Thread: Sleeping bag

Originally Posted by R93

I can remember always being cold wet and miserable as a grunt when on ex in NZ.
Waiouru and Tekepo humping around half your body weight in rain, hail, snow or shine. Digging in, in frozen ground everytime you stopped.
You never got warm apart from when digging or stomping for weeks.

Coldest I have been was when we were cut off way out the back of the training area in Waiouru for over a week. No vehicles or helos could reach us.
We were dug in to stage 4. The pits may as well have been underground freezers.
We had what I thought at the time, we're decent sleeping bags.
Kept losing guys to Hypothermia and even frostbite but there was no way to evac them.
It was beyond miserable.

I remember having a chat with the CSM and QM on site who said they have had it way worse and never had a sleeping bag back in their day. They carried just 2 grey army blankets and woollen battle dress.
From then on I treasured my shitty synthetic sleeping bag that always seemed damp and heavy
Yup, don't know why or how but they were definitely harder bastards back in the day.






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When you read about troops out in winter and you see the gear they had (lucky if they had blankets) you wonder how they did not just freeze to death. I guess a fair few did.