Would you rather be freezing or be hot while on duty?

Question

Fran Racioppi · Answer

The question's been asked, would you rather be freezing or be hot while on duty? This is like an age old question, what's the meaning of life when it comes to sitting in the field and talking with your buddies about the weather? This has been debated time and time again in every service by almost everybody who's served. I will tell you that it's completely dependent on the person. For me, I'd rather be freezing. Because why? Well, one, if I have layers, I can layer up. If I don't have layers, or if I'm already layered up in everything that I have, I can do activities to get warm. I can do jumping jacks, I can do pushups, I can walk around. There's a lot of things that I can do to elevate my heart rate and create heat within the system. If you're hot and you're burning up, you can only take off so many clothes. You can only cool down so much, especially if you're still in the elements, if you're still in the heat, if there's no shade, if there's nowhere to go. You can't physically cool your body down sometimes enough in the environment that you're in to be able to reset, regenerate, rejuvenate, and get back at it. You can tend to do that when you're cold. Now, we could argue all day long, and this is a topic for another conversation, but what happens when hypothermia sets in? What happens if you're wet? What happens if you're cold and wet, and you're tired and you're hungry? Topic for another day. Ask your questions. I'm sure there's a lot more about that, but I would rather be cold.

Max Bloom · Answer

I am so glad that my first opportunity to answer a question on this app is would you rather be freezing or be hot while on duty? Most people will tell you that they would rather be cold because they can always put on more layers Let me tell you why those people are psychopaths. First of all to establish my expertise on this I've been deployed in the deserts of Iraq in the summer where it's 150 degrees and the mountains of Afghanistan in the winter where it's Negative 20. Let me explain to you why hot is superior to cold. First of all, this is from a military perspective So no, you cannot just keep putting on layers You have to wear what is effective for you to operate on the mission within the parameters that you're deployed under So for example when I was in Afghanistan the very first mission that I went out on we left at 3 o'clock in the morning In November the end of November 2013 it was freezing cold. So I was wearing a set of long john pants underneath my my trousers We ended up in a troops in contact situation. I took a knee my pants split crotch to ankle and it's because I was wearing that Under layer so those pants are just they were not good enough Anyway, which is lame, but then it limited me from wearing more layers. Now. The heat is Tough it sucks to be out there and burning hot running around Thirsty dehydrated heat casualties happening, but there is one thing you can do in the heat that you just cannot do in the cold And this is why the heat superior you can get wet in the heat. You can dump a bottle of water on your head You're gonna be fine in the cold the same situation. You're gonna die So that's why in the military heat is superior to cold for that one reason you can get wet in the heat and in the cold That's a serious situation. So that's my answer on that and I would love to hear what you guys think about it. Let me know

Christopher Chaos · Answer

Would you rather be freezing or be hot while on duty? I have a much better tolerance for heat than I do cold. I've been deployed to Iraq. There's been times where the temperatures were like upper hundreds degrees. I don't remember exactly, but especially on like windy days, it felt like standing in front of a hairdryer. And I have a better tolerance for heat, even though some people might say that, oh, you can always, you know, add more layers to get warmer. You can only take so much off to get cooler. But the key thing with like me, you know, you're wearing all that gear and everything in the army and you know, you're a hot environment kind of a thing. It's miserable. It sucks maybe, but with the cold, you know, you can put on certain amount of stuff to keep you kind of warm, but the cold brings pain and it's painful being really cold. You're in like Colorado, for example, doing training and you're freezing out there in the snow and everything. And eventually it gets painful. Heat, it just becomes miserable. So I would definitely rather be hot than be cold in the military.

Josh Boguslofski · Answer

So I've done both Afghanistan in the summer, but then also Fort Drum, New York, which is upstate New York, and then J-Bear, Alaska, which is just outside of Anchorage, Alaska, was obviously the cold ones. I would say I prefer the cold. And I just say this because both really suck, but my memories of time spent with, in those moments with those people, it was a lot more fun in the cold than in the heat. And maybe there's a little bit there too with Afghanistan. Granted, I was airborne infantry there as well. So that's a little bit of a different flavor of time during a deployment like that, but definitely the cold, just because of some of the memories I have sharing with people that were cold during training and situations and stuff like that.

Travis Kiser · Answer

So while I was stateside, I was stationed in the Mojave Desert, 29 Palms, California. And it's hot there year round. And there's only so much you can do. You can only take off so many of your clothing items. There's so little shade. There's so little accessible cold drinking water or ways to combat the heat. That I would rather be cold. I can always put on another layer of socks. I can always pack more efficiently for the cold conditions. However, like when I was going to the field in 29, I would need to bring all of my sleeping bags. Sometimes I would just need a blanket and even then I would be sweating through it. And then patrolling, you're patrolling with gear and it's causing you to sweat profusely. I know you do that with the cold, but I'd rather be cold than I would be hot.

Walt McKinley · Answer

I love this question, this had me cracking up. Would you rather be freezing or hot while on duty? Well, I've been both, and so I could speak from the perspective of experience. And 100 times out of 100, I would rather be hot. Like, you could take a jacket off, you could still be sweaty, you could still be hot and grimy, but there's a whole difference when you're standing out in the rain, on watch, you've got your huge peacoat on, I was in the Navy, you've got your dungarees on, you've got thermals on, and you're still cold because the wind is just piercing through your uniform, even though you have layers on that are meant to keep you warm. And so for me, 100 times out of 100, I would absolutely prefer to be hot, and that's why I retired and moved to Arizona.

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"Would you rather be freezing or be hot while on duty?"