Photo By Scott Sturkol | Sgt. Alberto Montano carries an M240B and a barrel for an M2 while he and other...... read more read more
Subscribe
Whether it was winter training in the Cold-Weather Operations Course or gunnery training in Operation Cold Steel III, troops who have trained at Fort McCoy in fiscal year 2019 have said they appreciate the capabilities the installation has to support training.
During six classes of the CWOC from December 2018 through March, instructors received constant feedback from each class about how Fort McCoy was an ideal winter training location.
“Fort McCoy is always a good place for any kind of training I have done since joining the military,” said CWOC Class 19-06 student Sgt. Joshua Harvey with the 323rd Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Company of Sioux Falls, S.D. “I will definitely be encouraging Soldiers from my unit to attend this course because it is good training, and the instructors are full of endless knowledge.”
Staff Sgt. Kimberly Gorman, CWOC Class 19-02 student with the 431st Civil Affairs Battalion at Little Rock, Ark., said Fort McCoy’s unique terrain helped her gain valuable skills.
“Fort McCoy really is a good place to teach this course,” Gorman said. “Some skill sets I take with me from the course include learning how to build and sustain a fire using multiple techniques and working as a team or squad during movements carrying equipment and pulling an ahkio sled. … Spending a week in the field to test our skills was really one of the best parts of the course.”
Sgt. Nicholas Powers, also a CWOC Class 19-02 student also from the 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry of the Wisconsin National Guard, said the post is great for all kinds of training. “I’ve been to Fort McCoy for all my field training exercises for seven years, and it’s always a solid location for training, specifically for cold-weather training,” he said.
Staff Sgt. Joshua Cosme with the 442nd Engineer Company of Angleton, Texas, completed training in the Regional Training Site-Maintenance’s 91L10 Construction Equipment Maintenance Repairer Course in February. He said he enjoyed the course and training at Fort McCoy.
“Fort McCoy is a nice post, and I’ve enjoyed my time training here,” he said.
During Operation Cold Steel III at Fort McCoy from late March to early May, hundreds of troops trained with Task Force Fortnite.
Task Force Fortnite Commander Lt. Col. Greg Derner said gunnery crews trained day and night using several Fort McCoy live-fire ranges, and those ranges and training areas worked well.
“The ranges themselves are the best equipped, technologically, in the Army Reserve,” Derner said. “Of the locations where they have conducted Cold Steel, McCoy is the best. … Overall, the installation is well set up to do this.”
Maj. Benjamin Nonaka, Operation Cold Steel III Task Force Fortnite executive officer, said Fort McCoy’s geographic footprint also helped in streamlining training. At many other places where Cold Steel training has been completed, he said the distance to training ranges is longer.
“Fort McCoy is much more compact, and it reduces the amount of time and logistical requirements for us,” Nonaka said.
Every year, thousands of troops complete weekend, extended-combat, institutional, and exercise training. During fiscal year 2018, 148,733 personnel trained at the installation.
Fort McCoy first broke the 100,000 troop training level in fiscal year 1985. An annual training record of 155,975 was set in fiscal year 2017.
Overall, Fort McCoy has supported America’s armed forces since 1909. The installation’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
The post’s varied terrain, state-of-the-art ranges, new as well as renovated facilities, and extensive support infrastructure combine to provide military personnel with an environment in which to develop and sustain the skills necessary for mission success.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at www.mccoy.army.mil, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.
| Date Taken: | 05.13.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 05.13.2019 15:30 |
| Story ID: | 322255 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Troops appreciate Fort McCoy’s training capabilities, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
