Some Observations on Men Sitting Quietly in Extreme Cold

Military operations in cold weather naturally pose many problems. One of the most important is related to immobilization of men for long pe- riods of time, preventing them from indulging in even the smallest movements from fear of having their presence detected. The experimental work being reported is concerned with the reactions of soldiers sitting quietly for periods of 2 to 3 hours in environmental temperatures ranging from 10 to -400 C. METHODS Forty-five young men in excellent physical condition served as subjects for a total of 430 tests. The largest number of exposures for a single individual was 35. Two to 5 tests were performed on each subject in a single en- vironment. One group of 5 subjects was exposed to all environments, with the exception of 1.10 C. The average characteristics of the entire group were as follows: Age, 20.5 years; height, 67.6 inches; weight, 149 pounds; and surface area, 1.79 sq. M.