Photo By Scott Sturkol | Students and staff in the Fort McCoy Cold-Weather Operations Course (CWOC) Class 22-02...... read more read more
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Fort McCoy’s Cold-Weather Operations Course (CWOC) has continued on with success with each year of training and the 2021-22 season was no different with the training of 288 Soldiers, Airmen, and Marines over the entire season.
“The fiscal year 2022 season was our largest season to date,” 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.
“We trained 288 Soldiers, Marines, and Airmen, and that was an incredible feat,” Heard said. “That brings our total students trained to just over 1,000 since the course’s inception.”
CWOC operations at Fort McCoy haven’t been without its challenges, especially the last two years with the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of the 2019-20 season to all the way through the end of the current training season, the CWOC staff had to implement many safety measures just to keep classes going.
Those measures included less students, social distancing and mask wearing, and much more, yet success in training continued.
“We recently conducted our end-of-season after-action review, and we identified some lessons learned from this past season as we have in all the other seasons,” Heard said. “And, as always, we will continue to improve upon the program and try to have best course possible for our students.”
The 2021-22 CWOC season started off with special training held in December 2021 for 145 Marines with the 6th Marine Division prior to a deployment to Norway. In a story written by 1st Lt. Kevin Stapleton with the 2nd Marine Logistics Group about the Marine training at Fort McCoy located at https://www.dvidshub.net/news/411227/us-marines-return-cold-weather-training-fort-mccoy, Lt. Col. Michael E. Vincent, commanding officer of Combat Logistics Battalion 6 (CBL-6) praised the training and Fort McCoy’s support and infrastructure.
“The Marines and Sailors of CLB-6 were able to deploy to Fort McCoy and support 6th Marines — all while learning how to operate in the extreme cold. The training we received (at Fort McCoy) will pay dividends in the future,” Vincent said. “The Cold Weather Operations Course, the Medical Simulation Training Center, and the live-fire range infrastructure was world-class and has enhanced our readiness as a combat logistics battalion.”
After the Marine CWOC training, then five 14-day sessions were held between January and March.
“From training those 145 Marines during class 22-01 for their deployment to Norway, to our first classes incorporating patrol lanes, to the field training exercise we did, to our second all-Army Ranger class, and more, it was a great training season,” Heard said.
During CWOC class 22-02 in January, Air Force Master Sgt. Brendan Uhlir with the 910th Security Forces Squadron of Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, said his participation in CWOC allowed for a unique training opportunity.
“All the parts of this course were beneficial, since I have never participated in anything like this,” Uhlir said. “The best parts for me were all the hands-on training portions. Learning in a classroom is great but getting out there and actually doing the skills training is so much more educational. … I will bring back everything I learned to my unit. I have never skied before and hopefully never have to again, but it was still a lot of fun.”
In CWOC class 22-03, Spc. Christopher Valenzuela with the 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion at Buckeye, Ariz., said the skiing day held during the training was among the best.
“My personal favorite part of the course was the ski lessons,” Valenzuela said. “As a terrible skier, the course pushed me to keep trying to get better.”
Valenzuela also said other skills he learned will be shared through the training of others in his unit.
“This course taught me that preventing cold-weather injuries is a group effort,” Valenzuela said. “I also learned that when operating in sub-zero temperatures that you must be ready for the unexpected. … I’ll definitely be training Soldiers with the knowledge and confidence I gained in this course.”
CWOC class 22-04 was the class with 45 Army Rangers. The improvised-shelter building and other field training were great for class 22-04 student Spc. Chase Clemens with the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
“My favorite aspect of this course was the field training,” Clemens said. “The prolonged exposure to the cold gave me more confidence I can successfully operate in cold-weather environments. It was a fun challenge both physically and mentally. I also especially enjoyed the cold-water immersion training.”
In CWOC class 22-05, most of the class of 35 students was comprised of Airmen — 25 in fact. Most of the Airmen were security forces from the Air National Guard. Their presence marked the third straight year that Airmen comprised a majority of one of the CWOC classes.
“It’s always great to bring some of our Airmen back here for training,” said Chief Master Sgt. Anthony Harvey, security forces manager with the 164th Mission Support Group, 164th Airlift Wing, at Memphis Air National Guard Base, Tenn. “I could fill as many seats as they give me for this training.”
Tech. Sgt. Jordan Spetz, a security forces craftsman with the 180th Security Forces Squadron and CWOC class 22-05 student, said having security forces in CWOC training is a good idea to prepare for future operations.
“Our (operations) landscape for the last 20 years has been about the desert terrain,” Spetz said. “We haven’t paid much attention to the cold-weather areas of operation. I feel confident after attending this course that I can help train my unit members to be effective to operate in cold weather. … It isn’t that bad, and it’s manageable if you’re focused.”
During CWOC class 22-06, the cold temperatures were waning with winter but the skills building continued, said student Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Bostick with the 3-340th Brigade Engineer Battalion of the 181st Multi-Functional Training Brigade at Fort McCoy.
“The best parts of this course are the basic patrolling skills that we had the chance to conduct,” Bostick said. He added that the course was “great” and helped with building up his service skills.
As far as some of the best skills he’d take away from the training, Bostick was like nearly all of the 288 CWOC students who trained who said learning how to properly wear the Extended Cold Weather Clothing System (ECWCS) was among the best training. “Learning how to wear the ECWCS the right way was great,” he said.
The 2022-23 CWOC training season will tentatively begin in December.
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.”
| Date Taken: | 04.15.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 04.15.2022 18:16 |
| Story ID: | 418633 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 610 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Fort McCoy ends 2021-22 CWOC season with training of nearly 300 students, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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