Photo By Scott Sturkol | Instructors Manny Ortiz and Hunter Heard complete some training Nov. 14, 2018, in a...... read more read more
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Fort McCoy’s third season of training with the Cold-Weather Operations Course begins Dec. 3 with the first of six, 14-day class sessions planned for the winter of 2018-19.
The goal is to train as many as 300 service members during the training season. During the 2017-18 training season more than 230 students — including Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers — graduated from the course.
“Our second season went great, and we’re looking forward to another great training season,” said Bill Hamilton, lead Cold-Weather Operations Course (CWOC) instructor who works for contractor Veterans Range Solutions, which supports the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, or DPTMS. “This coming season, we should see Guard, Reserve, and active-duty service members training with us and possibly more multiservice participants.”
The third season also has some changes to the curriculum, said CWOC Instructor Joe Ernst. Two additional days were added to the course, a new marching route was established with new bivouac sites, and the course will incorporate the use of the Home Station Instrumentation Training System (HITS).
HITS is a training aids, devices, simulators, and simulations system that supports after-action review (AAR) capabilities for units at the battalion and below level, said Fort McCoy Training Support Officer Rob Weisbrod with DPTMS. HITS provides automated tools and instrumentation for unit leaders and designated observer-controller/trainers to collect, analyze, and present training-performance feedback to their unit in a multimedia AAR and take-home package.
“Using HITS will help us with our training and will give our students another tool to build their skills while at the same time helping us to improve course operations,” Ernst said.
Fort McCoy’s CWOC is modeled after the Cold-Weather Leader Course, which is taught by the Army Northern Warfare Training Center (NWTC) at Black Rapids, Alaska, Hamilton said.
“In our training, we complete training scenarios all over the post,” Hamilton said. “Our students use ahkio sleds to haul all of their equipment, and they will traverse through nearly 35 miles of terrain starting on North Post and ending at Big Sandy Lake on South Post. Our program of instruction is nearly identical to that at NWTC with the exception that we don’t teach certain skills, such as mountaineering.”
Students also learn about a wide range of cold-weather subjects, including skiing and snowshoe training, using the ahkio sleds, setting up the Arctic 10-person cold-weather tent, and more.
“This year, we also have new skis with a new type of binding for the students to use,” said Instructor Manny Ortiz. “The students will spend a lot of time learning about the skis, and we think these new skis will be an improvement over what we’ve used previously.”
Training also focuses on terrain and weather analysis, risk management, cold-weather clothing, developing winter fighting positions in the field, camouflage and concealment, and more, Ortiz said.
The instructors also received some new equipment to help with course operations, including a new Polaris utility terrain vehicle and a new wetsuit when coordinating cold-water immersion training.
“Also, as a team of instructors, I believe we will be even better in conducting the training as some of us were new to this last year,” Ortiz said. “We now all have an entire season of training done as a team, and we know each other well, so I think we will be even better than before.”
“I think we did really well last year,” said Instructor Hunter Heard. “Through working together, we continued to improve ourselves as the training continued. We’ll continue to refine and polish what we do to make ourselves as instructors and the course overall that much better.”
Instructor Mike Nguyen said he’s looking forward to the upcoming season.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the student and instructor interaction that takes place during each course,” Nguyen said.
“Last year, we had students who came in here who were quiet and were just trying to figure things out. Then, by the end of the course, they were more outgoing and taking the initiative. That growth in learning is always good to see.”
Hamilton said course feedback from students has been one of the key factors for course improvement, and they’ll continue to adjust and improve the curriculum based on that feedback.
“We always want to make the training even better,” Hamilton said. “We want our students to leave here with the best training experience possible.”
Hamilton said training slots are currently available for later classes as well. Units from any service interested in sending service members to the CWOC training should email Hamilton at bill.hamilton@veteransrangesolutions.com or call 608-388-0624/0804.
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 each 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: | 11.21.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 11.21.2018 12:32 |
| Story ID: | 300897 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 229 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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