GRUBBNäSUDDEN, Sweden – Fifteen Airmen from the Kentucky Air National Guard accomplished an arctic warfare coaching course throughout two weeks of area workouts on the Swedish Subarctic Warfare Center.
The fight controllers, pararescuemen, particular reconnaissance personnel, search, evasion, resistance and escape Airmen, and assist troops traveled to Sweden in January to construct on present relationships with their European companions, mentioned Senior Master Sgt. Sascha Kvale, a fight controller flight chief for the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron.
“One of our squadron missions is to support the active duty — specifically what’s going on in Europe right now,“ Kvale said. “So we’re building relationships with our European partners. We have a relationship with the Swedish Special Operation Group joint terminal attack controllers and the Swedish Subarctic Warfare Center. We’ve joined them for training for the past two years.”
Swedish Army Sgt. 1st Class Frederick Ragnarsson, head teacher on the warfare middle, mentioned the 123rd got here to Sweden as a result of the Swedes have the most effective coaching programs in the world for arctic environments.
“I think we have a good partnership going on,” Ragnarsson mentioned. “We try to facilitate good training for the guys and make them better warriors in this kind of environment.”
Kvale mentioned the arctic coaching is critical to familiarize his Airmen with working in the brutal situations of freezing temperatures.
“Nothing works right here prefer it does in Central Command, Afghanistan and Iraq. Everything is way more difficult, and complex gear typically doesn’t operate,“ mentioned Kvale. “Sometimes our GPS units’ batteries die inside an hour. All of our batteries get cold-soaked, so once you put a brand new battery in, it nonetheless doesn’t work. Also, for those who’re not sustaining weapon programs appropriately, they’ll freeze up utterly.
“Sometimes it’s just the old-school, simple things that work best here.”
The coaching is a fundamentals course in which particular ways Airmen learn to arrange patrol bases, carry out small unit ways and execute dismounted patrols — all on skis, which among the operators had by no means used a lot earlier than.
“Just moving from point A to point B in this environment is so much more complicated than anything we’ve done before,” Kvale mentioned. “Here we conducted ambushes with rockets and machine guns, things we’ve been doing for years, but just because of the environment it became much more complicated.”
While the course could also be primary, it actually isn’t straightforward, Ragnarsson mentioned.
“The basic stuff is what you need to survive out here,” he mentioned. “To begin with, in order to transport yourself, you need to go by skis. You need to be quite disciplined in order to maintain your physical fitness. To just maintain your daily tasks is a struggle out here.”
Kvale agreed.
“We don’t inherently understand how to operate in the Arctic or the subarctic like this. And until you come out here and experience it, there’s no way to explain it to somebody. Just the simple process of staying warm enough to not die is weeks and weeks of practice in itself.”
Staff Sgt. Keith Schneider, a fight controller with the 123rd, mentioned that one thing so simple as selecting the perfect clothes is usually a problem.
“It’s tough to start cold, but that’s one of the things that they really teach out here. But once you start working and moving, you start warming up. The biggest challenge for me is just the clothing — what to wear and when to wear it, and how to keep everything dry.”
Leaders of the 123rd and the Swedes agreed the course was profitable, with every crew studying one thing new from the joint coaching.
“The training went really well,” Ragnarsson mentioned. “I’m impressed with the guys. They have a really good spirit going. It’s a good group of guys and they pushed themselves and had great progress from Day One and up. I mean, it’s a real steep learning curve. Some of the guys have never been on skis, and now they can go places on skis, bringing their stuff, the webbing, the weapons and all the team gear.”
Kvale mentioned the course “was some of the most challenging and beneficial training I have done in decades, to be quite honest.”
“The Swedes run an especially skilled course right here. I like to recommend it for any particular operations unit or anyone that may come out right here and do that coaching. It will make you higher at primary ways,“ he mentioned.
“If you can do tactics at the subarctic training facility, you can do those tactics anywhere in the world.”