Opposites… In more ways than one…
Shemya AK, north Pacific ocean. Colder than… You know what… Saw minus 30 on a ‘good’ day when we went in there for gas.
Misirah, Oman, Indian Ocean. Hotter than blue blazes most of the time. Saw 130 degrees on the ramp once.
Opposites, and neither one is pleasant.
The day I walked off the plane in Baghdad the first time, the thermometer read 143 degrees. As we walked down the ramp into the jet exhaust, we though we were going to pass out and die right there on the tarmac. I give thanks that I’ve never seen the like since. I have no idea how (or why) people live there on a long term basis.
One night when I was on patrol in Berlin, the low was -40. We thought we were all going to die. We had to keep moving, or freeze. I give thanks that I’ve never seen the like since. I have no idea how (or why) people live there on a long term basis.
It’s amazing what people can get used to.
First 60 degree day in autumn – everyone’s in jackets and turtlenecks.
First 60 degree day in February – tank tops and shorts.
As you say . . . 🙂
Shemya was one of the few places which we on Adak felt sorry for.
Great Lakes Naval Recruit Training Command.
Christmas Day 1983. 93° below zero with the wind chill. Only allowed to leave barracks for meals and those were optional.
Day after Christmas 45° below zero with no wind chill. We are all walking around with our coats unbuttoned.
I can tolerate, even enjoy cold. Heat, no way.
Having lived in Phoenix for a few years and acclimatized to 110+ summer days, I flew on a business trip to Kansas City. Got out of the terminal and was gasping for breath. It was “only” 95 or so, but the humidity, my G_d the humidity, I’d forgotten how bad 95 degrees and 95 per cent RH can be. Yeah, now I live in Idaho and minus 25 ain’t that bad.
Heck, Basic Training, we woke up, got in field jackets and gloves and headed to chow, shivering. That afternoon the flag goes up for “too hot for P.T.”
Not quite the same I understand 🙂
McC- Heard that! On preflight one day I stole Doc’s thermal device. Inside the airplane was 160!
TXRed- LOL, true!
Rev- Yep, for good reason!
Hereso- SO glad I went through NTC Orlando!
WSF- I’m just the opposite.
NRW- Nopity nope… You can have that. I grew up in Louisiana, humidity doesn’t bother me (also grew up with no AC)… LOL
I’ve never been north of Minot, ND. I remember one winter day when it got up to 20 degrees and I had to unzip my parka. Well, one summer trip into B.C.
Went from Osan Korea to DaNang Vietnam to Minot North Dakota.
Any wonder why I got out after my 4?
I seem to recall that Shemya also has a bit of slope to the runway? I was there only once, flying a C-54. No real desire to go back…
Sam- Only been to Minot once, thankfully in the summer!
Roger- Don’t blame you!
Ian- I honestly don’t remember. That was…way too many years ago!
Hey Old NFO;
Ain’t you glad the AC and the heat in those P3’s worked so well 😀 . Seriously I remembered going to MSP for work in January a few years ago and I was no longer used to cold weather, I was once again a Georgia Boy, and had to go to the Ice Palace in January and it was negative 10 degrees plus the wind and it was cooooold….I thought I was gonna be a block of ice on the flight line. I never remembered Germany being this bad, but I was used to the German weather and now…not so much.
Bob- Dunno what you’re smoking, but NEITHER worked real well in the P-3…
I did a transducer replacement in King’s Bat, Ga one August. 135 in the ballast tank, 100% humidity, and NO airflow. 15 minutes in, 15 minutes out. The 4 of us drank 5 gallons of water in 4 hours and still lost like 8 pounds in water weight. Decided at that point we wanted to work Midnight to 8.
And the D@#$ mosquitoes would bite you through dungarees and coveralls. State Bird.
Clayton- Oh yeah. We used to go fishing down there before King’s Bay was built. Skeeters EVERYWHERE!!!
Campion AFS near Galena Alaska in ’66-’67.
Winter came down the mountain and after a while we would go outside in flip-flops, a T-shirt, and shorts at -20 as long as you didn’t get any snow between your foot and the rubber flip-flop. It was so dry you didn’t feel the cold in the time it took to walk between the buildings or the radar towers.
I’d LOVE to know what the DA was when you took off from Oman.
Then there’s Texas. It’s weirdly cool, pleasant and rainy now. I love that.
Below zero at Shemya? Are you sure?