 Hey everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and here we are with a video of winter time considerations for your Minuteman gear. I am originally from Minnesota. I lived in Minnesota for a very long time, and so if there's anything some people in Minnesota know, it's how to deal with cold. So that's my qualification for making this video. When it comes to tactical operations in the winter, I think there are two considerations that I can think of off hand. There are probably more, but at least two that I can think of that you need to deal with. The first one is you need to not freeze to death, right? So you know, in your bag, you need to have room to pack extra winter gear. So you need to have stuff like a fleece, right, and a watch cap, and you'll want to wear long underwear. You'll want to have some decent pair of thick socks on, which I don't have on the table here. You want a good pair of winter boots, which I don't, I have several winter boots, but I don't have any ones that I really want to trunch around in for hours right now. So that's something I still need to add here, but you're going to want those things so you don't freeze to death, right? That's your first consideration. On super cold days, right? I've been out when it's 20 plus below out. You're going to want to double layer your gloves, right? So you want to be able to have a lighter pair of gloves that you can shoot, manipulate guns with, do tactical stuff, and then like a good heavy overmitten, right? For those super cold days, like I said, when it's like 20 below out and you don't need to necessarily pull the trigger right now, but you need to move around and whatever, you need a good pair of gloves, right? Now, these aren't tactically colored. We'll get to that. But again, first consideration is to not freeze to death. That's the most important thing because the cold will get you before the bad guys will. That's where things like baklava's can come in handy, right? Again, this one's black. I got a white one that I'm probably going to order, but things like that to not freeze to death because that's a priority here. When it comes to sleeping, a bivvy bag, this is just an old USB-I bivvy bag, is going to do wonders. You know, these are made out of Gore-Tex, so they're waterproof. They do a very good job of trapping heat in you. They do a very good job of trapping heat inside as well as preventing moisture from getting inside the bag, right? From like melted snow and stuff like that. So you're going to definitely need some kind of additional thing for your sleeping bag or something like that. So again, you don't freeze to death because remember, you can't necessarily just build a fire. If you're out doing goon stuff, building a fire is rarely an option for you when you're out in the rural environment, right? Because fires give signals that, hey, we're here, and then there's smoke and there's light and there's all kinds of problems. So you need to bring the warmth with you. That's where something like that could be super, super helpful to have a comfortable night's sleep. Again, little like pocket warmers, little hand warmers. I'm sure you've seen those. Like hunters will wear them, they'll put them in their pockets. Having several of those in your bag is going to do wonders. I have several in my truck that I just leave in their year-round for when I'm out when it's colder. But putting a couple of those in your pockets is going to help you stay warm. Your coat pockets and your pants pockets. Again, you're going to want to wear long underwear and thick socks and stuff like that to keep yourself warm because the cold becomes the greatest enemy. And if you're from the south, if you're south of that Mason-Dixon line, let me just tell you, you don't know what cold is. Once you get into the north and you start, you know, seeing two, three, four, five weeks of below zero degrees Fahrenheit temperatures just straight the whole time, then you start to have a better understanding of what cold is. And being able to operate in such an environment like that has a lot of special considerations, namely, not freezing to death. So that's that. I think I've belabored that point enough. The second consideration is then having some kind of tactical coloring, right? So this is a white multi-cam helmet cover that I'm going to put on my helmet here once the snow starts falling. A white hat, a white cap. Yes, that would work as far as camouflage goes, but I'm trying to maintain my ballistic protection. So I'll have some kind of white helmet cover that I'll throw on my helmet here. The other thing, and this is just an example, but having some kind of white cover all, right? So this is like a white with a little tree thing. I think I bought this at a hardware store. But this is not a thick material at all, okay? It's a super thin material and it's just designed to throw over your coat. So it doesn't matter what color your coat is or your other winter gear, you can just throw this over it and then you're going to have some degree of camouflage. Your webbing, which is most likely not camouflage for the winter, you can just then throw over this. Yes, you're going to lose your camouflage, but at least it's something. And if you want to have a separate set of white tactical gear that you run, that's totally cool. Knock yourself out. But that's definitely some kind of consideration. The other consideration would be something with your gun itself. Getting some kind of white tape or white wrap to wrap up parts of your gun or tape parts of your gun. If you want to go all in, you could just paint your gun white. But again, then you got the other consideration that comes back to not being winter and depending on where you live, the winter season is likely shorter than the other seasons, so it's probably not the best move for you. So those are some considerations I think. Again, I don't think this is an exhaustive list. I think this is just some things to get you started thinking about what are gear considerations I need to make in my individual kit for the winter time. And let me tell you right now, the first one is don't freeze to death. So cover that one first, then go out and just get yourself some kind of winter cover all that you can throw over your uniform. Put your webbing on top of that, maybe get a white pack cover and you're going to be pretty good to go. But just start thinking about as winter approaches here, what are considerations I need to make in my kit? What do I need to throw in my pack so that I have it in there right now to keep my kit in a constant state of readiness? I hope that's helpful. I hope that sparks some thoughts. Let me know if I missed anything major. Do brave deeds and endure.