Alaska Training Event Unites Nations, Hones Best Practices

By Amaani Lyle

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12, 2015 – Some eight months of planning culminated in the international Cold Regions Military Mountaineering Collaborative Event held at the Northern Warfare Training Center in Black Rapids, Alaska, where 12 nations strengthened cooperation and improved capabilities in frigid and mountainous regions, participants reported yesterday.

In a conference call, participants from the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Canada, Australia and Japan shared their perspectives on the Feb. 9-12 U.S. Army Alaska-hosted collaborative event, where participants also included representatives from the United Kingdom, Norway, Mongolia, Nepal and Germany.

“Being in the military, we focus on facing some very harsh conditions, sometimes cold, sometimes vertical,” said Army Lt. Col. Mark Adams, Northern Warfare Training Center commander. “The intent is to bring our senior leaders together to share our knowledge, explain what each of our organizations offer and figure out how we can better collaborate in the future through training and instructor exchanges.”

Specialized, Hands-on Training

As the Army’s premiere cold region proponent, the NWTC landscape enables more than 1,200 soldiers each year to get specialized hands-on training that facilitates skiing and ice-climbing opportunities and increases overall warfighting capabilities in high-altitude operations.

The broad U.S. delegation for the event includes participants from the Army Mountaineer Warfare School in Vermont; the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in California, the 10th Mountain Division Ranger Battalion from Fort Drum, New York, and the Alaska National Guard.

Lt. Col. Francois Dufault of the Canadian army’s Advanced Warfare Center described the ability to discuss common training and operating issues with partners and allies in the unique Arctic environment as “tremendous.”

“Although we know there are a lot of nations that are interested in cold weather and mountaineering, there was a lot … that we did not necessarily know about how to operate,” he said. “We still have to look more in depth, so this is a great opportunity to make a linkage with all those nations.”

Lt. Col. Mats Forsman, commander of Sweden’s Winter Warfare School, emphasized the importance of multinational training and the virtue of diverse tactics and techniques. “We always have things to learn from each other. … We do things in one sort of way, [and] the Canadians [and] Americans do it in another,” he said.

Maj. Nikolai Lundstenn of the Danish Home Guard said he valued building new capabilities under Arctic conditions, particularly in Greenland.

“This is a fact-finding mission where we are trying to figure out on a tactical level the do’s and don’ts … on how to develop a mountaineering structure,” he said. “That is something we are not aware of, since we have no mountains in Denmark.”

Lt. Col. Matthew Rogerson, the Australian army’s military mountaineering representative, noted that although Australia is a great distance from the Arctic, it nonetheless has significant cold areas in winter for which its armed forces are responsible.

Renewing Old Friendships, Making New Ones

“The Australian army continues to have a global mission … with our U.S. partners, … and this has been a great opportunity to build on that with benchmarking,” Rogerson said, “and … to renew some old friendships and make some new ones.”

Col. Yuji Hirata of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s Cold Weather Training Center, said he found the training beneficial in comparison to similar weather and terrain conditions in northern Japan.

“By having honest discussions together, the understanding of each other has gotten better, and I’m hoping to have a stronger bond as a partner nation,” Hirata said.

Ultimately, the event’s lessons learned will be incorporated in future missions and operating procedures in myriad locations across the Pacific and beyond, Adams said.

"We hope this type of event continues in the future either in Alaska or one of our partner nations,” said Army Lt. Col. Alan Brown, U.S. Army Alaska’s public affairs officer. “We want to build on the relationships we forged over this last week.”