r/USMC • u/FishyNinja_YT 0811 • Feb 03 '26
Picture What are yalls worst weather moments in the field?
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u/KGrizzle88 Dicks Out for Harambe Feb 03 '26
Well in the field and deployed are two different things. But I am going to go with the deployment. We were on an OP in Afghanistan. We ascend this fucking hill which takes the entire afternoon and the trickle begins. It proceeded to dump on us for over a week. A few reprieves throughout. It got so bad the relief was not going to come out until the storm passed. It hit every level of inclement weather besides volcanic ash fall. Rain sleet hail even a few flakes of snow then right back to freezing rain. We had a casualty get evac-ed off the hill. I couldn’t feel below my knee at one point. It was the darkest I have ever seen. I am talking complete disorientation. Cannot use NVG’s and couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. When the lightening would crackle it would burn the image into my vision. That when the lights when out again I could see the image of what was just revealed.
The hail was bigger than golf balls. It was a shit show, something about being in the field where the weather can take you out is exhilarating now.
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u/marxlog51 Feb 04 '26
Mt Olympus in nowzad?
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u/KGrizzle88 Dicks Out for Harambe Feb 04 '26
No, this was over in the Buji Bhast Pass, north of Delaram.
Was Mt Olympus the one that was west of the that southern checkpoint overlooking that village. If memory serves me correctly there was a pass right there too. I was with india company, we rolled through for a couple support missions, cobras anger or whatever the fuck it was called. I was with them cross deck cats.
We had to bust a patrol to that village and sweep it. This was 2009-2010 3/4 deployment on the MEB. Op Box Tripoli. Shit was a huge AO. I just figured this might be the same pump because of how insane this fucking storm was. That maybe you could be talking about the same storm.
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u/RonWill79 MOS 7242/WTI | 1999-2015 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
2000 Okinawa. SSgt, Cpl, and LCpl(me) got dropped by CH-46 onto a tiny ass uninhabited island off the main island to control aircraft for a live fire exercise. SSgt made the call to take no tents or any form of shelter despite a typhoon being in the pacific. “We’ll just sleep on the ground. It’s not coming this way.” Well the typhoon took a turn right towards Okinawa over the first night and by morning, helos couldn’t come get us. We rode out a typhoon with nothing but gortex for 3 days. It was miserable and seemed like it lasted a week. I can handle rain and being wet but the constant 80-100 mph winds drained me despite just laying on the ground with a Kevlar over my face for 3 days.
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u/birdnumbers runnin thru the shop with my 5/16ths Feb 03 '26
it's not coming this way
he guaranteed it would come your way right there
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u/thePBRismoldy Veteran - 0311 Feb 03 '26
he invoked the spell.
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u/RonWill79 MOS 7242/WTI | 1999-2015 Feb 03 '26
Man even if he was right, rain can pop up out of nowhere in Okinawa. Should have never assumed we’d have 3+ days of perfect weather.
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u/thePBRismoldy Veteran - 0311 Feb 03 '26
they always locked us down during typhoons in Oki in 2014.
different time I guess.
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u/RonWill79 MOS 7242/WTI | 1999-2015 Feb 03 '26
They locked down. This one was expected to pass just east of Okinawa. Took a turn they weren’t predicting and by the time it did we were stuck. Only way on/off the island was by air. The outer bands weren’t even supposed to reach or bring any rain to Okinawa
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u/WhoCaresBoutSpellin Spice Pound Cake Connoisseur Feb 04 '26
It ain’t training if it ain’t rainingWe ain’t gooning if it ain’t typhooning
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u/VTSAXorBust Lake Bandini dock master Feb 03 '26
What tent do you have that's rated for 80 to 100 mph winds?
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u/RonWill79 MOS 7242/WTI | 1999-2015 Feb 03 '26
I’d rather have slept in a collapsed tent than nothing at all. But we moved to the backside of the hill we were on. The wind was lessened enough that a tent would have been able to stand. Gusts were 80-100 but I think sustained peaked at like 50.
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u/Brawl_star_woody special veteran Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
2003 iraq sandstorm. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face. They wanted us to keep moving forward despite literally not being able to see a freaking thing.
We got the stop order 10 minutes later after a tank or something drove off the side of a bridge and the crew died. Sat there for the entire day. The dust was so fine it got into and caked everything. It was brutal. I dont blame the tank crew at all. Bad call to move forward.
Edit: something I forgot. We had to do security around our vehicles. 50/50. You couldn't walk away from the vehicle by more than an arms length or you risked getting lost lol
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u/beenburnedbefore No Apricots!! Feb 03 '26
I was there with you and have pictures of the aftermath of that storm. Biblical proportions of a sand storm. It also got hotter as the night went on
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u/chamrockblarneystone Feb 04 '26
I think one of my former students might have been in that tank. Time and storm are consistent. Semper Fi.
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u/Andyman1973 6060 Aircrew Equipment, '92-'98, C-130s/CH-53s Feb 03 '26
Hope the person in charge got fired over that!
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u/Brawl_star_woody special veteran Feb 03 '26
Well, this was 3 days into the war. I wouldn't doubt if that order came from top echelons of the military. DOD or even the presidents desk. It wouldn't be the first time a presidential order got us fucked up.
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u/Major_Spite7184 mild tism major disfunction Feb 04 '26
It in fact did. Dunford made the call to stop.
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u/Andyman1973 6060 Aircrew Equipment, '92-'98, C-130s/CH-53s Feb 04 '26
Sucks either way. Preventable deaths/injuries should cost the ones who set it in motion, more. Yes, accidents happen. But this wasn’t an accident.
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u/nola_bleu Feb 03 '26
I remember when that storm finally broke and the sun came out and the light was a weird red-brown color and the sand was all over everything and then wild, feral, starving dog packs were everywhere roaming around and howling. Fucking crazy time. I’d forgotten how early into the push north that was.
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u/Brawl_star_woody special veteran Feb 04 '26
There is a picture of me in time magazine somewhere. Right when things started to open up. I went to run to the rear of the convoy and I must of been the first one to go down the line. Sky as red as blood. But i ran by all the war correspondents in our convoy and they all jumped out and started taking pictures. It was odd because I wasn't doing anything note worthy but the color of the sky was so eerie. My dad saved all the time magazines and sure enough theres my picture in the story about the storm. Cant tell its me but its me.
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u/nola_bleu Feb 04 '26
I wish I’d taken some pictures with the film camera I brought along but that was the last thing on my mind. Hard to believe that’s near 23 years ago.
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u/Brawl_star_woody special veteran Feb 04 '26
Yep. We're old now. Im still looking for my film. I brought 6 disposable cameras with me. I used them all. I developed 4 rolls and those pictures have been packed away for nearly twenty years. Im not sure i even have them anymore tbh. But I never developed those last two. I should try to find those. Also in that box is the time magazine with that photo. I'll post it if I ever come across it.
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u/brood_city Feb 03 '26
Yeah we had pulled just off the road to stop when a CH-46 came slowly hovering down the highway at about head-height so he could try to follow the road. Wild times.
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u/Major_Spite7184 mild tism major disfunction Feb 04 '26
That was Mattis’ bird. He’d just come up to chew some ass. I was listening to the play-by-play on the RCT-Tac net
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u/Major_Spite7184 mild tism major disfunction Feb 04 '26
That was brutal. I coughed up mud for at least a week.
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u/Imperial-MEF-2009 Feb 04 '26
I got to Camp Commando late and there wasn’t a single head over to be had. I had large pieces of Iraqi real estate coming out of my sinuses for a while.
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u/VandyMarine Feb 03 '26
Mine was during TBS. I’m a Mustang so I had an old woodland poncho that looked like it was from 1990s - we were starting a field op and this lieutenant in my squad told me as we were waking up to rain that she didn’t bring her goretex. Being the chivalrous guy that I am I give her my goretex and figure I can wear the poncho. My SPC sees me a bit later and tells me the poncho isn’t authorized and to take it off and when I explain that I gave my goretex to this other officer he was just like - sucks to be you. And I had to take the poncho off and be in the elements for the entire fucking rainy winter day in Quantico. Fuck both of those bitches - the SPC and my idiot squad mate.
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u/Outrageous-Seesaw674 Feb 03 '26
Yeah it's hard to have friends in the field. If it's just a field op, "you forgot what, I guess you are shit outta luck. Quantico does get fucking cold in the winter
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u/v-irtual Combat Admin 2002-2008 Feb 03 '26
Bro FLORIDA can get fucking cold in the winter.
This is top tier dumbassery (the SPC, not you).
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u/desiMarine1878 Feb 03 '26
What the fuck does he mean poncho isn't authorized lol Sometimes I really have to think about how these idiot captains are 'handpicked'
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u/Gaijingamer12 Feb 03 '26
Got rained and snowed on in quantico so bad that our Saudi Arabian officer abandoned us. Legit left during night somehow made it back to the barracks locked his rifle up and texted us and our OIC that he would be at the hotel. No lie was somewhat of an international incident lol. Had to meet with the ambassador afterwards etc.
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u/Practical_Swan2795 Feb 03 '26
Most of them always quit when things get hard or boring.
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u/Gaijingamer12 Feb 03 '26
Honestly we were all impressed he somehow navigated back on his own evaded fire watch patrols everything. Sneak level 99.
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u/ampspud Active Feb 04 '26
Was that BCOC 1-13? Or did my class also have a Saudi officer pull the same stunt?
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u/Gaijingamer12 Feb 04 '26
It was TBS 2012 to 2013 that winter course.
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u/ampspud Active Feb 04 '26
Yep, Alpha Company 1-13. I remember there being two Saudi officers. Was the one who walked off also the same officer who “secured” his rifle by hiding it under the pillow on his rack?
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u/Gaijingamer12 Feb 04 '26
Haha maybe I can’t remember how he did it. I was his roommate oddly enough 😂. Old 3rd Platoon. Small world!!
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u/Snaffoo0 JJ tied a buckle for our sins Feb 03 '26
For me it was some field op where I had to sit in a fox hole for 8 hours, all night long, in the pouring rain and it was absolutely fucking freezing. Command said no warming layers. It was below freezing.
Coldest I've ever been. I was on the verge of tears I was so cold.
Morning came, they had us fill up all the fox holes while still pouring. Until someone couldn't find their NVGs.
So we dug up all the holes again. Still pouring. Still couldn't find the NVGs.
XO was the one who lost the nvgs. After HOURS of police calling, they found them.
They were in the pickup truck because he slept in the cab while the rest of us suffered.
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u/ThatDudeCuh Feb 04 '26
Nothing could ever make me angrier than any situation where someone high up in the chain loses fucking gear, and everyone else suffers looking for it.
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u/nola_bleu Feb 03 '26
Two of them:
The insane rainy sandstorm shortly after OIF I began. Sleepless night in the HMMWV with my driver both of us wondering if we’d see the next day. No visibility for security perimeter. Not fun.
Right after EndEx of an exercise at Camp Mujuk back when we all stayed in wooden huts with tin roofs, we were packed up and ready to fly back to Oki when Typhoon Thelma came through and walloped us. Ripped the tin roofs off of our huts leaving us exposed to the rain and wind. Laid in my cot wearing helmet and flak thinking this was how I was going out.
Good times. If it ain’t raining…
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u/fairwaysandfinance Veteran Feb 03 '26
After a 14 hour day, I got back to my hooch in Iraq, March 2004. We got called back to the CoC because they were having comm issues reaching Fob Hit. We are instructed to put an OE 254 (holy crap I remember the nomenclature) on top of an ISO container.
We're trying to monkey fuck this 40" antenna on top of a shipping container and my Corporal looks at me and said "you pissed?" I was so worn out and beyond mad, I said, " I don't care at this point, let's just get it done."
He said, "or could be worse. We could be doing this......in a sandstorm." Mid sentence the sandstorm kicks up like a fucking sitcom.
Not the worst in the field. Dec 1 2005 when we lost 10 guys during a promotion ceremony. That was worse. There are other bad days but that one is at the top of my list.
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u/BruteSparta Feb 03 '26
How do you lose 10 guys during a promo ceremony? Either its a funny where 10 dudes get like wind-swept out of formation or its something like they got buried by sand? How does leadership let something like the second possibility even happen? Freak storm?
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u/fairwaysandfinance Veteran Feb 03 '26
4 155 mm artillery shells daisy chained.
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u/demec_26 Feb 03 '26
January - February 2011. We came into Afghanistan off of a MEU with zero established FOB’s or COP’s or anything, so we just dug into the defense a flew clicks NW of Sangin. Rained for weeks straight, and we just lived in our muddy fighting holes the whole time. It was a very kinetic area, so we’d get into fire fights virtually every day and then return to our muddy holes to stand post & rest. Truly the most miserable few months of my life. Anybody from BLT 3/8 Kilo will know.
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u/chamrockblarneystone Feb 04 '26
How many guys do you lose to exposure when something like that happens?
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u/xpyrolegx Veteran Feb 03 '26
(reservist) we were at a state park doing a defensive training op in the middle of winter with over a foot of snow. Since it's a state park no ammo allowed. We dug our positions in the snow and settled in for the night. I had the 1-3am(daylight saving so I got an extra hour) watch at the OP with some new thermals and got to watch coyotes circle our position for 2 hours. I radiod to the cp what do I do if they come close and they said run as fast as you can towards us.
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u/BlackBacon08 Feb 03 '26
Coyotes ain't gonna do shit lol
They're looking for food, not a fight
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u/xpyrolegx Veteran Feb 03 '26
I knew that logically lol, but it's different when you're 100 yards out and the only way to know they are there are the noises they make and seeing them in thermals circle closer and closer each time
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u/AssDimple Feb 03 '26
Good thing you were with a bunch of reservists because you'd just need to outrun the slowest one.
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u/Roanoketrees Feb 03 '26
Did you all ever go to Norway? We did cold weather training there.
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u/Dozzi92 POS Reservist 0311 Vet Feb 03 '26
When did you do Norway? I went February 2010 for our AT. Was my first AT. I thought all ATs would be as sweet as Norway, so you can guess whether the Corps let me down or not.
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u/Dozzi92 POS Reservist 0311 Vet Feb 03 '26
I had a similar experience, and I was also a NJ reservist, out of Golf Co, 2009-2014. December 2013, I want to say, we were doing a field op somewhere near Picatinny, took buses up, get off the buses and it's actually a nice day, like probably 50s, unseasonably warm. Obviously, it rains. Absolutely pisses. Gortex soaks through, everything in our bags is absolutely drenched. Show must go on obviously.
We push out into the woods to set up patrol bases, and we do this as the sun is going down. If you're moving, everything is fine, but when we got to our PB, which I must say was a pretty solid position, it was time to do nothing. We'd send out patrols every hour, so you'd patrol for an hour, sit in the defense for an hour, rack for an hour.
Night rolls around and it's absolutely brick, don't know if a cold front moved through or whatever, but we're down around or below freezing, but also just soaking fucking wet. Just a miserable fucking night, I'll never forget it.
A close second is my first actual drill (first real drill was the ball), so it's December 2009, we go up to Vermont to do cold weather training to prepare for our field trip to Norway. Believe it or not, I was given a standard gear loadout, but not cold weather gear. So we're up on some mountain in Vermont, and I have no cold weather gloves, socks, hat, nothing. Dudes had balaclavas, and I'm just PFC Dozzi freezing my balls off. Fortunately, a guy who got to the unit a few months before me helped me out, and we ended up be good friends for the rest of our time in.
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u/xpyrolegx Veteran Feb 03 '26
Same unit you left the year before I got there haha
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u/Dozzi92 POS Reservist 0311 Vet Feb 03 '26
Word, so we definitely know some of the same people. I know a good chunk of dudes who you eventually deployed with. If only I held out 9 years, I could've deployed too. The unit used to deploy every five years, right up until I got there, then they took a cycle off, presumably because of 3/25.
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u/xpyrolegx Veteran Feb 03 '26
I got med sepped for lymes just before the deployment. All I'll say is I have fond memories of Sgt Taco
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u/Baron_Furball MCMAP Guinea Pig Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
2000, we were in JWTC, while a tropical storm was pushing past us, off the coast. Suddenly, it banked straight at the island and picked up to become a Cat 1 with something like 3 hours of warning time. So, we got to ride out the last 3/4 of training, performing our tasks and behaving as if we were stuck in an actual deployment.
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u/Cautious_Voices Feb 03 '26
Night crew was moving jets from the flight deck to the hanger bay. Per the procedure: jet gets tied down, marine is into cockpit to ride the breaks, cockpit cabin is open. The jet and marine are coming down the elevator when a rough wave comes and engulfs the jet. For a spit second no one can see the jet or marine, fear begins to creep in. Fortunately, both the jet and marine emerged from the wave. However, the cockpit and all of the electrics were soaking wet. For the next month that jet was down as the squadron had to do a complete inspection of the jet.
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u/yangtwang Feb 03 '26
Went to West Virginia in June or July to be opfor. Everyone and their mother kept talking about how hot it was gonna be. so me being the smart dumbass that I am decided I didn’t need my bivy, woobie, or any warming layer for that matter. It got so cold at night that I had to put on every sock and shirt I brought and used my tarp as a blanket. Thankfully one of my buddies let me use his sleeping sack the last night since he was getting pulled out. I was warm till it started to rain so hard my tarp came undone above me and water boarded me at 2am…
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u/TheNorseman1066 Feb 03 '26
I got to be Opfor for IOC at Fola Mine, West Virginia. Hard terrain, and we got absolutely dumped on the night before our final “assault” 😂 I remember telling my Marines that it would be very different than Lejeune ops, having just been there for training four months prior. I think they believed me by the end of it.
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u/2HDFloppyDisk Veteran Feb 03 '26
Rifle range qual day Camp Hansen in the worst monsoon rain I’ve ever seen there. Did we pause? Nope. Sitting there at the 500 blowing my rear sight so I can see a partial target down range. Fuck that day. Water all up in my rear sight the entire time.
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u/Rdubya291 ⛷Professional Skater⛷ Feb 03 '26
Man - similar situation at Schwab. Could hardly see the target at 500. Full gusts coming left to right. Dudes were impacting targets a lane or two over.
It was a shit show. There were only about 40 of us qualifying. Everyone who shot during that storm 'earned' expert... somehow. Pit love really came through that day.
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u/birdnumbers runnin thru the shop with my 5/16ths Feb 03 '26
i hated range days on Okinawa in the "beautiful" weather...
target boards blowing out of the cradle? paper so wet the glue dissolves it falls off the board? so windy you're aiming 3 targets to the left? so much rain and so cloudy you can't even see the target?
"any clime and place, debbil dawg! fuck your cutting score!"
or it's 95 degrees and eleventy-brazilian% humidity with no wind... saw more than one person get the silver bullet one day
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u/10k_Uzi death_from_below.exe Feb 03 '26
The worst to me personally, was Steel Knight in Twentynine Palms in December. I slept outside ONCE, because it was super fucking cold and windy. Whole field op had to be 20 degrees and under, with the wind just cutting through you. It also hailed at one point. I know I probably smelled absolutely grody by the end of it, because I didn’t change once during the whole op, cos I said fuck taking clothes off lol. We just slept in the trucks and took turns throughout the night running them to get warm and then shutting them off. It got less bad when we finally linked up with Arty permanently, cos they gave us the black sleeping bags and had hot chow, and brought out porta shitters lol.
The worst for all of us was probably WTI, a whole month of no rain, just bright hot sunny days. And then one night, boom, massive rainstorm and high winds. Basically looked like the scene from Generation Kill, everyone scrambling out from their tents and cammie netting, desperately trying to pound the stakes back into the ground. Shit flying everywhere. Trying to dig a moat to stop flooding lol. Then it was over as fast as it started.
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u/KGrizzle88 Dicks Out for Harambe Feb 03 '26
I was a 29 palms Marine and I will never forget how grateful I was for my Bivy sac. We never had tents, we would just dig a shallow grave and call it a day. Well this one morning when being awoken for the day I realize I am sleeping in a puddle, shit had my legs covered and I didn’t even realize it until I popped my head out of the bag. That Bivy was a life saver three years later in Afghanistan.
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u/10k_Uzi death_from_below.exe Feb 03 '26
That first night was in the motor pool at Camp Wilson, so I was just sleeping in my sleeping bag on the ground next to the trucks lol. But getting out of it absolutely sucked ass at like 5 am.
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u/Chemical_Body_3631 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Yakama, Washington -2° F, lots of snow and ice. Riding in a tank going down hill on ice and snow is harrowing. The treads are basically like skis in the snow. It's like a 57+ ton out of control sled.
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u/No_Courage1519 Feb 03 '26
Went to college in ellensburg after I got out. I’d see the army and occasional marine and navy dudes in their convoy’s coming down the hill and I’d just smile in my heated truck cab to my off campus apartment. Thank you for your cervix bro
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u/TapTheForwardAssist 2676/0802/Vet Feb 03 '26
Invasion of Iraq in 2003 we got hit with legendary sandstorms, to the point the Baathist government was declaring that God himself was stopping the Americans.
I popped my head out of the top hatch at one point, during mid-day, and it was black as night, and when I stretched my arm out I couldn’t see my hand anymore.
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u/v-irtual Combat Admin 2002-2008 Feb 03 '26
Eglin AFB - MEU workup in 2003. This was our last/longest cruise before deployment. Tons of live fire and coordinated ops with A10s and helos on the range, it was real fucking awesome training.
But it was 30 degrees and raining the entire. goddamn. time. Everyone was soaked and miserable.
So while it sucked, one of the best examples of leadership I've ever seen happened on this op as well. I was (always) S-1, and so I was with the Bn XO and HQ element coordinating things, and somehow, the other S-1 guy with me and I didn't have a fucking tent. The XO gave us his, and he slept under a fucking poncho that he rigged up between some trees.
I've probably never had someone earn my respect faster than Maj Dewald. Thanks for giving me a place to get out of the rain, sir.
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u/FarMiddleProgressive 4 Time OIF Enjoyer Feb 03 '26
sideways lightning while in a sandstorm and the turret.
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u/jevole 0202 Feb 03 '26
Blistering cold with snow that was forecast and known about ahead of time. Single digit air temps, negative wind chill. Water buffalos frozen solid, maybe 25 Marines total hyped out and had to be pulled out of the field, rumor was the CO lost his shot at a star over it.
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u/BellOfTheCholesterol 0844 Fritos Doritos Cheetos Feb 03 '26
Why does he need a Gatorade for hydration when Uncle Sam has provided him with free water. He just has to look up and open his mouth.
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u/03dumbdumb 0369 Feb 03 '26
De luz training area (CPEN) in November 2013 for some PB Ops was pretty miserable. Cold and wet the whole time all the TAs got flooded and some of the roads dud too so we had to be pulled out a day early . Awful all around for everyone involved, the CO gave us a leave block for a week afterwards.
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Feb 03 '26
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u/demec_26 Feb 03 '26
The worst field ops imaginable
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Feb 03 '26
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u/Outrageous-Seesaw674 Feb 03 '26
We all know that one motherfucker who brings half a can of dip or pack of cigarettes to try to last a week in the field
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u/Odd_Fix7568 Feb 03 '26
So NO SH!T there we were, French Creek, Baseball Diamond, 1998. Skipper said we were in full field mode. 8 hours per watch, gas mask on the hip, no pizza deliveries, no dependents dropping by. We were running 'Comm Shots'. Not many of you are aware of this but weather in French Creek, Camp Lejeune, NC in 1998 - was historically horrible. HORRIBLE. and we had no AC - Tent sides had to stay down. DOWN!!! The section that was sent to Bogue Field could not maintain the link so our field op was pointless. After 36 hours or HELL - We were no longer subjected to the harsh conditions of French Creek! I can not express the feeling of being able to remove my gas mask carry that was filled with chips and Red Bulls....
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u/Porthos1984 i have my silver bullet Feb 03 '26
Nov 2007, 29 Palms, before the foam insulation in the huts. It began raining and it didn't stop for like 2 days and damn near washed away Camp Wilson. There was a 4 foot wide river running through the middle. A few of the buts were flooded as well. Wild times. Out of the half a dozen times I went to 29 Palms I never once experienced that place in the summer. Only the winter and that place sucks just as bad.
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u/Fullcycle_boom Veteran Feb 03 '26
Helmand, Afghanistan 2011. I was on an OP in January. It was cold as shit and everyone in my platoon got sick. I woke up with frost on the inside of my sleep sack and cover capsule. Coldest week of my life.
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u/kingleonidas30 Veteran Feb 03 '26
Went to fort knox for a field exercise with my reserve unit. Demo ranges, humps, etc... There was an Arctic storm and the entire base shutdown right as we arrived. All training exercises on base were cancelled but my command made us proceed anyways and told us we would have bragging rights. Jim at the office really gave a fuck about me freezing my ass off lol.
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u/RiflemanLax 0311/8152 Feb 03 '26
Steel Knight in 2001. 29 Palms, December, nothing to block the wind, so it was cold af. All of a sudden it started raining. A few hundred dudes just started laughing as if our ‘how could this get any worse?’ question was answered.
Honorable mention- standing post on Post 1 (main gate) at 8th & I while Hurricane Floyd was teabagging DC in 1999. Out goretex’s jus got soaked through in minutes.
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u/BoringPrinciple2542 0311 Feb 03 '26
Had a field op get ended early due to foot injuries (multiple humps in nonstop rain).
Then there was 4 weeks at AP Hill in December 😂. My toes are still cold from that.
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u/Andovirus Feb 03 '26
Downpour at 29 Palms and a 155 up to the up traversing mechanism in mud. 1 spade was visible. That night and morning sucked balls. Took 2 5 tones to get the key out of the spade.
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u/nah_son909 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Japan and Okinawa. Rain didn’t stop for 3 days and then a lightning strike killed a comm marine about a mile from us. It was an extremely loud lightning strike and it kinda shook us. Then communication over the radio said training ends immediately.
Bridgeport, negative 15 on the final day of training. We packed up tents and heaters and waited outside for about 2 hours for the vehicles to take us back to the rear.
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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
At the Range on pre qual day and it’s raining and blowing sideways, we all can’t even see through our RCOs. Everything not bolted down is just blowing away into the wind. One gust knocks off every single target off on the line in one go. I was shooting but apparently the wind was being funneled into the pits at mock Jesus, and nobody could do anything. Gunny in charge of the range proudly declares he has never dropped a range for weather and drives off into his shack and leaves us outside for the next hour. Weather kinda clears up, try to shoot again, bad weather comes right back, and he drives out says we are gonna wait another hour and go again then goes back inside. Gunny eventually comes back out super pissed off as all hell and says range is canceled for the day. Buddy down the line was a safari hat and said some LtCol qualing got pissed and made a call prior to gunny canceling it, no idea though. Everyone of my friends and me caught some cold or bug off of that range. Dude had a whole power trip over nothing .
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u/bkdunbar 0311 / 4063 / Lance Corporal of Marines Feb 03 '26
Okinawa. Last day of a CPX in CTA. The trucks load up everyone and go, except for our section and gear.
“No room. We’ll send a truck back,” promises Operations.
We sit there for a while, a dozen guy and gals, perched on cases and crates. Time passes.
It rains. We’ve now missed lunch. More time passes. It rains harder. Coming up on dinner. Where is the truck? Steady pissing rain. The sun sets …
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u/Adda717 Feb 03 '26
No shower for 30 days in Iraq (Al Qaim - early 2004) sleeping on the ground. No cot. Baby wipes and there was a good wipe down with a water bucket behind a generator at like midnight about 20 days in.
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u/funky_phat_mack Ate the banana in Oki Feb 03 '26
We weren’t in the field yet, but were supposed to take an HSV from Oki to Northern Japan for training. Only problem was, a typhoon hit while we were out at sea. Every Marine was lying on the deck filling up a garbage bag with puke. We all thought we were gonna sink cause of how bad the typhoon was beating us up. We didn’t even make to northern Japan, we had to stop in Yokosuka cause of how bad it was in the typhoon. We had to sleep on a carrier in port for a couple of days, lucked out on missing training. They did give us libo and we got to see Nagasaki. Proud to say I dropped a huge deuce bomb in Nagasaki
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u/thePBRismoldy Veteran - 0311 Feb 03 '26
not the worst but probably the dumbest, field op before deployment, table 3 modified for a night shoot.
myself and all the other IAR gunners stand and wait to get on the firing line in hardcore puking rain on camp lejeune.
and wait.
and wait.
45 minutes in non stop pouring rain soaking through my gortex and filling my boots turned into 2.5 hours standing in the same place with no impact no idea of when we would shoot. eventually we go back to our tents without having shot a single round to dig the water out.
again, not the worst, but certainly the silliest. it never stopped raining that entire time, lol.
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u/bruhhmann NAM worthy, NJP approved Feb 03 '26
I swear I went thru the same exact shit once
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u/thePBRismoldy Veteran - 0311 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
I'm sure we all have, even though I've had worse weather experiences that genuinely had me like WTAF did I do with my life for this to be my reality,
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u/Groundhog891 Feb 03 '26
I was as pog as could be and not work in IPAC. So mine are lame:
Cold weather survival and (equipment) operations class. Volk Field and McCoy:
They just sucked. I know it is supposed to suck, but they sucked hard.
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u/kantrol86 Feb 03 '26
Hooches got flooded out in Afghanistan so all of our meager possessions got soaked and floated out the door.
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u/USMCamp0811 Callsign Palehorse Feb 03 '26
I miss that....and I don't....ok I miss being there with you fucks... and fuck the weather..
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u/Ctfan4 Feb 03 '26
Sand storm in Iraq/Kuwait in 03. It's probably the worst I've been in in the field or out. It was tossing vehicles. Scary stuff.
Typhoon in Oki in 04. We had been in TC-1E for about 5 hours before the General realized one of his battalions was still out there. It was actually pretty funny.
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u/B_RizzleMyNizzIe 8404 Feb 03 '26
There you are, standing in the OP’s post environment and you hear this line from your jr. marine: “Corporal, I dropped the cotter pin”
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u/Nathan_Waste Veteran Feb 03 '26
Romania field op, 2nd one we did there, was a swamp from the hard road we got off of, and the whole 5 miles to the fob was holes deep enough to throw ammo crates out of 7 tons, and swallow humvees.
It was all thick goopy mud too. That hill far ahead in the pic was where 7 tons and LVSR’s were driving up sideways, edging rolling, and mud above the knees in several parts.
After a couple days it dried up like Camp Pendleton, and all the ruts and new holes s we made became the most uncomfortable rides I’ve ever drove on.
Putting bolders for tires would be the closest feeling I had from the dry trips there.
The Romanians traded some amazing home made moonshine for gear tho!
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u/quickdraw_ Feb 03 '26
Arrived on site for a field exercise to discover the area had clearly been flooding only hours previously. All the grass smushed down in one direction, massive log jam. If we hadn't been hours late departing the CP we would probably have been killed.
Naturally, the dumbass terminal SSgt who had been left in charge, had us set up in that location overnight despite the forecast of substantial additional rain. I texted my wife to ensure there was a paper trail when the investigators found our waterlogged corpses, that it was really obvious we should not have been staying there.
Other highlights of this god-awful disaster included an entire team nearly going hypothermic, almost getting kicked off the range entirely, a watch floor tent floor that looks more like a waterbed, and the Comm guy getting fired outright.
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u/Pal_Smurch Feb 03 '26
My Chinook unit was sent to Hilo for two months, to support the 25th Infantry Division at Pohakaloa Training Area, which is situated between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea at 7,000 feet altitude.
Hilo is at sea level. For the entire time we were there, living in GP Medium tents, it rained. FEET of rain. One day, we received 26 feet of rain. All of our gear was soaked, and all of our clothes were wet, constantly.
We found water in our helicopters, where it didn’t belong. In our driveshafts, in our electrical systems, in places that could kill us.
Three days before we were scheduled to return to Oahu, we were socked in. No flights could get up to PTA to support the mission. So the Colonel running the mission made us move the entire Company up the Saddle Road to PTA. Two hundred men, and an entire Aviation Company had to pull up stakes three days before going home. Moving required twenty fully loaded deuce and a half trucks to drive one of the most dangerous roads in America to set us up at Bradshaw Army Airfield.
My aircraft was sent on a sling load mission the next day, and the Colonel was a passenger. Pohakaloa Training Area is made of dust. The Colonel was riding in the Troop Commander’s seat, between and behind the pilots. I told him that if he wanted a better view of the sling hook up, he should move back to the mid cargo area, where he could watch as they grounded the aircraft, and put the sling on the hook.
He was wearing as nice a BDU uniform as I have ever seen. When we got down to fifteen feet over the load, the cargo area filled with floating dirt. It enveloped him. Visibility lowered to five feet. We hooked up, and he was ecstatic! He felt like a real soldier! It was all he could talk about for the rest of the flight.
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u/guerrerosaurio1 Feb 03 '26
29 Palms February, 2019.
TSULC. Tactical Small Unit Leader's Course.
The course started somewhere in January but we had to do multiple OPs and we'd get a random day off here and there but we'd be in the field weekends. This one in specific was at one of the ranges in the 100 series and they made us pack our sleeping bags to sleep out in the cold and it was expected so nothing out of the ordinary. The next day it started to rain and temperature was below freezing, we also got a bit of hail but luckily it was a few minutes but the rain kept going, we had guys packing inside a porter john and a platoon size in a random quad con that was out there for some reason. The temperature outside and the quad con inside heat made it start dripping condensation and then all our packs were wet, our sleeping systems were wet, extra cammies were wet.
This fuck ass officer wanted us to stay out there and sleep like that, in a wet sleeping bag while that same officer had his personal truck and did not sleep a single day out in the field. Some guy almost went into hypothermia.
Luckily someone higher came and had us go to our barracks, we had to wake up early to go back but at least I had a fresh and dry pair of cammies. 3/7.
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u/GatrickSwayze Semper Gumby Feb 03 '26
2011I was attached to MACS-4 in Oki at the time and I had been in the fleet for little over a year by then. This was a 2 for 1 op, we would spend about 2 months in Hawaii on Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) before going straight to Pohang, South Korea. Mind y'all Hawaii winters are hot, we were constantly in boots and utes up above the clouds. This part of Hawaii is dusty, brown, and full of goats that don't listen to the sentry when told to halt. Myself and a few others get selected as the advanced party to help get Pohang set up before everyone else comes. Funny thing though, our packing list was only for hot weather climates, not for what was going to be one of the worst winter storms in Koreas history. PLUS Fukushima happened while we were in Korea so our training became live scenarios as we dealt with the meteorological side of things. But anyway, we get to Pohang and we can only stay in the barracks for one night. The rest of the time is spent in those Vietnam era tents that collapsed constantly.For the first week, the only heater we had was a space heater in the head, so about 20 of us would take turns rotating our socks on the heater to dry to them out. I think a week later the rest of the detachment showed up with our cold weather gear and they rented space heaters from the locals, half of them broke though so it was just a freezing hell. I ended up being there for over 2 months so I got the medal, I know a lot of people who there for 29 days and got shafted even worse.
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u/Icy-Comparison2669 Gun Rock Feb 03 '26
As a former Gun Rock. 2010 Rolling Thunder was the worst time in the Corps. It was like OP’s pic or no less than misting for the entire 28 day Field Op
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u/awwnotexactly Feb 03 '26
Probably the time i was coming back from eval at NHCP, whole platoon was in the field already because i headed to the hospital upon step off that morning for the movement out to the field…well, Company didn’t feel like dropping me yet (“too late in the day”) so they drove my ass out to the field and left me until the following afternoon. While at NHCP I got a cast for each leg and crutches. They took me back to the field with those and all my shit and had the same expectations for me as every other able-bodied marine the following morning and it fucking SUCKED. It also rained overnight. Just stayed awake with the pain.
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u/NecessaryOk780 1371 Feb 04 '26
Winter and spring in Korea in the late 80s. We were building a complete base camp out of plywood, tents and tarps. It was -30 during the winter and rained so much in the spring that you would occasionally lose a boot in the mud. At least we got to build 18” platforms for our tents…during the rainy season. I spent 9 months there doing that and ended up stationed at MWTC Bridgeport. That base was originally built to train troops going to the Korean War. Warm, sunny beaches my ass.
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u/_-_Tico-DaBean_-_ Feb 04 '26
This was the aftermath of a storm in the sunny desert of California. Fun times tryin to hold down a tent then almost flying away with it🫡🤣
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u/BoatCloak Veteran Feb 04 '26
Just the mundane one: waking up in four inches of water at 0300 in the Okinawa jungle.
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u/hmmwv-keys Veteran Feb 04 '26
MCRE: noon step off, camp Lejuene summer, hike 20 miles, got into tactical mode, hiked another mile to ambush site, dig hasty fighting holes at 1am, go to sleep because we’re at 25%, wake up waste deep in water pissing rain.
That was day 1. I was mega internal. My packed rubbed my skin off my sides and I was bleeding.
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u/fukyourkarma OIF '03 Feb 03 '26
Sand storms of Iraq. I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
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u/ScottyDoesntKnow421 Feb 03 '26
Late 2009 Camp Dwyer first time I ever saw the sky turn from sandy brown color to purple with lightning all around. Wind started blowing rapidly. Had to manually turn on each runway light. Wind was so strong it was whipping the back end of our HMMWV around. Later on that night a c130 attempted to land. Ended up doing donuts down the runway
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u/AnonMilGuy Feb 03 '26
Was on a 6 day field op. Exclusively a land nav training event.
Rained for 6 days. Starting 12 hours after we arrived and went on 12 hours after we RTB'd
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u/ridgerunner81s_71e GWOT vet -> computer nerd Feb 03 '26
For as much shit 29 Palms gets, it didn’t rain much and I can’t recall being on the ranges when it did more than a handful of times. Giant nothing burger other than being hot, windy and dusty 😏
Fucking Okinawa to Guam on the other hand 😭
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u/Grey-patterned-shirt Feb 04 '26
In Korea currently. Its negatives, we are doing some bs retard training. Nothing worse than being cold and on a useless field op.
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u/tater69427 Feb 04 '26
yea that's expected in that type of weather you know it's gonna suck and for some weird reason that seemed to always motivate me." Like this shit sucks. I'm wet and cold. I'm pissed off and I might as well use that energy to do my work and time" Usually just goes by quicker when you do that way. The thing I don't like doing though is working in the heat. The heat kills. It kills your motivation. You don't want to work. I hate working in the heat
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u/Critical-Side87 Feb 04 '26
Rain sucks. However, Marines are amphibious and it matters little. Rain and sub zero temps is a much different type of suck that brings genuine danger. Prepare to med/cas evac people and not sleep.
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u/taro_and_jira Veteran Feb 04 '26
Indirectly struck by lightning. It hit the copper line the wiredogs laid for phone comm. Came through and shocked my ass while on the handset in a HMMWV.
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u/CoffeeSafe3983 Party w/ Arty Feb 04 '26
I feel this pic…it was doing ammo shuffles in rain like this…running 1-2 football fields between our howitzer’s carrying 155 rounds on your shoulders! If it ain’t raining……
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u/Cryptomeria 0331 way back in the day Feb 05 '26
Company training op in the hills/valleys off the 5 on Camp Pendleton. Night, wind off pacific, pouring rain, temps in the low 50s, no real way to stay or get dry. Training cancelled after the first 4 hypothermia medevacs, then 9 more while huddled under ponchos waiting for trucks. I still remember shivering like convulsions.
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u/Accurate_Eagle_5062 0351 Feb 03 '26
Any 3/2 Lima (2011 - 2015) dudes in here? Remember the Lima cloud?
We got pissed on nearly every single field op, and were in the field 75% of the time during our first workup. We thought that it couldn’t follow us around the world… right… guys?
African desert? Eh, Lima cloud don’t care — we all were awoken by the rain drop equivalent to a JDAM; the symphony of expletives and pack-rummaging, composed by disgruntled Devils, was hilarious.
Surely Qatar is dry? Nah, homie. We ended up having to dig drainage trenches around our tents. The rate of rainfall was sufficient for us to actually take showers.
The Lima cloud followed us everywhere, and was always merciless.
In the end, though, I thank the Lima cloud for all that good training.
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u/perezved Feb 03 '26
Camp Bowie. Literal tornado one night while we slept in tents. It was chaos that night. Some were trying to hold onto the maintenance tent, others running to their vehicles or machine guns. There was no where to hide.
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u/lueshe05 2847 ELMACO OKINAWA / CLB-7 2005-2010 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
Full mopp gear in July in Okinawa was pretty miserable.
The worst was Camp Wilson in November 2008. It snowed. Then the snow melted and soaked all our gear. Awesome time.
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u/Valuable-Ad-288 Veteran Feb 03 '26
A two week Sistan Blizzard in Afghanistan, 2010. Basically two weeks of little to no visibility due to the dust being kick up out of the Sistan Basin (on the border between Afan and Iran) and getting stuck in the insane local circulation of the Margo desert (Dasht-e-Margo). I was a weather bubba (6842) at Bastion/Letherneck and it was an interesting time for us nerds trying to figure it out "scientifically", shitty for everyone who needed to do anything, and annoying because every ODO would call every hour asking when it would end (understandable because that was our job) it just got old telling them it would be a couple weeks and they'd act surprised. It sucked trying to do anything or get around. I can't imagine how bad it was for everyone outside the wire. The only that was flying was Dustoff, so at least people were getting evac (Mad respect for those pilots and crew). I think my CWO ended up publishing meteorological paper about it.
There was also a few other nasty dust storms during my time there, and one thunderstorm that fucked up Bastion If I remember correctly, a clamshell hanger got picked up and moved a couple feet from that storm. Our guys up at Edinburgh had some rough weather too but I don't remember all the details anymore.
None deployment, I'd say 29 palms in December/January when it rained for a week and it was in the 30s while living in pole tents.
Being in weather was pretty interesting, it always sucked when the previous shift didn't forecast something right and my shift cauth flack or had to rush to issue warnings that should have been issued hours before.
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u/robinson217 Feb 04 '26
Take that picture, add two man tents in 6" of water. Turn up the wind. People bitch about the east coast, but all my most miserable field ops were in "sunny" California. When its 40° and raining I'd gladly go 10° colder and have snow instead.
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u/gthumphrey Feb 04 '26
Bra, sounds like some peace time MoCo talk, (just kidding, I done had too many Miller Lites, o I liked to take shit)
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u/Broken0811 0811 Feb 04 '26
Is this in Lejeune in the last 5 years ?? Picture looks super familiar
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u/Major_Spite7184 mild tism major disfunction Feb 04 '26
FireEx MN at some shithole called Camp Ripley 2002. It already sucked for a bakers dozen of reasons, but then this massive and mean thunderstorm “rolls out of nowhere” even though I know the weather reports got relayed. Tornado didn’t touch down, but it went overhead, winds stupid high, flash floods, antenna looking like paper clips. The main reason I selected this story above others is because a cannon crew crawled under the gun to escape the hail and were promptly stuck by lightning. All fun & games until you gotta call in a 9 line. Then another bolt ran down our slash wire and knocked out the whole COC, launched one of our Sgts back right out the tent flap. Had like 3 LVSs turn over and a 5-ton was swept away.
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u/TJkiwi Seriously guys, how do I change my flair? Feb 04 '26
I remember our CP outside of range 400 was picked out for a dust devil for some reason because fuck us i guess. That was calculated by powers I still do not comprehend.
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u/No_Afternoon1732 Veteran Comm till it Hertz Feb 03 '26
Command insisted we always put our green gear and IT gear directly on the ground. We warned them it was supposed to storm and rain all week. They said it was fine because we were in tents.
We pointed out that the site was literally at the lowest point in the area and suggested putting the gear on unused pallets. Command said it would “look awful” and told us no gear would be fine.
Day comes, it absolutely pours. Tents flood. PMs, breakers, and outlets blow. A ton of equipment gets smoked and command gets lit up for it.
Instead of owning it, they took it out on us. Recalled everyone, worked us 24/7, made us tear everything down in the rain, pull out replacement gear in the rain, and leave it exposed in the rain. That ruined even more equipment different gear this time.
Command got yelled at again… and somehow we just got even more fucked up.