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Mountain Warfare School 2009
Jericho, VT
CDT Joseph Trovato
Over last year's winter break, I had the opportunity to attend the winter phase of Army Mountain Warfare School. Going into it I did not know what to expect. All I knew was that it was a very rare opportunity, the training would be intense, and that Vermont was going to be very cold in January.
No one seemed to know much about the school or the training it would entail. Some of the cadre had known people who had gone through it, but the accounts of the school and what to expect were vague at best. I tried to prepare myself the best I could. I figured it would be physically demanding to be climbing mountains in several feet of snow, so I knew I would have to be in good shape. I also was able to track down an old mountain warfare field manual, which showed that I would need to have a good knowledge of about 20 different knots as well. Thus I began to ruck and run up Bascom hill as much as I could, and when school let out for the semester I did the same thing in my parents' neighborhood. With the aid of the old field manual and the internet, I also began to teach myself the many knots I would need to know.
Finally the day arrived, and I flew out of Milwaukee to the small town of Burlington, Vermont, with more equipment than I ever knew the Army could issue. I spent the first night in Burlington with a cadet from Mississippi who was already having problems with the cold weather. He and I both sat on our beds all night going over knots on the chords we had brought to practice.
We arrived at the isolated Ethan Allen Firing Range in Jericho, Vermont the next morning, and much to my amazement, I received even more equipment- skis, snowshoes, an altimeter, an avalanche detection device, a rubber duck M-4, ski boots, crampons, ice climbing picks and various other pieces of equipment.
As soon as the training began I knew I would have my work cut out for me. Not only was I one of only 12 cadets in our class of 74, the vast majority of my classmates were either in the Special Forces or Rangers. The rest were members of the Vermont National Guard. Additionally, I learned about all the ways you could wash out of the course. To be honest, while I was somewhat worried about the idea of climbing mountains and ice walls, my greatest fear was failing the class and having to return to Badger Battalion and explain what happened.
We would have to pass a knot test, in which we would have to tie 20 different knots and state their purposes and checkpoints within two minutes for each knot. We would have to pass a written test, land navigation, an avalanche recovery test and make a successful ascent up a wall of ice. Additionally, we would then have to put all of our knot knowledge to practical use on our FTX when we would have to build several different climbing systems safe for our element to move and a Medevac system safe enough to move a casualty through mountainous terrain. I studied for hours every night after we completed the day's training. In the end it all paid off, but out of our class of 74, we graduated 42. I was honored to be one of those 42.
The culmination of Mountain Warfare School was the three day FTX into the mountains. We had balmy -5 degree weather while we slept packed into our tents like sardines with 12 other guys. The floor of our tent was snow, but when we were able to keep a little bit warmer by digging down a couple feet into the snow to get out of the wind. The best part was climbing to the peaks and the rappelling off of the snow-covered cliffs to get back down.
In the end, Mountain Warfare School was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It pushed me to both my physical and mental limits, and I learned more about myself and the fears I could overcome than with anything else I have ever done. If anyone ever gets the chance to go to this, do it, and remember, as the sign above our barracks said, "The Gods of the valleys are not the Gods of the hills."