Evaluation of the KC-135 and U-2 bailout survival kit

Fifty years ago, the U.S. Air Force was trying to figure out whether its aircrew survival equipment was up to the challenge of bailing out into very cold conditions. Four airmen (including two "experienced Arctic survival experts") were taken by helicopter to a cold location in Alaska and monitored for what was to be an eight-day "field trip". The results make for some interesting reading:

EVALUATION OF THE KC-135 AND U-2 BAILOUT SURVIVAL KIT

Very interesting reading, indeed! Thanks for sharing.

I'd like to believe that the gear and its maintenance improved at least a little some dozen plus years later when I was on a KC-135 crew. I know that the Life Support shop at every base had frequent inspection requirements of the survival gear packs. It was on one crew member's checklist to check the expiration dates whenever we had cold weather gear (or any other type) on board.

However, it was common to sit out on the ramp for a long time in preparation for a mission at Eielson (Fairbanks). As many as 6 or 8 KC-135s would take off within minutes of each other in support of reconnaissance aircraft in temperatures that I personally saw as low as -56F. We lost a crew and aircraft when I was there, who without heat had waited for hours for multiple cold related fixes to be completed on several planes. Seal leaks of red hydraulic fluid in the snow under some planes made them look like they had been butchered. I am sure the crew's bodies became so cold soaked while waiting and their thought processes slowed down so much that they couldn't handle what should have been a non-critical problem on take-off. It was a very sad outcome, and led to a shake down on procedures to keep crews alert and warm during long delays.

Sardog1 and others,
Please forgive me if I bore anyone with this reminiscence --- but this story just brought back all kinds of memories. I experienced something similar in ‘63, ‘64 and ’65 when I was with the 172 Infantry at Ft. Richardson, Alaska. Each February we participated in joint winter training exercises (war games) with Canada and Sweden and/or Norway. We spent the whole month east of Fairbanks, north of Tok and west of Eagle chasing each other around. A major purpose of the exercise was to find out how well men and equipment could function in extreme cold. One year gave us an especially good test. It went to 45° below zero ---- and stayed there for a week straight! We were more fully equipped than the guys in this report appear to have been ---- but it was of the same generation of gear: wool underwear, wool shirts, parka liner with shell and hood, K boots (Bunny boots,) and heavy mittens with fur backing to warm our faces. Most of the time we operated at the platoon and squad level and used a double walled tent sleeping 6, 8 or maybe 10. Heat was from a box stove that burned either wood or raw gasoline! Yes, some tents burned up. One night the boys from Kentucky and Mississippi in our tent cranked the gasoline so wide open I felt sure the whole place would explode. Couldn’t stand it, so I took my double sleeping and an air mattress outside, rounded up some heavy canvases, cut some boughs, and made myself a comfortably warm shelter. So I would agree with the report ----- find enough insulation, any kind (use field expedience,) and you may survive the coldest temps!
Thanks for the memories!

Good to hear other's stories here. I was at Eielson when they were building the oil pipeline a few miles behind the base. For the first 8 days I was there, it never got above -40. Next day it went to +40, then right back down to -40 again. On days off I hiked around through the ice fog to see the pipeline construction. Only had about 3 hours of useable daylight, so 90 minutes out and 90 minutes back. We were told that no matter how we bundled up it was the knees that would get cold first, because every step pushed out warm air from the knee area and drew in the cold. And that was right.

Back closer to home, I was for several years an instructor for the annual Boy Scout Okpik/Gawasa cold weather camping training. One year in particular was fantastic for snow shelter demo with lots of available deep snow on the ground as it got down to -30F. I slept snug in my quinzee snow mound shelter, and the temperature inside held in the mid +20s with just a couple of candles burning. Others slept not quite so well in snow trenches, as others retreated to the nearby warm lodge from more exposed tarp shelters. Attempting to start cars the next morning was another story.

Not bored at all! Thanks so much for sharing, both of you. I did a stand-up presentation for some Scouts camped outside Anchorage once, on the subject of SAR dogs. It was -22F at the time, for which I was prepared and my dog acclimated, but some in the audience were not. Almost every person I've ever met who hates winter camping got that way in the Scouts ...

While we're on the subject of bailing out in winter, here's my all-time favorite shot of a working dog and handler. The guy is Austrian, the dog is a Belgian Malinois, and they just left their ride on a C-130 over Northern Norway during a "Cold Response" exercise. (No, I didn't take the picture.)

sardog1 said:

While we're on the subject of bailing out in winter, here's my all-time favorite shot of a working dog and handler. The guy is Austrian, the dog is a Belgian Malinois, and they just left their ride on a C-130 over Northern Norway during a "Cold Response" exercise. (No, I didn't take the picture.)

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That is one Burly Dude and his Dog. Thanks for sharing. I've been in some cold temps but with state of the art gear. That survivalist stuff is Hard core!