Dan:
>...1st Cavalry Division until last August, and Signal
>units spend a lot of time in the field in tents in some
>nasty weather (If any of you know about Ft. Irwin
>(NTC), near Death Valley, California in January,
>you know what I mean).
FICA is *south* of Death Valley, and at times, hotter. Actually, January
is the nice time of the year at the 'Sandbox.' It has three seasons:
January, February, and Hot....
>We tried a lot of different heaters (The govt issue ones
>are a real pain) and the propane kits with the big radiating
>heads work the best by far. Electric heaters play havoc
>with breakers (maybe not a problem on a residential
>system) and really don't cut it at all.
Same things we used, provided that the any one of the several CO's in the
chain didn't get a hair up his wazoo about the "potential hazard"
presented by using them. As you noted, when the big propane heaters are
used, they provide more heat, less fumes, are easier to set up and run,
and IMHO, present less hazard. To quote you: "WARNING: make VERY sure
you have PROPER VENTILATION!"
One unit I am aware of at the NTC uses several PVC tarps to form a shell
around the inside of their GP Medium, and rig one across the ceiling.
This provides a couple of inches of dead air to help insulate the tent.
They do *not* use the diesel field stoves with the chimneys that exit
thru the roof ; just a propane heater. Of course, we never worried about
catching anything on fire from contact with the ground as it is nothing
but rocks and sand -- just marked out a safe area around the heater.
In the home garage, we just ran an extra natural gas line ($30) from the
house, and installed an overhead furnace (got it at an auction for $20)
with a plain label thermostat ($10). I can work out there in the dead of
an Iowa winter, five degree weather, in a t-shirt and jeans, and only put
on a sweatshirt if I'm going to be under the car for longer than 15
minutes....
To provide mandatory LBC content, when I was at Fort Irwin, the local
Foster's Freeze in Barstow had cruise nights on Friday's. I would
occasionally go there, grab a greasy triple-cheeseburger and large fries,
and drool (figuratively) over some of the finer cars, in particular, a
superb '59 MGA. Of course, as a member of the Krasnovian Forces 32d
Guards MRD (11th ACR; formerly 177th AB) I only got time off when we
weren't kicking BluFor's woodland camouflage butt all over the Valley of
Death or Chinaman's Hat.
Rich
(a former OpFor TNG NCO who still chuckles over Rotation 94-07 "Operation
Desert Hammer")
'79 Midget "Miss Molly"
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