Photo By Scott Sturkol | Students in Cold-Weather Operations Course Class 21-01 practice snowshoeing and...... read more read more
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More than 20 students in the Fort McCoy Cold-Weather Operations Course Class 21-02 trained in using a loaded ahkio sleds while snowshoeing and in practicing skiing during class training in early January at Whitetail Ridge Ski Area. Their training was similar to hundreds of students who trained before them in the course.
Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security (DPTMS) Warehouse Supervisor Scott Huber, who manages the warehouse in building 495, said Fort McCoy’s cold-weather training equipment inventory includes many ahkio sleds, and they are an important piece of equipment used in the course.
An ahkio is a traditional, reindeer-pulled sled of the Lapland people of Finland and is used for many purposes, including cold-weather expeditions, history shows.
“For our training package, the sleds are used to carry the tent, stove, fuel, and other equipment troops would need to go out to a site and set up a living and operations area,” Huber said. “The ahkio sleds are a critical transportation piece for the whole training package.”
Since CWOC started at Fort McCoy several years ago, hundreds of students have trained using the sleds. And while pulling those sleds, the students are usually wearing snowshoes, said CWOC Instructor Hunter Heard, who coordinates training with fellow instructors Manny Ortiz, Brian Semann, and Joe Ernst. All are with contractor Veterans Range Solutions, which works with Fort McCoy’s Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization, and Security to complete the training.
Training in the course also focuses on terrain and weather analysis, risk management, cold-weather clothing, developing winter fighting positions in the field, camouflage and concealment, and numerous other areas that are important to know in order to survive and operate in a cold-weather environment.
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nerarly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.
| Date Taken: | 01.20.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 01.20.2021 13:15 |
| Story ID: | 387224 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 26 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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