Tent, shelter building among main skills taught during Fort McCoy CWOC

Through five classes of the Fort McCoy Cold-Weather Operations Course (CWOC), students trained to effectively build improvised shelters and Artic 10-person tents.

The training to build a shelter — either in a tent or an improvised shelter — is critical to everything students learn in the course, said CWOC Instructor Hunter Heard. In addition to Heard, training was also coordinated by fellow instructors Manny Ortiz 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.

Students spend several days in the field surviving in improvised shelters that they built with materials they find and have with them, Heard said. Overall, students spend approximately 20 hours during their 14 days of training learning about and building improvised shelters.

The most important factor for each improvised shelter is making sure it’s well insulated. Some students have used evergreen boughs combined with leaves and debris. Others have incorporated Army ponchos with natural materials. “They are all unique,” Heard said.

With building the Arctic 10-person tent, students learn about the tent within the first three days of training. Then throughout the course, the students continue to use the tents during field training.

Students receive 12 to 16 hours overall with the Arctic tents, including while bivouacking. Tents are stowed inside ahkio sleds as students move from one training area to another during the field portion of the course.

“The steady training with the tents reinforces their skills and understanding with using them,” Heard said. “The students become very fluent with using them.

Students also learn how to set up heaters for the tents and how to prepare an area to set up the tents.

CWOC Class 20-01 student Sgt. Ty Laird of Fort Bragg, N.C., said learning about building shelters and other outdoor sessions were especially good lessons.

“Most helpful part of this course was the field portion,” Laird said. “I can leave here knowing I can train my Soldiers on how to properly wear the cold-weather clothing, how to build shelters, and various ways to pull the ahkio sled.”

CWOC Class 20-05 student Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Palutke with the 950th Engineer Company of Superior, Wis., said shelter building was the major skill set he’ll bring back to his unit to help train other Soldiers for cold-weather operations. He also said he was impressed with the entire course.

“The course enabled me to plan for operations in cold weather,” Palutke said. “The instructor knowledge base of subjects outside the regular instruction blocks also created interesting training opportunities while in the field.”

In addition to building improvised shelters and tents, CWOC students are trained on a variety of cold-weather subjects, including snowshoe training and skiing as well as how to use ahkio sleds and other gear. Training also focuses on terrain and weather analysis, risk management, cold-weather clothing, developing winter fighting positions in the field, and camouflage and concealment.

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 each year since 1984.