Soldiers assigned to 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Force Group (Airborne) traveled to Montana's National Guard Training Facility, Fort William Henry Harrison, to conduct cold weather training beginning February 7.
Offering a complex and austere training area, Fort Harrison provides Soldiers opportunities to refine cold weather tactics and train with equipment in order to improve operational proficiency and to gain knowledge in how their teams and equipment perform in a harsh environment.
With Fort Harrison's unique terrain and cold-weather conditions, 3rd Battalion validated Special Forces Operational Detachment - Alpha teams and its support-company functions in operating in extremely cold, austere environments.
"This training definitely helps us with our mission because we are going to be setting up retransmission sites in austere, cold weather environments, and we are going to need to know how to get out to those locations and sustain ourselves while we are out there," said Staff Sgt. Jacob Breslin, Signal Detachment Noncommissioned Officer in Charge, 3rd Battalion, 10th SFG (A).
The Soldiers honed their skills in a variety of cold weather activities from snowmobile training to live fire sniper and automatic weapon ranges.
"Planning for this exercise meant finding an environment where we could conduct cold weather training to replicate Eastern Europe, our current operating environment, and this location allowed us to do tactical training and incorporate cold weather training tasks," said Maj. Douglas Reynolds, commander, Company C, 3rd Battalion, 10th SFG (A).
Fort Harrison holds a significant title of birthplace of special operations due to the forming of the 1st Special Service Force during WWII when both Canadian and U.S. troops began to train for the war in
Europe.
"1st Special Service Force was a critical part of Special Forces history. Our lineage where we came from and being able to train in the same locations as the Soldiers who came before us is incredibly important to us," said Reynolds. "From this training we want to take away that we can do unconventional warfare in a wintertime environment."
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