The P2V aircraft has heaters but crewmembers wear insulated flight suits on winter flights because you want them on in the event of a crash. We called them poopy suits for some unknown reason. You certainly don't poop in them!
One day we return from a flight, park the airplane on the ramp, and a white van pulls up in front of it. Two guys we don't know get out of it and we are then hustled into the van. Surprise! We are on our way to seven days at Artic Survival School!
The school is in deep snow way out in the Maine woods. Of course the instructors have a cabin with a woodstove, hot drinks, and food. We have nothing. Just as we would have if the aircraft had crashed. We have to survive with what we can find and use. No food and no shelter. That first afternoon we are given two old parachutes to use to make tents with. How we make them is up to us! Two parachutes because there's ten crewmembers. Hours later we have two makeshift tents. Using the word "tents" loosely.
The instructors come out of their warm comfy cabin to observe our "tents" and see if the tents stay erect while we crawl in and out of them. The instructors explained how we could have made better ones. But since ours didn't collapse and would work, they rewarded us with two beat up old Army canvas tents. Those tents were certainly better than the parachute tents and maybe slightly warmer. That first night we slept on the tent floor shivering.
The week's training included snow traveling, direction finding, signaling techniques, improving the shelters, fire building, and finding food and water. All useful things to know. Attitude and preparation being vital to survival is a major topic.
Each crewmember had to make snares to catch rabbits and other small game, make fish hooks and jigs, nets for scooping small fish from streams, and come up with an idea on how to get more food. None of it was easy. Don't eat snow for water. Eating snow lowers your core body temperature. Melt it and drink it warm. Drinking hot water several times a day was comforting.
After our first night of experiencing sleeping on the tent floor we were given military issue sleeping bags. Down mummy bags but many of them had defects. Torn or worn. Mine and a couple of others, the foot of the bag was not sewn. Talk about cold feet and sleeping with your knees drawn up!
The third night we hadn't caught any of the plentiful rabbits in any of our snares so the show-off instructors brought us one they caught in one of their snares. They demonstrated how to quickly skin it (from the ass end and pull it forward) and let us keep and cook it. That was about two bites per man. The next day we had to reposition our snares. We did snare ONE rabbit in our week of training, plus we found some tiny mussels in a stream. After the third night your stomach didn't care anymore. No food=you ain't hungry! Melting snow or getting stream water to heat and drink really helped. Drinking hot water several times a day was comforting.
It turned out to be six nights and seven days. Way better than seven nights and eight days. The nights in the cold were tough.
When the school was over and we were returned to NAS Brunswick, we all agreed the training was useful. Diane stopped at the first restaurant on the way home for steak dinners. In fact the next week was a heavy eating week!
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