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    US Army Alaska soldiers reach new heights

    US Army Alaska soldiers reach new heights

    Photo By Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy | A team of eight U. S. Army Alaska soldiers and one civilian adviser successfully...... read more read more

    FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, UNITED STATES

    06.06.2013

    Story by Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy 

    United States Army Alaska

    FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - Mount McKinley is an unforgiving place, but that doesn’t stop people from coming. For some, reaching the summit of the continent's tallest peak is a once-in-a-lifetime quest just to say they did it. For others, there is simply the opportunity to challenge themselves against one of the most extreme environments on the globe.

    Climbing season only lasts from May until July, with around 1,200 people per year signing up for the challenge.

    One team that accepted that challenge – and came out literally on top – was a team of Fort Wainwright Soldiers from U. S. Army Alaska’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, instructors from the Northern Warfare Training Center and their NWTC civilian climbing guide.

    “It was amazing and miserable at the same time,” said NWTC instructor, Staff Sgt. Zachery McGee.

    “I am ready to go home,” he said.

    The NWTC instructors, all non-commissioned officers, had been training, planning and conducting train-up exercises since mid-February.

    They taught their non-cadre teammates, three hand-picked individuals from the 1/25th SBCT, everything they needed to survive and successfully summit the highest peak in North America.

    McGee said the soldiers quickly picked up the skills needed to make the climb and were able to put what they learned to the test and well as acquire more experience and training during the summit.
    According to the NWTC, its mission is "to provide relevant training to the leaders of USARAK units so that they can fight and win in demanding cold weather and mountain environments. A Soldier trained in winter is also a good summer fighter; trained only in summer he is helpless in the winter."

    They didn’t climb McKinley just for the challenge. They did it for the training.

    “The ultimate goal is for instructors,” said 1st Sgt. Tom Dow, the NWTCs highest-ranking noncommissioned officer. “We need to reintegrate and re-energize the expert knowledge that the instructors need to be good instructors.”

    “To be very, very good at instructing the technical skills and arctic survival that we teach at the CWLC [Cold Weather Leaders Course] and CWOC [Cold Weather Orientation Course] they need to be masters at the highest level,” he said. “Going out and climbing the tallest mountain in North America solidifies those skills.”

    “It is just a sense of pride to get to the top. Getting to the top is like getting into the game and winning that game,” Dow said. “But the most important aspect will have been gained by the train up we have done.”

    Although summiting such a large mountain is an accomplishment hundreds of mountain climbers strive for on a yearly basis, the command team at the NWTC say they have already succeeded by going above and beyond the basics, gaining more advanced skills and passing these skills down through the soldiers they have taught to their parent units back at Fort Wainwright.

    “This climb just demonstrates the world-class capabilities of the NWTC mountaineers and the soldiers of the 1/25 Brigade,” Dow said.

    Their capabilities are limitless,” Dow said. “Given the right training there’s nothing they can’t accomplish.”

    “We got everybody to the top,” said Dow. “The training was spot on.”

    Though the school’s commandant may have joked with one of his instructors, Staff Sgt. Seth Toy, that he was “just a hippie climbing a mountain,” some might say they are a lot more - that they are Arctic Tough – and some of the best the Army has to offer.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 06.06.2013
    Date Posted: 06.13.2013 16:05
    Story ID: 108619
    Location: FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, US

    Web Views: 181
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN