New heights of warfare: Marines train in mountainous, arctic conditions

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MARINE MOUNTAIN WARFARE TRAINING CENTER, Calif. — U.S. Marines are an elite fighting force known for tenacious amphibious combat from ships to shores, but they are now training for missions far from any coastline — in mountains, snow and ice to be ready to fight battles in places near China, Russia or the Arctic.

Several hundred Marines from North Carolina battled the elements last month at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, high in the snowpacked Sierra Nevada midway between Reno, Nevada, and Yosemite National Park. Much of the area is about 8,500 feet above sea level, and the mountain peaks can reach a daunting 12,000 feet.

The Marines from Camp Lejeune traded the swamps of North Carolina for cold-weather warfare training where the air is thin and an environment more than a mile and a half in altitude makes any movements difficult.

Their drills included live-firing M-27 automatic rifles, avoiding frostbite from windchill created by helicopter transport rotors, and building defensive fortifications using snowbanks capable of stopping machine gun rounds.

The last phase of the Marines’ training included six days of simulated combat for about 600 Marines. Forces from the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment — storied warriors since World War I — battled an in-place enemy force of Marine artillerymen from Camp Pendleton, California.

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PHOTOS: Cold Warfare: Marines train for Arctic conflict high in the mountains of California

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The attacking Marines were ordered to conduct a simulated shore landing from ships to a mountainous island, said Maj. Michael Boyle, lead instructor at the warfare center. They were then instructed to fight across heavily forested mountains, in some places covered in snow up to 6 feet deep, toward an objective on the other side of the island about 9 miles away.

The goal of the carefully planned operation was to seize an airport.

Marine leaders won’t say it, but the mountain island scenario plays out exactly the way an amphibious landing would go on the east coast of Taiwan, one of the most mountainous islands in the world and an announced target of the Chinese government and its People’s Liberation Army.

“All these things do equate to the ‘pacing threat’ that the National Defense Strategy has focused on,” Col. Ronald Storer, commander of the training center, said in an interview. The colonel was using the current Pentagon term for the threat posed by China.

Realistic training

Mountain training in all types of weather teaches Marines how to move, fight and survive in difficult terrain, the colonel said.

Training here is more realistic than in the past, instructors say. Rather than tightly scripted scenarios, Marine lieutenants get orders for general objectives to achieve and then must figure out how to achieve them.

Earlier, in remarks at a graduation ceremony here for Marine scouts, Col. Storer said the NATO alliance was conducting regular joint exercises for the new scouts to leverage their mountain warfare training.

“Skis and snowshoes is the name of our game right now with our partners and allies,” Col. Storer said.

Center instructors on skis and on foot closely monitored training and exercises. They are called “red hats” after their wool beanies.

After two decades of training for counterterrorism deployments in the mountains of Afghanistan, the new focus of mountain warfare exercise is on the next potential war with a more traditional power, perhaps China, North Korea or Russia. Weather conditions in the Sierras are similar to the frigid fighting conditions U.S. military forces would likely face in those theaters.

China and Russia are seeking new military bases and control of far northern territories.

Russia’s threats to several northern NATO allies during its war in Ukraine are also driving an emphasis on cold weather training, said Maj. Gen. Thomas B. Savage. As commander of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command at Twentynine Palms, California, he is in charge of the training center.

Marines recently conducted a large training exercise in Norway, about 150 miles from the Russian border. The Arctic landscape required cold-weather warfighting skills.

The threats are not just in Europe. North Korea poses new dangers, the two-star general said, noting that Marines fought there in cold weather seven decades ago during the Korean War.

“We’ve got to be prepared for any climate and places, and with these enduring threats, the chances that we have to do something and fight up in the Arctic are growing over time,” the general said in an interview.

Arctic push

One sign of future military operations in the Arctic was the March 19 announcement that the Navy and Marine Corps were creating an Arctic service medal.

The Navy is ramping up operations and exercises in the Arctic. Navy leaders have called for establishing a more assertive military presence in the region, widely viewed as an effort to resist expansive Chinese and Russian claims.

China has declared itself a “near-Arctic” power, indicating that Beijing plans to claim resource-rich territory in polar regions despite having no borders near the zone.

In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced plans to make China a “polar power.” Beijing is building large, icebreaking ships.

Under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has been reopening older bases in the Arctic and stepping up regional exercises, according to the Navy’s “Blue Arctic” strategy published in 2021.

Potential cooperation between Russia and the West to share the resources of the Arctic has largely collapsed in the wake of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

Those eligible for the Arctic award include sailors and Marines serving in units that conduct an ice-covered strait transit in places such as the Bering Strait or Barrow Strait, or a transit of the North Pole, the Navy said in a statement. Marines and sailors assigned to future ice camps or operations centers on ice floes are eligible for the medal as well.

Another region where Marines are deployed to cold-weather mountains is South America.

Enemy forces are expected to use the cold weather of the mountains to negate U.S. military technological advantages. Cutting-edge military technology has done little to change high-altitude warfare, Maj. Boyle said.

“Other than minute things — little widgets, pieces of gear, and then fabric that is better and more waterproof — there’s nothing that gives anybody a real asymmetric advantage,” he said.

“Mobility and sustainment are king. How good are you on snowshoes? How good are you on skis? And can you build a plan to keep your Marines fed and watered?”

Survival skills

Gunnery Sgt. David Ferguson, the senior enlisted Marine in charge of training at the center, said Marines are first taught skills just for surviving in extreme cold.

Troops are issued white boots with rounded fronts that can protect feet from frostbite in extreme cold weather. The boots are called “Mickey Mouse boots” based on their similarity to the shoes worn by the famed cartoon character.

Initial tent training includes instruction on how to use small portable heaters and how to boil water for drinking and cooking. The Marines use cold-weather tents that can protect against raging blizzards and temperatures of 40 below zero.

An upgraded battery-powered heating system is safer than fuel-powered heaters that can produce toxic gas.

One unit at the center is experimenting with a heated pouch that can extend battery life, which is reduced in colder temperatures.

Sgt. Ferguson said one of the major challenges for cold weather warfare is the heavy reliance on electronics for communications and information-sharing.

“The biggest pacing factor that we have is battery life, lithium-ion, how you keep it warm,” he said.

“When we go to sleep at night, my jacket is just full of batteries, trying to keep everything warm. So that sustains me longer, [requires] less resupply, less fuel being consumed.”

During training on a recent day, a group of about 100 Marines took turns firing at hillside targets about 70 yards away.

The targets, small tombstone-shaped metal with faces, are still called “Ivans” — a reference to Soviet Red Army troops that once confronted U.S. and NATO troops across a divided Europe.

“It’s a throwback to the Cold War,” Sgt. David Ferguson said.

The M-27 is a relatively new carbine that is replacing the M-16 and M-4 rifles. Marines say the weapon is slightly heavier than earlier rifles but performs well in training.

Groups of 10 Marines fired 30 rounds each during target practice, standing or kneeling.

Another part of training is moving through rough terrain as a unit, whether in company-sized groups with 100 to 250 Marines or as a battalion comprising four companies. Marines dig into the snow to set up living quarters and defensive positions.

Another element of the training is what the Marines call an akhio huddle. Akhio is a Finnish term for a cargo sled.

At a snow-covered landing zone called LZ8500, about 50 Marines were practicing the huddle, designed to prevent frostbite caused by the wind chill generated by the rotor wash when getting off of a helicopter.

Groups of six Marines, each with packs weighing about 70 pounds, would gather around a 50-pound sled as they practiced boarding the helicopter in cold weather.

Some Marines at the base get around in rubber-tread vehicles called Tucker Sno-cats, which come in 12-person and four-person models. At around 9,000 feet, another group of Marines worked to set up a defensive position by digging snow and sawing chunks of packed snow used as bricks for fortifications.

The positions are called ambush sites for use in attacking advancing enemy troops.

Korean roots

The history of the Mountain Warfare Center dates to 1951 and the Korean War. The first winter of the conflict led to more than 7,000 U.S. casualties because of noncombat factors, mostly related to cold weather at the desperate battle of the Chosin Reservoir.

American and allied troops were facing off against Chinese military forces who had crossed into what is now North Korea to fight the U.S.-led United Nations force.

The Marine Corps set up the center on 47,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land near the Walker River in the Toiyabe National Forest, originally known as Pickel Meadow. It is in Bridgeport, California.

Some have called for the mountain training center in California to be moved to Alaska, but Col. Storer said the Sierra location is better for Marines because the snow is wetter. The drier snow in Alaska is less suited for a maritime-oriented service.

“You can take a knee up in Alaska, get up, dust the snow off, and you don’t have any problem,” he said. “You take a knee in a maritime winter, and you could soak through your uniform and cause [yourself] problems down the road.”

Initial cold-weather training helped Marines heading to the front lines in Korea learn the proper use of boots, gloves and overcoats and how to move through snow.

The training center grew over the decades after the Korean War to support cold weather and mountain training for Marines.

“In the winter, the training is about thriving in the harsh environment but also affecting maneuver against the thinking enemy,” said Col. Storer. “That’s where we end up at the end of 30 days of winter training.”

Not every Marine goes through the training. About 6,000 to 8,000 trainees a year visit the center for either two winter exercises or four summer exercises that emphasize mountain climbing and other high-altitude skills.

Foreign troops, including small contingents from Britain, France and Israel, are also trained.

Col. Storer said the Marines today are as strong as ever: “They have the same tenacity, same drive, to protect the Marine to the left and right of them and to meet the objective. So, whether it’s snowing or it’s raining, or it’s summer, I don’t think that changes.”

Maj. Boyle, the senior officer instructor, said learning to communicate in challenging terrain is a key part of the training, especially regarding the proper handling of equipment that can send information between commanders and troops.

The base even trains Marines on mules and horses — often the only way to move some material and people.

Sgt. Ferguson, the enlisted chief instructor, said Marine specialists trained at the center are interspersed within larger Marine units in places such as northern Japan or South Korea to help them lead cold weather and mountain operations.

“Just having those guys within different companies and different units … prior to deploying to a cold weather theater, to have that experience that they can then cross-pollinate with the rest of their Marines and spread that information” is vital, Sgt. Ferguson said.

Maj. Boyle said the most valuable asset for the Marines fighting in the mountains and cold weather is their character rather than the quality of their new equipment or the intensity of their training.

“By and large, the biggest force multiplier is the incalculable human will,” he said. “At the end of the day, small unit leadership is what’s king in this environment, and I’ve seen that across four years of training battalions here.”