Northern Warfare Training Center hosts Alaska symposium

Photo By Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy | Personnel attending the Northern Warfare Training Center's three day symposium on cold weather and mountaineering were given a chance to test out some of the gear they were introduced to on a frozen waterfall at the Black Rapids Training Site southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, March 22, 2012.  

FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, UNITED STATES

03.22.2012

Story by Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy 

United States Army Alaska

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska — Leaders from across our military’s highly specialized field of cold weather and mountain training had an opportunity to meet in Fairbanks last week and compare notes at a symposium sponsored by the Army’s Northern Warfare Training Center.

The group included training center commanders, senior noncommissioned officers and instructors and equipment vendors specializing in cold weather and mountaineering gear to military units.

During the first two days of the symposium, members from the U.S. Army, U.S. Marines and Canadian forces discussed their cold weather and mountaineering training goals and compared notes on what their respective schools have to offer.

“Fairbanks is a great place to bring schools that do this type of training and show them what it’s like here in Alaska in the interior and show them what cold feel like in March,” NWTC commander, Maj. Gary McDonald said.

“A lot of training we do in cold weather and in the mountains is very hard to train because not everywhere has access to mountains and cold weather,” McDonald said. “Getting all of the agencies involved and letting them know what the other has to offer improves our ability to get this kind of information out to the forces. Getting together and sharing ideas helps us all become more efficient”

Capt. Chad Dearborne, training division chief of the Army Mountain Warfare School in Jericho, Vt., shared McDonald’s view of sharing information and ideas.

[We are] never going to stop trying to make things better,” Dearborne said. “It’s important that soldiers understand how to operate in this environment and be comfortable. Many soldiers come from a warmer climate and they are scared of this.”

The Mountain Operations platoon commander for the Canadian Forces Land Advanced Warfare Center, Capt. Chelsea Braybrook, said one of her key focuses was testing new skis for the Canadian Forces.

“We have a large scale procurement that’s going to happen in the next fiscal year to replace military skis. We have tested several things and we just want to get more information to round up our report to give to our chain of command so they can make the best decisions, Braybrook said. “There is no one size fits all”.

“A lot of the people at the conference have experience with both Nordic and alpine skis,” Braybrook said. “We need skis that are more robust than a civilian ski and we are looking at ones that others have used successfully.”

On the last day of the symposium, the group headed out to the Black Rapids Training Site, home of the NWTC, more than 100 miles away, to try out new gear and equipment such snow skis, ice-climbing gear and sleds to transport equipment or casualties.

The training site had everything needed to put the equipment and personnel to the test. From the multiple lanes of the ski slope to its frozen water falls.

• Date Taken: 03.22.2012
• Date Posted: 09.10.2012 14:44
• Story ID: 94462
• Location: FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, US