Any real life soldiers here?

[Yoshida Keiji]

I`m playing in Tundra biome now. Pawns who are assigned as Soldiers are changing their helmets (militar/kevlar) for tuques made of synthread. While I understand that they might be feeling cold... Do real life soldiers prefer to wear just for insulation over protection? Looks odd to me. I would prefer them safe. I know the game only allows one kind. Maybe real life guys use both.

[Bozobub]

I was a soldier years ago.

Yes, soldiers will often ditch their helmets for several reasons:
- Comfort.
- Situational awareness.  Helmets inevitably restrict hearing at least somewhat; even the recent WWII-German-esque American and other countries' helmets do so to some extent.  They also can restrict your visual field a bit.
- Agility/mobility.  Helmets can be clumsy.
- "Coolness".  Yes, some soldiers are dumb enough to worry about helmets making them look "uncool".

Some soldiers will wear a bandanna under their helmet but nothing heavy/thick or the helmet simply won't fit, so a tuque is going to be problematic.

You can change what your pawns are allowed to wear, ya know.  If you specify "kevlar helmet" for soldiers, they'll wear helmets unless there are none available.

[SpaceDorf]

Bozo nearly said it alll. In addition we also had Balaklava's in Winter to wear beneath the helmet.
But from my experience a good bandana works best in summer and winter.

Another reason to take of your Helmet would be that the thing is just heavy and does a real number on your neck-muscles.
So until ordered otherwise, there are a lot of reasons to carry but not to wear the damn thing.

If used right a helmet is also a nice seat, pillow, basket or bucket.

[DariusWolfe]

Like Rimworld, this can be dictated by command, but yes... Unless you're in an environment where catching bullets is imminent, most soldiers will prefer not freezing to wearing a helmet.

Luckily, IRL, you can put a wool cap or balaclava under your helmet with little-to-no loss in comfort or effectiveness. Of course, as these typically cover your ears, you do lose a bit of hearing, but not enough to matter much.

I would say that with modern helmets, neck discomfort isn't really a factor anymore; Any full-time soldier will have worn it enough that it doesn't bother them after about a day. The old iron pots are a different story, however.

[Bozobub]

Nah,  Kevlar helmets are still pretty damn heavy and clumsy.  Everyone greatly preferred their "field caps" by far, at least that I ever knew/saw.

The other problem with 'em is you can't use them as a cookpot any more, unlike the classic "steel pots"; they'd just slowly burn. Ew.

By the by, you can use C4 (like that found in claymores), cut into 1" cubes, as handy fuel for cooking in the field.  Just DON'T stomp it out (it requires both heat and shock to detonate).  The fumes are toxic, ofc, but hot food is a priority sometimes...

[SpaceDorf]

Well you always learn new tricks how to mishandle equipment

I prefer hard tack and shoepolish, its less dangerous and burns just as well.

[DariusWolfe]

While I never did that (hell, we rarely even saw the sterno-type stuff) I did have a buddy in the Combat Engineers who'd tell me all sorts of shenanigans they'd get up to with C4. With C- and T- rations along with MREs, we rarely had any reason to do any sort of real cooking; Every now and again the cooks would get some real food though, and that was nice; Esp. steak and eggs at the conclusion of Tank Table-8. We definitely got an "Ate a Fine Meal" buff after that!

But I'm not even really talking about K-pots like they issued when I was a young soldier, 20-some years ago; The new(ish) ACHs (Advanced Combat Helmets) are considerably lighter, have modular padding for better fit and comfort, and even have sensors that can help monitor for TBIs (Traumatic Brain Injuries) though these are prone to false positives, as we're still not used to being gentle with our field gear when we're lugging it around. I would assume that the Advanced Helmets in Rimworld are on-par with the ACH, if not better.

We still prefer to wear softcaps or beanies when possible, and that's the standard uniform on FOBs (can't speak for COPs; I was at BN/BDE level for my deployments), based on weather; As a matter of fact, the primary difference between garrison and FOB uniform is the weapon and loaded magazine; If changing uniforms were more efficient in Rimworld (my last colony, the shelves were broken; Dunno if a mod conflict, or what) that would be my standard policy in Rimworld, too; A day-to-day uniform consisting of normal clothes, with a "oh shit" uniform for my soldiers consisting of helmets and vests (and probably eventually power armor, if I ever got that far)

Oh, and Dorf? If you prefer hardtack, you've never actually tried to eat it.

[Bozobub]

I think Dorf meant coating hardtack with shoe polish and burning it for fuel .  I'm pretty sure no one on Earth "prefers" hardtack.

[DariusWolfe]

I'd prefer if it didn't exist anymore, because if it exists, it means someone, somewhere, is having to eat it; I'm not sure I'd wish that on ISIS. (I'd wish a lot of other things on them, but you have to draw the line somewhere).

[Robb]

Ex- Navy here....I got lucky and was stationed in the Arctic for 6 fun-filled months...

I NEVER went outside without my survival gear on...fully insulated one piece suit with hood that had a ski mask built in. And wore goggles on top of that. Sideways snow at 60 MPH is brutal when temps are -40°F(wind chill would often go below -80°F).

I never had to worry about wearing a helmet though. But there would be no way in hell I would wear a helmet even if it had a liner in it. Was cold enough even with suit on.

[loc978]

Been out for awhile now, but... I used to wear headgear under my helmet in all sorts of inclement weather. The old ones had an adjustable leather strap, the new ones had replaceable pads to adjust. Wearing a tuque in cold weather or a backwards cap to keep rain from going down your collar was a fairly accepted practice when I was in the army.

Also, it's generally against the rules to ditch your helmet in circumstances where full battle rattle is the uniform of the day... but that doesn't mean some people don't do it anyway.

[SpaceDorf]

I think Dorf meant coating hardtack with shoe polish and burning it for fuel .  I'm pretty sure no one on Earth "prefers" hardtack.

That I did

Oh, and I was in the german army, I actually liked our hard tacks.
But everything is better than Dwarven Bread

[Ukas]

Long time ago I did my 11 month service in north Finland, including the six month long winter. When we had any kind of combat training we had helmets on always, but we actually wore woolly tuques under them. Helmet provides some insulation, as it captures part of the heat your body creates through the top of your head in a pocket between your head and the helmet. Still, I'm quite sure that without the tuque under it I would have frozen my head during the coldest nights when I guarded our camp, as at coldest the temperature was -38 C, which is about the same in Fahrenheit.

Sometimes we had one to three weeks long excercises in the forest. We lived in big half platoon tents warmed by portable stoves, and we had helmets on always during daytime, in evenings it was more relaxed and you could wear whatever you chose from the limited military headgear selection: caps, tuques, ski masks etc. But I noticed this: whenever it was possible not to wear a helmet, people just didn't wear them )))

[Seinne]

Nah,  Kevlar helmets are still pretty damn heavy and clumsy.  Everyone greatly preferred their "field caps" by far, at least that I ever knew/saw.

The other problem with 'em is you can't use them as a cookpot any more, unlike the classic "steel pots"; they'd just slowly burn. Ew.

By the by, you can use C4 (like that found in claymores), cut into 1" cubes, as handy fuel for cooking in the field.  Just DON'T stomp it out (it requires both heat and shock to detonate).  The fumes are toxic, ofc, but hot food is a priority sometimes...

Mythbusters put that to rest, they beat the crap out of some c4 while burning and could not detonate it, though, in the end, they both said they wouldn't do it because...superstition for lack of a better word?

[milon]

Mythbusters put that to rest, they beat the crap out of some c4 while burning and could not detonate it, though, in the end, they both said they wouldn't do it because...superstition for lack of a better word?

Fear, maybe?  That would be my own personal motivation for not wanting to detonate C4 manually.  Real, honest, legitimate I don't want to die fear.