Photo By Scott Sturkol | Students in Cold-Weather Operations Course (CWOC) class 22-03 practice snowshoeing and...... read more read more
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Each class of the Cold-Weather Operations Course (CWOC) at Fort McCoy requires a lot of field time during the 14 days of training, said CWOC Instructor Hunter Heard.
Heard coordinates CWOC 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 (DPTMS) to complete the training.
A good portion of CWOC field time includes students completing their movements on snowshoes. In a cold-weather, snow-filled environment, having snowshoes and the skill to use them is crucial, Heard said.
Students spend 20-30 hours training on the snowshoes and using them in the field, Heard said.
During the course, students use ahkio sleds to haul all of their equipment, and they will traverse through nearly dozens of miles of terrain, much of that on snowshoes.
"Some of the best parts of the course is actually going out and using our gear and equipment and training on what we learned in the classroom," said Staff Sgt. Courtney Mulhern, a CWOC class 22-03 student with the 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion.
Guiding students all the way through the training regimen, including teaching them when to use snowshoes, are the instructors.
"The instructors are great," said Spc. Lemuel Alamo, a class 22-03 student with the 372nd Engineer Company of the Wisconsin National Guard. "They were great and very crystal clear with their instructions."
In addition to snowshoeing, students also learn about a wide range of cold-weather subjects, including skiing, use of ahkio sleds, and setting up the Arctic 10-person cold-weather tent. Training also teaches terrain and weather analysis, risk management, proper cold-weather clothing use, developing winter fighting positions in the field, camouflage and concealment, and more.
Spc. Scott Costello, also a class 22-03 student with the 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion, said he enjoyed everything he learned in the course, including snowshoeing.
"The hands-on training in this course was excellent," Costello said. "The field training was good, and the snowshoeing and skiing was also great."
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” 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 nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
| Date Taken: | 02.02.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.02.2022 16:31 |
| Story ID: | 413887 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 166 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Snowshoeing among critical skills practiced, learned by students in CWOC at Fort McCoy, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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