What a difference a year makes.

As March 2022 ended, U.S. Army Alaska and its two combat brigades were wrapping up the first regional combat training center rotation in Alaska.

The Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center 22-02 exercise pitted a group of paratroopers from the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, against their sister unit, the Arctic Wolves from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, in the sub-arctic terrain and climate of Interior Alaska.

The Department of the Army had recently acknowledged the ongoing and growing strategic importance of Alaska to the nation’s defense, evidenced in published Arctic strategy documents. The Army needed Alaska soldiers to revitalize the Arctic ethos and, after two decades of training to deploy to decidedly non-Arctic theaters, to return to being the Army’s Arctic professionals.

The normally slow pace of change kicked into high gear. On June 6, 2022, U.S. Army Alaska transformed to the reactivated 11th Airborne Division and both maneuver brigades ditched their 25th Infantry Division monikers.

At Fort Wainwright, the Stryker vehicle platform was set aside and the 1st Stryker Brigade became the 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team with a growing focus on air assault operations.

At Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the 4th Brigade became the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) and both brigades refocused their training to cold weather, high altitude and high elevation mountainous operations.

Key in the ongoing transformation was a need for more Arctic experts in the units to help pass critical knowledge throughout the formations.

Enter the Northern Warfare Training Center. NWTC wasn’t new to training Arctic professionals, but the need for more meant a busy lead-up to their winter schedule.

“We were asked to evaluate the feasibility of, and then plan for, an increased student throughput following JPMRC 22-02,” said Maj. Lon McBride, NWTC commandant. “The intent was to reinvigorate the cold weather training program within the division in support of 1st brigade’s transformation and the reactivation of the 11th Airborne Division.”

Faced with the daunting task of greatly expanding their winter mission, McBride and his team began the work of planning for the upcoming season’s changes while continuing the summer mission with mountaineering training and classes.

“The significant instructor growth required to support the significant student increase was the biggest planning and resourcing challenge,” McBride said. “We are extremely thankful for the support of the division staff and leadership within the subordinate commands for assisting in our manning growth.”

The additional student throughput required bringing in a second training team of instructors and support personnel, McBride said. Additional resourcing was also required for transportation, feeding and equipment maintenance to support the student increase.

Between November 2022 and March 2023, student throughput in NWTC cold weather courses increased by 38 percent, resulting in the largest student load the school has ever experienced.

More students, more trainers and more classes also brought the need for more training space than what was available at the NWTC’s Black Rapids Training Site, commonly called BRTS.

“We planned to conduct 10 of our 22 classes at Fort Wainwright,” McBride explained, “but due to resourcing conflicts with billeting we only conducted eight classes at Fort Wainwright and the remaining at BRTS.

“BRTS is a purpose-built training area with all of the resources on hand to support our training, while Fort Wainwright requires some additional transportation and resource synchronization,” McBride said. “We validated that Fort Wainwright is a viable training location, but reaffirmed the significant tangible and intangible benefits of BRTS.”

McBride pointed to his team as the driving force for the winter’s successes.

“As with the Army, our cadre are our greatest asset and they did a phenomenal job facilitating the significant course growth this past winter,” he said. “Overwhelmingly, student feedback at the end of each course was supremely positive.”

McBride said this winter’s enhanced training schedule reinforced the need for students to be in optimal physical condition to navigate the challenging terrain of both training locations as well as withstand Interior Alaska’s brutal cold temperatures.

He also pointed to the need for units to conduct the Cold Weather Indoctrination Course at their level for all personnel before heading to the field for training, including NWTC courses.

“The CWIC program is in place to ensure every soldier assigned to the 11th Airborne Division understands how to wear their issued cold weather clothing ensemble, employ the arctic 10-person tent and stove heater arctic, and move over snow on snowshoes and with their fighting load,” McBride explained. “Conducting this familiarization and training prior to attending the intensive training in our courses enables greater training outcomes as students have a chance to acclimate to the cold, build confidence in wearing their issued cold weather clothing, and more confidently operate for extended periods in sub-freezing and sub-zero temperatures.”

The increased class rate, for now, won’t extend to NWTC’s summer training schedule.

“As the training proponent for the Army’s cold weather training program, our primary charge and charter is to conduct cold weather training,” McBride explained. “We are building the capacity for future mountaineering growth, but will not see an increased growth in mountaineering students this summer.”