Dang they got holoscreens on every station, I also like how they placed the commander right be hind the driver.
I have to hand it to this series it reminds me of tactics that drill instructors have used on recruits as well as offering some nefarious ideas of their own or simply ones I have yet to see. It’s oddly delightful how it maintains it’s place within the military genre by going into some places most military shows don’t go. Not for Sora no Woto the well trodden path of battlefield angst and cool explosions, but the seldom talked of realm of barracks pranks and comings and goings of garrison life. Nice to see that they have a hot weather uniform I wish I could wear shorts in theater and still be in uniform, I have to say I am quite jealous and I bet any poor foot slogger that has to wear full fatigues and battle rattle is too. I have to commend the 1121st on still conducting battle drills in what is now nothing more than a glorified simulator, stranger still is that they seem to have a very clear idea of how it should work despite the fact that Takemikazuchi has been in pieces for some time. I have no idea why a Major would be taxiing around E-1s, but maybe he just likes to ride. The mailbag portion was a nice way of giving a little hint on the families of Kanata, Noel, Rio, and it’s absence hints a lot at why Kureha is the way she is. You’d be surprised at how much letters from home mattered and even with globalization snail mailed care packages are still valued by those far from home or relatives. Kanata has a loving mother, Noel probably got all her know how from the Professor, Rio’s dad is actually taking the time and effort to write despite Rio’s refusal to respond, and Kureha has no mail… The last one is significant since it shows that Kureha either has no parents or is deeper into estrangement territory than Rio who still has a dad that is at least willing to talk.
Kureha seems to be in a hero worship phase in her life though the thought of her having the hots for Claus is rather unsettling… It could be that in this decimated society it’s perfectly fine but maybe Kureha simply needed some one to see as a hero in her youth and Claus certainly fits the bill. I have to wonder what kind of tank Claus crossed the desert in but given the rarity of Zero Type tanks he probably got nice and roasted in a circa 1940s design AFV. Given how they are writing in French having a stockpile of wine isn’t too shocking though it seems that they lack older bottles. My current AORs are for the most part dry when it comes to booze so I am not sure how other militaries do it but as part of one that gives no liquor ration I am a bit envious. Liquor can cause problems but the lack of liquor also leads to creative use of boredom in similarly adverse ways. It was rather sneaky of Felicia to roll up a land navigation exercise, and a maintenance check, into a Hell Day. I mentioned before how they packed like Air Force, but if you have to walk for any significant distance you are going to learn how to pack light. Here they found out how bad it could be though hopefully the point of the lesson was to pack light when you can. Rio’s method for getting up was the same one I used when I sat at an odd angle with full battle gear and a 5.11 Rush 72 on my back, you might laugh but those who are in the know can tell you how heavy the stuff can be. Unfortunately for Kanata, Kureha, and Noel their ruck sacks they don’t have a integrated camelbak hydration or a waist belt to lighten the load a bit. The closest I got was using an over packed ALICE and I hated that thing since the frame added plenty of weight itself. While for the US military at least there has been a concentrated effort to lighten combat loads it’s still pretty heavy, for them it must have been brutal as a kid having to carry 85 lbs. minimum and probably more since their technology is no where near as good as the stuff I have on hand. Their situation was grossly exaggerated but I am sure those who have had to do a long military march could empathize with their situation. It’s not so bad these days with the restrictions on hazing but it is still tough.
Their depiction of the standard lensatic compass I use was pretty faithful though it seems that map making has declined sharply judging by he quality of the map since there was no declination diagram. Kureha complaining for most of the march was annoying but I think every unit has THAT guy who runs his/her mouth with an endless stream of complaints during a long march. Oddly enough I prefer having more people during a long march since it’s more fun to pass time, during a training march as it helps to avoid thinking about how heavy your gear is when you can chant jodies and get to a part where the detachment forgets how it goes. I am not sure if the whole playing in the river thing was simply idealized or intentionally disturbing since there was minimal life in that stream. I guess ecological recovery hasn’t occurred yet but being a microbiology major I have qualms about drinking straight from a stream, though if you need water…such considerations fall to the wayside usually. Even if they had an ideal adventure with the stream it was good to see them punished for not leaving bag watch and in Kureha’s case a weapons watch, it was rather true to life that Rio saw it and decided to mess up their gear and make off with the compass. As for the observation posts they are very advanced to be true but I wonder what powers them and if they still have access to all the data that those posts are sending back. Even if this is near No Man’s Land it is rather true of a DMZ to get overgrown and have more wildlife than one would expect since humans would avoid such places or be barred from them as in the case of the Korean DMZ. It is a beautiful landscape whose beauty is marred by the ruins and desert that mark the start of No Man’s Land. What ever was the cause of the great catastrophe it seems that is was significant enough to reduce a major city to a sterile desert, and given how you still have big tall chunks it might not have been nuclear. I wonder if those observations posts were put up before or after the calamity. Certainly being short and stout would have helped as opposed to the tall skyscrapers and offices. The graffiti on the last observation post was a nice touch as there are cases of “Kilroy Was Here” in odd places. Seeing as how Felicia’s name was on there it seems that duty in the 1121st was rotational and that she and Rio might get rotated out later on if nothing serious happens, though with the rather ominous “end of the world” remark, which aptly cuts both ways, we might get some heavy action later. As idealized as the setting is at times I find myself wishing I had a hot bath at the end of a long march since the best I got was a shower, with hot water being an on and off thing in some cases. At any rate it was good to see Rio showing them how it was done and motivating them to push off. Her drill instructor behavior is fairly faithful with her stalking them to see if they were going to goof off while on their own. I only wished the occasional carrots I got amounted to more than extra minutes in the showers.
As a poor bastard who has mucked around for five years I hope they have good boots and I think every foot person can vouch for how your boots are one of the more important pieces of gear you can buy yourself. I was able to finally afford Danner and I have to say, it’s wonderful to not have to really break in a TFX or Acadia, it’s much better than the standard issue boots I got back in 2004.
Rio I know your a tough lady, but wear your helmet next time…
Hey another tea loving tactician…
You don’t get out a lot do you Kanata?
…well at least it didn’t involve mashing fruit.
If only every unit had a liquor cabinet..
At least Rio’s dad is consistent.
At least it’s in a bottle and not a box…
This is why boring is good…
I wonder what this use to be.
Wait Private Major weren’t you the one who was demanding a real mission…?
Well there is still merit in making sure they are still operating.
Seems Private Major has brought on the wrath of the Sergeant Major…
That’s harsh…
I can see why she is still an E-3…
You were saying Kureha?
I don’t blame Kanata I would have done the same…
Look at it this way Noel it’s not as heavy as a rifle.
you just had to be THAT guy didn’t ya Kureha…
I am surprised she can still climb a wall with that pack.
That is a pretty DMZ.
Well this sort of explains why they seem to be so under manned…
I wonder what it was that cut those rocks clean off at the top.
Indeed and if you keep complaining so will Noel and Kanata.
My thoughts exactly…
Private Major’s whining is enough to drive Kanata MAD…
I have never seen a river like that shallow and blue…
…
And that is why Noel outranks you.
Rio heard the whole thing…
…and now you’re going to pay.
No way that was aboar, though I have to say how much I admire Rio’s handiwork…
So use GPS…
I’d LOL if that mountain was named Currahee and that was three miles up and three miles down…
Grab a Snickers.
Sweet and Sour berries…goes great with pork right?
I doubt it was by choice Kureha…
And you should have been on watch…
Actually it was Rio but none of you checked your six so you didn’t notice…
Better than the one with a persecution complex and can’t stop complaining…
Rio wasn’t mean enough to grab the rifle…
….
The end of the world eh? Guess it’s a small world after all…
Must have been some weapon or calamity, it’s sterile…
I wonder if looters picked it clean.
I assume that there was a regular rotation, otherwise I am surprised Felicia and Rio don’t have PTSD.
It’s rather chilling it has a double meaning…
If you saw a typical squad bay shower you’d be jealous too…
It would have been awesome if she killed the boar and roasted it.
Judging by the lack of dead pig I guess it was a draw.
They say hunger is the best spice, after hearing a guy call a Hooah! bar tasty I am inclined to agree.
Seems Felicia learned to keep her glasses on her person.
I guess Kureha is dumber than I thought she had to romanize her name…
28 Comments
Needs more Ramirez.
RAMIREZ!!! TAKE OUT THAT ENEMY MECHA WITH YOUR SMOKE GRENADE!!! LOLOLOL…
We are oscar mike…
@Crusader: Looks quite good, having them go on a training yomp. At least none of them was inflicted with an MG or an 84mm Charlie-G, although I’d be worried about Kanata and Noel’s relative lack of firepower (for a mechanic, I’ve carried both a SAW and a M16/M203, but never anything like a pistol or a SMG). Their tropical garrison uniforms look pretty cute compared to their usual fatigues, although it’s probably the extra skin… A less charitable NCO might have just taken Kureha’s rifle and replaced it with a mortar instead.
As for booze, I’d suppose there are no Italians where you are, so I’d guess there’s not much you can do about it. You guys have it lucky that you can choose your own boots, I’d suppose only the HSLD outfits in our forces get to buy their own (Oakleys or otherwise), the rest of us can only choose between a cheap, made in PRC type and an expensive Goretex boot which wipes out our biannually allocated individual gear budget. Woe betide the guy who gets caught by a RSM while wearing a non-approved type…
For individual rigs, my unit is still using an Israeli-type harness which is pretty good for our climate, the newer load bearing vest is rather “love it or hate it” with most of the younger guys I know, and we might be switching to (much heavier) plate carriers in the near future.
Looks like some kind of WMD was used in the war, either it was long ago enough that they don’t have to worry about contamination or they used some kind of short lived chemical or biological device (which could explain why there are no dolphins anymore).
Standard load out as far as vehicle crews go is M-4 and M-16 only certain crew positions get pistols, Rank has it’s privileges and I don’t blame Noel for just going with a pistol.
LOL a mortar that would have been borderline cruel and unusual punishment. I just go with 5.11 slick click pouches on the armor. It sucks that you have a limited selection to choose from here so long as it’s the right color it’s usually fine since no one really looks that closely and standard issue boots are hardly the best. I hated ALICE and MOLLE is better in most respects but even with the weight reduction of armor plates and kevlar…we usually end up carrying more of it. Most things I see now have a waist strap to help lighten the load off the shoulders so it helps.
Maybe they simply don’t know if the place is contaminated…
Errr.. is that Kanata’s name writtten in Kanji in the last pic??? I thought she couldn’t read “Japanese” (from the 1st ep, if I’m not mistaken). Or did I miss something???
Kanata writing it does not mean she can read it. Who knows maybe the type of kanji is too hard for her. Nihongo could what Latin is today, a language not used everyday that scholars are the die hards for it.
Latin spoken during mass was prerequisite for Catholics in the old days but not anymore. Vatican II reforms changed that. Traditionalists may not like it but it makes sense to speak in the local language or at least the lingua fraca for people to understand.
For that matter I like Noel. She may not be an extrovert but she’s still human. Makes me wonder if the Professor is boyfriend. Speaking of boyfriends Kureha having a crush on Klaus and wanting to be babied by Rio speaks of an Electra Complex of a sort. Could be she didn’t have parents and seeking such traits in a mate. If those soldiers with Kanata in episode one on the train talking about booze and getting laid is anything to go by the world has a few good men or eligible bachelors. Too few considering the depopulation issue. According to some studies younger women prefer older men and vice versa cause it is a species survival evolutionary trait. Older men are likely stable partner and provider. Younger women are more fertile and produce more children.
Even if there wasn’t a gender skew in the population the military usually has a higher proportion of males. The lack of women, or more particularly good looking women causes no shortage of exasperation. Not sure what Kureha’s deal is but if Claus reciprocates…well I would not be surprised if his tank was Red and moved three times faster…
The other side of the marry women while young is basically to keep population growth in a world where medical technology sucks and infant mortality and disease in general run rampant.
To be literate you have to know a certain number of characters, and Noel doesn’t seem to know enough to read. It could be like how ReddyRedWolf put it in that people can write it, but no longer really understand it.
Lol, I loved it when the hunter became the hunted.
If only Rio actually killed the board for dinner…
Rio definitely would need her helmet and whatever else she could get hanging out of the tank hatch like that. Reading about the Yom Kippur war at the moment and I’m noticing how many tank commanders ended up killed or wounded because they were standing in the open hatch directing their crew.
As for alcohol, French MREs have a portion of wine from what I’ve heard, and I wonder if some other countries (Italy was mentioned above) have similar rations in the 21st century.
Kanata’s name is written there in kanji, but it has been stated that the current population doesn’t know the language anymore. Kanata may be an exception though, she used a hanko stamp to sign her signature for the mail, in contrast to Felicia who wrote her name in cursive. Kanata has also talked about/made Japanese food in the previous episode. Maybe Kanata’s village is one place that does still use the language/knows the culture?
Prior to 1973 the Arabs weren’t big on snipers or artillery, after 1967 they changed tactics while the Israelis were caught by surprise, given the high intensity of the combat there wasn’t much time to start handing out helmets as the IDF rushed every available trooper to the front. From what I have read IDF logistics should not keep up with the high expenditure of ammunition and that they lacked fork lifts and trucks and had to resort to using jeeps to rush tank rounds to combat zones.
I don’t get a liquor ration and I’ll be lucky to be able to “acquire” such MREs…
What really makes the training simulation jarring is that even as they use lostech computers to run the exercise, their signalling system is almost medieval (a trumpet).
I’d be really depressed if after all those generations of girls at the fortress heading off to check on those early warning systems, the series’ equivalent of the Clans or the Enclave comes pouring through No Man’s Land with thousands of mecha and armored infantry…
Or maybe it will be an irradiated Zombe invasion…
@Kherubim “their signalling system is almost medieval (a trumpet).”
I thought bugles were still used for signaling in close quarters during WW 1. I mean they had brass instruments in the Middle Ages, but weren’t they still actively used as late as the early 20th century?
Yup, radio didn’t take off until the beginning of the last century, anything before that relied on musical instruments (horns, trumpets, bugles, drums, whatever) or fires… What I meant was that they have computers on a (legless) mecha, motorcycles and telephones, but they don’t have a radio, probably because there’s no one else on the other side who can receive the transmissions, hence the method used which dates back to the Middle Ages…
One thing I continue to love about Sora no Woto is it’s pretty accurate military portrayal. I sure felt sorry for Kanata, Kureha, and Noel when it came to those packs; when I was in my prime as a grunt I weighed about 190 and those 80-100 lbs combat load packs kicked my ass so I can really feel the pain those packs would inflict on those girls who can’t weigh more than 90 Lbs.
As for Claus and his rides; when I was an operation Sargent (SFC), me and my Colonel would drive around doing shit and just hanging out at subordinate units just because we liked getting away from the staff office.
Watching Kureha crushing on Claus didn’t really bother me in Sora no Woto’s world context; as Rio stated in an earlier episode Kanata is an adult, so clearly Kanata and Kureha are considered adults. Plus, there might not be a lot of single guys Kureha’s age because of the war, so Claus might be prime material. From what we’ve seen of the town it doesn’t look like there’s a lot of choices in Kureha’s age range, and since Kureha seems to love the military I don’t think she’d consider one of those brats who we’ve seen running around the town.
Remember, “pack light and freeze at night”, and “if privates ain’t complaining it ain’t training”.
Well that is one way to get out of the office and certainly it beats paper work. Well I guess Claus is better than that Kid Kaifun…
After a certain point you either get use to the weather of get an idea of where your tolerances are, then there are those guys who just have to bring snacks…
As for complaints, what you say is true, but even so, there does come a point where it’s just doesn’t help those around the complainer. I have to drag around privates and don’t get to simply observe…
So I guess Sora no Woto is what the military would be like if everyone was cute girls instead of ugly men?
That actually is an interesting thought. What would the military be like, and how would it be different if the only people allowed to join were women, and they had to pass a test of attractiveness instead of the ASVAB?
The truth is what is portrayed here isn’t that far off the mark when it comes to reality, in that regard Sora no Woto is much more hard military than most shows that fall under the military genre. I think you subscribe too much to the Hollywood portrayal of military life as a microcosm of DRAMA and anti-war sentiment a la Platoon and Blackhawk Down.
Also what you describe is fairly close to what most military folk refer to as the USAF, the ASVAB only determines what occupational specialties you can enlist for, and there are instances of scores being waived. I am not sure about how the Air Force operates on a daily basis, but the perception is that all the pretty people are there and they are real big on comfort and that they should change their motto to “A Life of Luxury” since they have better funding per serviceman/servicewoman. Heck their rear service and admin people had holographic sights while my ass that stands watch on an ECP has to make do with iron sights…just some food for thought. Pretty people join all the time, only they seem to prefer the Air Force and are distributed across the world. They tend to congregate at the gym because looking good requires exercise.
Sora no Woto is not misleading or overly idealized, it is more realistic to those who actually serve because it doesn’t conform to the Hollywood depiction that people expected, hence the label of K-On clone stuck pretty fast, largely due to ignorance on the matter.
Hey, look, I don’t know as much of the military as you do, but I DO know that most of military life consists of waiting and following orders. I don’t know if MEPS is a good example of military life, but I DO know that it is about as drama-filled as waiting in line for a physical- on four hours of sleep. BECAUSE Hollywood dramatizes the military, I suspect actual military life is boring the majority of the time, because Hollywood tends to get things wrong. I’ve read enough to have some clue of what military life is like. For example, today I spent hours digging a car out of the snow. By the end my shoes were wet and I was cold and tired. And I wondered what it would be like to fight a battle in such conditions- week in, week out. From what I’ve read the conditions in the Russian front in WWII were a lot like that, except colder. So was Korea, apparently. Personally, I’m surprised the girls in this episode jumped into the cold water with their clothes on, prior to climbing a tall mountain. They must live in a pretty hot area because from experience I’ve noticed that going to cold places with wet clothes is not a good idea.
You’re making a lot of assumptions in your last comment that are not entirely correct. You’re forgiven, because you thought I insulted you by calling you an ugly bastard. Take it as a compliment, because it was meant to be one. But before you assume someone is a lazy fatass or a Hollywood liberal, meet that person first and take him to a gym before coming to that conclusion. Ironically I had someone accuse me of being a military nut-case about a year ago.
And my earlier question was serious. What would happen if you had an army of 16-year old girls instead of an army of 18-25 year old men? How would the military be different? What would change and what would remain the same? Or would this scenario be so different from reality that it would be moot? Any thoughts?
Depending on you MOS it’s not just waiting around, if they see you just sitting there you will get tasked, the only long period of waiting you will see are for Air Force flights, and Medical. MEPS is only a one time deal after that it’s rather unusual. It is boring in that you fall into a routine and you learn to love it over the years since when things aren’t routine usually means something has gone to shit.
The weather was implied to be hot since you could see water evaporating off the ground, I don’t blame them for heading towards water like a bunch of excitable junior enlisted, it’s not out of character since they haven’t learned the hard way yet. Digging by yourself is tough, but standard procedure is that you are not to be left alone and you have a battle buddy, depending on him/her and your personal quirks having some one complain about having to dig might make things even more miserable. Moreover when you have more people you have more nice ideas, in the case of digging the car out of snow, if it were up to a bunch of military junior enlisted someone might try fire, a heat source, or salt first before resorting to digging with an e-tool because we are by nature lazy and are always encouraged to work smarter not harder. This may or may not mean more work…
Sorry for making assumptions, but as to your question. I think you underestimate how childish people can be, just because your youngest Private is 18 doesn’t mean they are much better than a 16 year old. Even if a woman was calling the shots not much would change, I have had to work under male and female officers and there isn’t that much of a difference from what I have seen. At their level it’s not going to make a huge deal so long as the standards expected are generally the same which they seem to be. If you have a 16 year old General leading an army things might change drastically, though there are instances of brilliant teenagers leading armies. Alexander the Great and Charles XII of Sweden being some examples. Given how Kureha is expected to act like an adult her behavior is not that different from an 18-20 year old Private Major.
There is more to it than just age if the 16 year old kids are treated like kids they will behave as such, if they are considered adults they will probably act like adults or be forced to mature as circumstances dictate. Considering how women have shown an aptitude for battle in conflicts I doubt much would change they are still human and subject to the same foibles of men. Just because they are women doesn’t mean they lack the capacity to perpetrate the ills of war. I have two female subordinates one who is a cop in real life and another who is prior Air Force and going to school, while both are older than me they can be petty and immature at times. The same can be said of the excitable 18 year olds I give tasking to.
In short not much would really change people will always be people just because one might get a bunch of 16 year old girls doesn’t mean that they perform any worse or better than 18 year old dudes. Even if you mix there’s not that much of a difference, the same set of standards usually means for the most part a universal set of skills, application of skills simply varies from person to person there is no ideal profile that I have encountered. Just my 2 cents.
And Sora no Woto is idealized, no matter what you may say. What happened to the bureaucracy and the paperwork? When were officers ever this nice to their men? When were men ever this nice to their officers? Why were the girls not reprimanded for abandoning their packs? Did any of these girls go to basic training prior to joining their unit? Do you think they’ll be able to follow orders under stressful conditions? Why hasn’t anyone insulted anyone yet? Why did their commanders place their unit in the front lines, next to the DMZ? Isn’t it standard operating principle to put the more reliable units in the front lines and the less reliable units as reserve? During the Cold War,wasn’t the units placed in West Germany among the best that the US military had to offer?
Sora no Woto does many things right, but it fails abysmally in catching the military psychology. And the military psychology is shaped, to a large extent, by MALE psychology. I noticed that most of the cast of Sora no Woto are females. So yes, this show is an idealization. But it’s an interesting one, nonetheless. What would the military be like if it was staffed mostly by attractive females?
I have seen units that were on their own get really lax, and the 1121st suffers from minimal oversight, being part of a stripped down military force the bureaucracy is probably minimal since cost considerations led to a drastic reduction of Reichswehr staff workers. Also this is not a democracy and they probably have less to worry about when it comes to using tax payer money. They don’t seem to be in a cold war and have a standing truce with a massive demobilization that followed. They aren’t on a wartime footing and have more in common with the US Army prior to 1940. For losing your pack you usually get a menial task the following day they don’t do NJP unless it is a serious transgression, had Kureha left her rifle behind her ass would have been kicked HARD. I have had people lose crap all the time unless it is really expensive or a weapon it’s not a serious matter, habitual loss is something else though. They completed the march so they survived the stress, and they were punished by having no food during the march so the was I see it they were punished for leaving their packs and survived a high stress training environment. Unless they start shooting for reals we won’t know if they will survive combat.
They probably did minimal basic and are now doing unit specific training. In Boot Camp they are there to weed people out, class room is more focused on learning history of the the branch, ranks, ceremonies, small arms, and physical fitness. Physical fitness can be relaxed depending on the number of enlistments. You learn more specific things in detail when you get to a unit. When I went to basic using a sea chart was not required since not everyone needed to know how to use a sea chart.
In a small unit you there is a lesser chance of forming cliques they have the same job and have to doe the same things I’d be surprised if they hated eachother and broadcast-ed it. It happens IRL but you usually keep it to yourself . I am nice to my officers so long as they don’t give me something truly awful to do. In this day and age officer are encouraged to not point to their rank as a means to get people to do things, so some officers are genuinely nice, they aren’t all Colonel Klink. Also Felicia was probably OCS from the enlisted so she gets more respect as a result instead of some butter bar right out of the academy. I know for a fact that not every unit in West Germany was elite, I know a few old timers from those times who had stories of how they got horribly wasted when bored and their less than elite antics while stationed there.
Again the army led by pretty women would have minimal impact as long as standards remained in place, just because they are pretty doesn’t mean men will leap at the idea of running smack into a machine gun for them. Just because it’s shaped by male psychology in your view doesn’t mean they can’t adapt to it. Fundamentally an army is a mass of people required to obey one person, I don’t think that it is fundamentally male to obey orders. A change in wording might take place but you’d still have to march here and there and kill stuff. Here I think military reality would trump gender roles. You’d still have orders, a chain of command, and regs if you plan on fighting conventionally and winning.
What I really find impressive is that Studio A-1 managed to get so many things right about the S.S.D.D. about military life, especially when post-WWII Japan is mostly pacifistic and even the JGSDF isn’t considered an army in the sense most militaries are. Refreshing after the screwy hyperbole from quasi-political fillibusters by Mamoru Oshii and Hideo Kojima.
I would think that Felicia is a bit too nice for a platoon leader, but Rio makes up for it by trying to be a disciplinarian at times. Perhaps the two older girls approach of playing oneesama/mother/teacher might work with a small group of girls. Having encountered commanders of the “Capt. America” type (yes, even in a logs unit), I would appreciate this type of handsoff approach as long as the commanders knew what they were doing and not micromanaging the guys (or girls in this case)…
Back on topic, yes… AF ladies… pretty pretty…
Well, I don’t know too much about military life, but I have done a fair bit of hiking while I was in Boy Scouts. That pretty meadow they were hiking through? Probably miserably humid. Then they go and get their (likely cotton) clothes wet before heading out for more hiking. I really can’t complain about the packs themselves, as they probably don’t have frame packs, and it’s training anyways (‘pack light’ doesn’t apply).
I wonder if there’re any spare parts for the tank lying around in that wasteland?