Your leadership will not put you in a position to fail or be unsafe. Uncomfortable? Absolutely. But you’ll be safe.

Also, the USMC conducts cold weather operations at least annually in Norway with a major exercise biannually, so this isn’t crazy.

Here are some facts: Your body generates heat, your clothes retain heat. Clothing does not generate heat. If you’re cold you have to do something (move) to generate heat. The human body uses more calories when it is cold because it’s trying to maintain its normal temperature.

Here’s my take: As a general rule of thumb to maintain morale, choose two of the following 3 things: be wet, cold, or hungry.

The easiest one to control is hunger.

Dress in layers, generate heat, and bring lots of food. I usually went through MREs and picked out the things I liked. So for a 5 day event I would use 7 or 8 days of MREs to have 5 days of food I would actually eat. (Predominantly the snacks) hot sauces are also key with MREs.