Photo By Scott Sturkol | Army ROTC cadets complete field training April 11, 2025, at Fort McCoy, Wis. They are...... read more read more
Subscribe
Though 2025 is only four months in, Fort McCoy is earning its motto as “The Total Force Training Center” as it has been the location of several training events for Army ROTC cadets from across the Midwest region.
Fifty-four teams of ROTC cadets competed Feb. 21-22 in the Northern Warfare Challenge event held at Fort McCoy and La Crosse, Wis.
ROTC teams with U.S. Army Cadet Command came from all around the United States as they battled through a wide variety of challenges and long ruck marching courses in cold and snow to fight for the top spot as challenge champion.
Lt. Col. Brian Knutson with University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Military Science Department said at Fort McCoy cadets faced a variety of challenges during the competition. The cadets then did a 12-mile ruck in La Crosse, Wis., on the second day of their competition.
“The competition is designed for Army ROTC teams to compete against each other in cold-weather survival skills that also test their physical endurance,” said Knutson in a previous news article, whose ROTC team from La Crosse won the title two years ago. “The first day … at Fort McCoy, we were testing various skills related to cold weather. They were being tested on their knowledge of weather, knots, cold-weather injuries, and then how to evacuate a casualty in cold weather.”
More recently, on April 11, 71 Army ROTC cadets and nearly a dozen staff members with Army ROTC units at seven universities in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan trained at Fort McCoy on April 11 in field training lanes to build their skills.
“The cadets were participating in a combined field training exercise,” said Maj. Michael Centola, associate professor of military science and executive officer for the Badger ROTC Battalion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Schools came together to train on small unit tactics, troop leading procedures, and land navigation. “This was the last large-scale training exercise for the third-year cadets prior to their formal assessment at Fort Knox (Ky.) later this summer.”
Cadet Grace Sandretti with the University of Wisconsin-Madison ROTC Program, who is a senior cadet, discussed her history of completing training at Fort McCoy.
“I think it's a great,” Sandretti said. “We’ve been really lucky to have this space and this opportunity to use Fort McCoy. It’s a great training environment. It’s a great training space. It’s beautiful out here, and it’s given me the chance to practice tactics in an actual wooded environment and setting. The past four years has been a treat to be able to come here.”
Knutson said in February that Fort McCoy allowed for their challenge to give a realistic feel for the cold-weather skills the cadets were competing in during the many Northern Warfare Challenge events.
“It’s just a great time for all these teams to get together, have a little competition, and enjoy the cold weather here in Wisconsin,” Knutson said.
Even back in 2020, Army ROTC cadets were at McCoy to build their skills. Dozens of cadets and ROTC support staff from seven universities in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula combined for 10 days of field training in August 2020 at Fort McCoy.
“This summer, because of COVID, the normal summer training that we do down at Fort Knox (Ky.) got canceled for trying to mitigate against COVID-19, so we brought that training out here to Fort McCoy,” said Maj. Dan Bartlett, professor of military science at the Marquette University ROTC program in Milwaukee and operations officer for the training. “We conducted training through a situational exercise and tactics. We also completed weapons training with M4s at live-fire ranges, and we held land-navigation training.”
The team of cadre leading the training were designated as “Task Force McCoy.” Bartlett said the cadets performed well.
“This is one of those culminating types of exercises for ROTC cadets,” Bartlett said. “Normally this kind of training takes place between the junior and senior year in the program. It’s really an assessment of their leadership abilities, and we are testing them on those abilities in fairly stressful environments. Once they successfully complete this kind of training, that makes us confident we can push them out to the Army force next year, and they will be competent and valued additions to the force.”
Every year, hundreds of ROTC cadets get some type of training done at Fort McCoy. And in that sense, it’s indicative of Fort McCoy’s capabilities as “The Total Force Training Center,” post officials said.
Learn more about Army ROTC by visiting https://www.army.mil/rotc.
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 Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 04.21.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.21.2025 12:25 |
| Story ID: | 495769 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 170 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Continuous 2025 Army ROTC training at Fort McCoy demonstrates installation’s capabilities, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
