US Army Cold Weather & Mountain School 1962 US Army; The Big Picture TV-525
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“Deep in the heart of the Alaskan wilderness, a picked group of soldiers climbs the rugged peaks and glaciers of the far north. These are soldiers of the United States Army attending a unique school -a tough, rough, demanding school specializing in equipping troops to live and fight under Arctic conditions. This week THE BIG PICTURE joins a class of volunteers at the U.S. Army Cold Weather and Mountain School. Travel along with us as these soldiers learn mountaineering, rope bridge construction, and other skills in one of the world’s most hostile environments.”
“The Big Picture” episode TV-525
The Big Picture TV Series playlist:
Public domain film from the US National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
The Northern Warfare Training Center (NWTC) is a United States Army Alaska installation located in Black Rapids, Alaska. It is the Active Army’s only Cold Region Training Proponent.
Arctic, subarctic, and mountain environments are brutally unforgiving to the unprepared. Units that have successfully fought in these environments have historically been those with special individual skills, are physically and mentally tough, and have extensive experience and expertise operating in harsh conditions…
At the end of World War II, the mission of the Mountain Training Center at Camp Hale was moved to Camp Carson, Colorado. Camp Carson was the only US Army Center for this type of training until 1948, when the decision was made to organize a school for arctic operations at Big Delta, Alaska later named Fort Greely.
In November 1948, the Army Arctic School was established at Big Delta with the primary mission of providing instruction in summer and winter operations under arctic and sub-arctic conditions. This training included arctic survival, mountaineering, skiing, and solutions to tactical, technical and logistical problems in cold regions. In July 1949, the Army Arctic School was redesignated the Army Arctic Indoctrination School, with no change in the mission.
For approximately eight years, training in mountain and cold weather operations were conducted simultaneously at Camp Carson, Colorado and Fort Greely, Alaska. However, in 1957 the total responsibility for cold weather and mountain training was transferred to Alaska. The Arctic Indoctrination School was redesignated the US Army Cold Weather and Mountain School and was given the mission of developing cold weather and mountain warfare doctrine, tactics and techniques, and training individuals in these subjects
Throughout the years as the Arctic School, Arctic Indoctrination School, and Cold Weather and Mountain School, training was conducted on an individual basis. Students from reserve component and active Army units throughout the continental United States and Alaska were graduated as instructors in cold weather and mountain operations. However, early in 1963, the Department of the Army concluded that the training in cold weather and mountain operations would be of more beneficial to units than individual training. Therefore, in April 1963, the US Army Cold Weather and Mountain School was redesignated the US Army Northern Warfare Training Center and given the mission of training individuals as well as units in the conduct of warfare in cold and mountainous regions.
Today, The Northern Warfare Training Center is responsible for maintaining the US Army’s state of the art in cold weather and mountain warfare. The Center provides training in these subjects to both active and reserve components and assists in the development of tactics and techniques for such operations…
The Army Mountain Warfare School (AMWS) is an United States Army school located at the Camp Ethan Allen Training Site, Jericho, Vermont to train soldiers in mountain warfare, the specialized skills required for operating in mountainous terrain. The school is located in Vermont’s Green Mountains…
Fort Greely is a United States Army launch site for anti-ballistic missiles located approximately 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. It is also the home of the Cold Regions Test Center (CRTC), as Fort Greely is one of the coldest areas in Alaska, and can accommodate cold, extreme cold, or temperate weather tests depending on the season…
There was an earlier Fort Greely on Kodiak Island…
