Photo By Senior Airman Addie Peterson | Air National Guard Security Forces specialists ruck across a frozen lake as part of...... read more read more
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CAMP RIPLEY, Minnesota--Three New York Air National Guard security forces Airmen earned the right to wear an “Arctic” tab after making it through the Air National Guard’s grueling 16-Day Cold Weather Operations Course held in January in northern Minnesota.
They dealt with sub-zero temperatures, wolves tracking them as they walked the woods in arctic-like conditions, and learned what it takes to survive and fight in the bitter cold.
“You don’t understand how cold it is until you’re there,” said Tech Sgt. Kevin Meehan, a member of the 105th Airlift Wing’s Base Defense Squadron.
“It might say it’s only negative five but with wind chill it’s just a different kind of cold, and there’s no respite from it,” Meehan said.
The course, known by its initials of CWOC, was conducted at the Minnesota National Guard’s Minnesota National Guard's Camp Ripley Training Center near Little Falls.
The course is run by the Minnesota Air Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing.
Tech Sgt. Alexander Santana, who is also a member of the 105th Base Defense Squadron and Staff Sgt. David Blovat, a member of the 224th Air Defense Group’s Security Forces Squadron, also took the course. The 224th Air Defense Group is part of the Rome-based Eastern Air Defense Sector.
The CWOC curriculum employs a “crawl, walk, run” methodology. The initial “crawl” phase consists of classroom instruction on key topics such as cold-weather injury prevention, risk management, and the use of specialized equipment.
Participants then progress to the “walk” phase, which involves practical outdoor application, including land navigation on snowshoes, hauling gear behind them on “Ahkio Sleds”, and constructing natural thermal shelters.
Not everybody makes it through the course.
“It was a very physically and mentally challenging course,” Blovat said. “The cold hits different when its -35 degrees with wind chill and it’s just you and the gear you have packed in your ruck and you still have another 3 miles until your next tent site.”
The curriculum focused on functional warmth rather than comfort, preventing frostbite by managing layers, avoiding sweat during exertion and trusting in issued gear, Meehan said.
One of the biggest surprises for Meehan was the challenge of staying hydrated in such extreme conditions. “Everyone in the military knows hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. One thing you don’t think about is it’s so cold your water freezes,” he said.
The final test was a grueling five-day “run” phase—a continuous field exercise that pushed participants to their limits,
In subzero temperatures, they navigated through deep snow, built their own shelters for overnight survival, and made critical leadership decisions.
The ultimate test of their resolve was a cold-water immersion drill, conducted under the watchful eyes of the U.S. Coast Guard, proving they can overcome the deadly effects of hypothermia.
Santana said he had expected a pure survival course.
While the course covered starting fires with minimal materials, building thermal shelters from sticks, twigs, tarps or ponchos and setting up arctic tents, the reality was far more demanding, he said
Teams of 9 to 12 Airmen took turns pulling sleds weighing 350 to 400 pounds, loaded with tents, stoves, food, fuel, water and tools, while also carrying packs weighing over 40 pounds, Santana said.
Santana said his team started shorthanded and Airmen dropped out early, forcing the remaining five to haul multiple sleds in temperatures below negative 30 degrees on one of the coldest nights of the course.
“That second day in the field was the most physically demanding. We rucked the most with the least people, and it was brutally cold,” Santana said. “We finished an hour and a half after everyone else, but we made it.” An added surprise was the realization that the people weren’t the only ones roaming the cold winter woods, Santana said.
He saw the massive paw prints of Timberwolves in the snow all around where his time was, Santana recalled.
“It was cool, but kind of scary,” he said. “There were no weapons, just us out there.”
| Date Taken: | 03.25.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 03.25.2026 13:05 |
| Story ID: | 561292 |
| Location: | CAMP RIPLEY, MINNESOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 45 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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