Photo By Nathan Rivard | Scouts with Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 172nd Cavalry Regiment, Vermont Army National...... read more read more
JAY PEAK, Vt. - When some skiers started heading down the mountain to end their cold day, the mountain soldiers were just getting theirs started. Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 172nd Cavalry Regiment tested their resiliency with cold weather and mountaineering training at Jay Peak, Vt., when the temperature was 0 degrees and steadily falling.
“We are the premiere mountain organization in the guard, so it’s one of our primary missions to operate in the mountainous terrain, especially in the cold weather environment,’’ said Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Progen, platoon sergeant of 1st Platoon.
The weather on the frozen mountain would show how well the soldiers could operate as a cavalry scout unit in the harsh winter conditions. When the soldiers arrived at the top of Jay Peak, they put on snowshoes, or crampons.
The crampon is an attachment for the boot with metal spurs allows for better traction for the decent down the mountain toward their objectives.
“We are focused on some of our validation tasks that are coming up this summer at annual training during XCTC, Exportable Combat Training Capability at Fort Drum. So we are out here focusing on platoon level training doing a zone recon, area recon, and emplacing a platoon-level screen line,” said Capt. Matt Wignall, commander Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 172nd Cavalry Regiment.
“This is some of the most challenging terrain. I mean it’s terrain on par with stuff you’d see in Afghanistan, and you throw in the cold weather and snow aspect, and it just complicates it and it makes that reconnaissance mission just that much harder. So teaching the guys to survive these conditions and to thrive in these conditions and maintain the upper hand on the enemy by being the organization better suited for this environment really does it for us,” said Wignall.
Jay Peak has had 163 inches, or roughly 13-and-a-half feet of snowfall so far this winter. A foot of snow fell in the last week alone.
The high amounts of snow, an elevation over 3,700 feet, cold temperatures and extreme wind make this mountain survival training challenging to say the least.
“As a mountain brigade, cold weather operations are arguably more important or more significant than actually negotiating mountains. They’re both critical skills, unique skills to the Army, and training in this cold weather environment is a challenge,” said Wignall. “Scouts are going to be reporting traffic ability of some of the routes, which are some of the ski trails here on the mountain. They’ve got a few key checkpoints that they are going to report enemy activity and the ability to maneuver other forces through this terrain, really the bread and butter of what a reconnaissance unit does. We’re terrain based more than anything today trying to understand complexity.”
To most of the soldiers, the weather was just a laughing point and didn’t faze them, and some even preferred it.
“I would do extreme cold, we fight like we train, or train like we fight rather. I like to be in a higher elevation, colder, better prepared,” Said Pfc. Chad Carpenter from Newport. “I like just operating and finding all the formations we have to do at different levels. We do a lot of COMMS, communication. It’s good to be on communication on the platoon level and the troop level. I love that kind of stuff, just working on the platoon level.”
The soldiers carried out their missions and spent the night in the winter environment with nothing more than what they carried on their backs.
Spc. Alfred Bolduc said it best with laughter, “Enjoy the day, hopefully enjoy the night and don’t freeze.”
| Date Taken: | 01.26.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 01.30.2013 14:57 |
| Story ID: | 101247 |
| Location: | JAY PEAK, VT, US |
| Web Views: | 635 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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