#2 letter reprinted

A SECOND LETTER REPRINTED FOR ITS CONTENT

October 2009

Dear Jerry,

I first heard of the Wiggy’s Bag about 15 years ago when I was stationed in Alaska with the Army. I was the commander and the light reconnaissance unit was required to perform Airborne operations and then spend days in the cold observing on the enemy. As you can imagine, the old adage “travel light; freeze at night” that is known to all Paratroopers the world over, meaning, they have to travel light so they take the minimum amount of cold weather gear and just suck it up at night, does not work in the cold, Arctic conditions of Alaska or Afghanistan.

Our Science Officer for our unit said he found a sleeping bag company that claimed to make a 3-bag system that could be tailored for our operations in the desert or in the Arctic and was very light and compressed to a much smaller size than the current Army Cold weather Sleeping bag system. After reading the marketing material, I decided I would test a bag personally. If it worked for me, I felt confident my Troops would like the bag.

I received the bag and waited a few days until the predicted temperatures were well below minus 40 Fahrenheit, which also equals minus 40 Celsius. I went to the field with my Troops and the temperature during the day was a “nippy” minus 60 F. The first evening, I recorded the temperature at minus 64 F, laid out the Wiggy’s Sleeping Pad, laid out the 3-bag sleeping bag system, climbed into the bag with no shelter around me or heating source and stripped down to my long johns for the night.

I knew right away that this was a different bag than any I had ever used (I had been in the Army for over 16 years at that point and had been camping as a Boy Scout for a long time prior to my Army career) as I quickly got the bag warmed up by just moving around to strip down inside the bag. I settled down and within minutes I was asleep. Normally, with the Army Sleeping bag, I would have woken up a few minutes later from my feet being cold. Instead, I slept for three solid hours until it was time for me to get up and go back to work. I was so surprised I had to check my thermometer to see if the temperature had risen during the night. It was still minus 64 F and I was comfortable in the bag. I got dressed in the bag and got out, rolled up the bag and put it in the bottom compartment of my rucksack without a problem. I talked about this bag all day the next day. That next evening, with the temperatures again at minus 64 F, I settled down for another comfortable nap without getting cold again. I was sold and immediately grabbed my Supply Officer and told him to order enough for our Reconnaissance group. After the field problem, I went to my Commanding General and requested an order for the entire unit as soon as possible. It took a couple of years to outfit everyone but every one of my Soldiers said it was the best bag they ever used.

This was over 14 years ago and I have stayed in touch with Jerry Wigutow since then. If ever there was an American who truly took care of the Troops and understood what they need in combat, it is Jerry. I always recommend his bags and equipment to my friends in the military and friends who spend any time in the outdoors. There is no finer equipment, company or person than Jerry Wigutow and the Wiggy’s Company.
Jerry, thanks for all you do for our great country!

– Greg d’Arbonne LTC (retired), US Army “RLTW”

MY COMMENTS

Last night I republished a letter I received from a father who with his son survived the crash of his plane in a wet situation and my bags were their salvation so the survived. I am equally sure they would have easily survived the night, if necessary, until morning when survival aircraft showed up. Their body heat was so well trapped in their bags it would have continued to drive the moisture out of the bags so they would have stayed dry. When you are dry you are warm.

Over the years I have received several hundred letters [many can be read in the testimonials section of the website] from people who have had wet experiences and experienced #1 being warm quickly when getting into their Wiggy sleeping bag, #2 they were able to sleep and #3 found that their Wiggy bag was dry in the morning.

Todays republished letter has to do with temperature rating.

Greg purchased the Super light FTRSS [over bag] the system was and still is rated for a temperature of minus 40 degrees F/C. As you have read Greg was comfortable at minus 64 degrees F.

Over the years that I have produced the Wiggy’s bags I have received letters and call from people who have found their bag has performed at a temperature lower than the rating I publish. There is a reason and that reason is because I have under rated the temperature ratings of all of the different models that are produced by Wiggy’s.

As an example, during the first Gulf war I received a request from a Marine Corps major for a sleeping bag that could fit in a pocket of an Alice pack that the military was using. I asked the size and he said maybe 8x6x4 inches. I asked how long he wanted the Marine to sleep? Basically 4 hours. In order to give him a sleeping bag that might fit I downsized the Nautilus bag. He ordered two hundred which were sent to Virginia and were supposed to go to the middle east. The war ended so quickly they were never sent so he sent them to 29 Palms, CA Marine Corps base.

They were issued to two hundred young healthy I guess 19 year marines who went on an exercise in the early fall of that year. They were out for a month with temperatures in the 30’s except for a few nights as low as 27 degrees. All two hundred according to the major were happy with the bag. Hence the DESERT bag was born.

Imagine having two hundred men about the same age wearing the same clothing involved in the same activity eating the same food for a month using the same sleeping bag successfully! You couldn’t get that type of test in the civilian world. Thank you, Marine Corps.,

How about the Air Force at Eielson AFB evaluating my survival kit [written up in Popular Mechanics] in a cold chamber that was set at -40 with four men for 5 hours only to find out the thermometer was wrong it was -60 in the chamber and no one knew it and all were happy.

All Air Force bombers, fighters have Wiggy’s survival parts of the survival kits.

It is or should be obvious to one and all that the continuous filament fiberfill used by Wiggy’s Climashield made to my specifications is nothing less than the finest most efficient insulating material in the world. I use it to its maximum advantage. The Lamilite molds around you because there is so much fiber it is so dense that body heat just doesn’t get through it so you stay warm in the sleeping bag for a significant time. All of the heat you produce goes no place but it does drive the moisture away from you and out of the bag.

I could ask the question, does any other insulating medium perform or function like continuous filament fiber as I use it?

The answer is NO but I really prefer to say that there is no other material on the planet that is capable of functioning like the continuous filament is if used properly which is how I use it.

We are deploying many troops to Alaska to train and unfortunately the bulk of the troops are not issued Wiggy’s bags, what a mistake. 

One final thought at this time is; "after having read the experiences brought to light as read of these last two letters by someone who does not own a Wiggy's bag I do not know what can convince them."