yours weren't to bad but mine sucked!
BTW..... Who the hell did u pizzzz off to get stationed in Alaska and Ft Drum in an enlistment!!??? No one can be that lucky!!! LOL
