In the Eighth’s first year of operations, 1,634 men were removed from flying duty for frostbite, over 400 more than were removed for combat wounds. Capt. William F. Sheeley, an Eighth Air Force flight surgeon, studied the problem. Arctic explorers, he reported, had long warned that a wet foot is a frozen foot. “Men who walked through the rain to their aircraft; who slept in heated suits; who played sweaty games in their flying clothes were wet when they took off. They were casualties when they came back.”
