Serving in the cold doesn’t just include the temperature.
A summer day on a glacier can feel like winter, but if that’s where Alaska soldiers are called to fight, they have to be ready.
That’s where the Northern Warfare Training Center in Black Rapids excels, training soldiers for every mission.
West Point Military Academy Cadet Jeff Steiner is one of the soldiers taking part in glacier training.
He says he’s surprised by the rapid temperature change from the ground to the glacier.
“We put on cramp-ons and our harnesses and learned how to walk around on the ice which I thought, sounds kind of self-explanatory, but it’s a little harder than it seems,” Steiner said.
The ice becomes a classroom and the soldiers, students, but the lesson is potentially life-saving.
They form rope teams, the best defense against some of the glacier’s deadly hidden dangers.
“Glaciers have crevasses and a few other obstacles or other dangerous areas that we wanted them to be able to navigate safely,” said training officer Capt. Justin Lynch. Read More