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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
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Firefighters wearing cold-water immersion protective suits hold surface ice rescue training Jan. 11, 2023, at Big Sandy Lake at Fort McCoy, Wis., for members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department. The training was done in conjunction with ice rescue training for the department's dive team where a simulated underwater victim was also rescued by a diver. The Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department is among only a small number of military fire departments with a dive team and ice rescue capabilities. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)
(Photo Credit: Scott Sturkol)VIEW ORIGINAL
On Jan. 11 at Fort McCoy’s Big Sandy Lake, the largest lake on the installation’s South Post, firefighters with Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department dive team took time to also practice rescuing people trapping in ice at the surface.
The training for surface ice rescue was in addition to diving training the dive team was completing at the lake Jan. 11, but it’s just as important, said Assistant Fire Chief Hunter Young.
Young explained the main scenario they practiced for each firefighter on the ice that day.
“We were doing (a scenario) that has a fisherman who has fallen through the ice,” Young said. “The first team we have that goes out is going to rescue the fisherman through a surface rescue, and then the fisherman is relays back that his partner has went under water. From there we activate a dive team. The dive team then gets ready, goes in, and finds the second victim.”
That first team Young discussed donned mustang survival and rescue suits, which is a protective suit for going into cold water. According to the suit’s product description, it states they are “immersion survival and rescue suits to keep people warm in cold water or extreme weather conditions. Suits also help maintain buoyancy when submerged in water.”
The firefighters on the surface ice rescue squad also used a sturdy inflatable Rapid Deployment Craft, or RDC, to help get the victim out of the water where they fell through the ice.
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 the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
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