The Norwich Guidon

The Norwich Guidon, student newspaper of Norwich University, is published twice monthly and has won numerous awards for excellence in its class.

Reporters, editors, and managers for The Norwich Guidon are students at the university who work under the guidance of a Communications faculty advisor. Student editors learn electronic pagination using state of the art computer equipment.

If you have any questions or comments about the paper, please contact Professor Ken Bush at kbush@norwich.edu.

MCW conducts annual Hawks' Watch training

By Dan Robinson
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Norwich University junior Troy Mason had a very eventful weekend, packed full of ice climbing, belaying, and the thrill of a mock rescue of two injured ice climbers.

The 20-year-old computer science major from Albany, NY, is currently in his third year as a member of the Norwich Army ROTC's Mountain Cold Weather Company, and is also the team leader of the unit's rescue team.

"This is the first Hawks Watch I have participated in," Mason said. "From what I have heard from the seniors and the Army cadre, this has been the one that's gone the smoothest since they have been here."

On the weekend of the Feb. 22-23, the Mountain Cold Weather Company (MCW) conducted a mock rescue of two injured ice climbers that were "stranded somewhere at Smugglers Notch."

The completion of the exercise wrapped up this year's Hawks Watch, which is a two-weekend training program that increases the company's knowledge of cold weather search and rescue techniques. It is a hands-on learning program that encourages the readiness of MCW in case of an actual call for assistance in locating a person lost in the mountains of central Vermont.

According to the Norwich University web site, "in 1960, SFC Don Jennings started the MCW rescue team."

The mission of this organization is to provide Northern New England with a rescue service capable of conducting search and rescue operations at any time of year under any climatic condition.

The web site also stated that the rescue team has gone on to provide this service on many occasions and in Northern New England, the MCW rescue team is recognized as an on-call asset for high risk rescues.

Army Major Augustus R. Dawson is the officer in charge of the Mountain Cold Weather Company at Norwich and is responsible for their training.

"The company has basically two layers of training," Dawson said. "You have basic mountaineering, which is taught to freshmen and sophomore cadets. Then you get into the technical training, which is the real search and rescue part, and those are juniors and seniors."

Dawson explained that the training they did that weekend was actual technical rescue training, something, he said, the members of the rescue team have spent the last two years getting ready for.

Matthew Gottschling, 21, is a business management major from Hilltown, Penn., who has also been a member of the MCW unit for three years, now, and is currently a member of the rescue team. According to Gottschling, Hawks Watch is basically a test of what your capabilities are as a member of the rescue team.

"Basically, it shows you where you stand training-wise," Gottschling said. "It shows the team what we need to work on, and what you can sustain, and what you can improve in a real life exercise: what goes well, what doesn't, and shows you how you can improve yourself."

Hawks Watch is the rescue team's test, according to Major Dawson. They test themselves on how well they have mastered the skills of the National Association of Search and Rescue (NASAR) training over the years.

NASAR training consists of the very basic ideas of rescue, clothing, eating right, hypothermia, first aid, how to report an incident, how to interview someone who has been injured, and is more oriented to the civilian side of mountaineering, according to Dawson.

"What we do is introduce NASAR in with the military mountaineering we teach them," Dawson said. "The survival, the technical climbing, all that accumulates with NASAR, and then the next year, where they really concentrate on the military mountaineering, and pulling all that together, and blend it in to the Hawks Watch."

According to Dawson, Hawks Watch is basically training for a scenario where there are people lost in a particular area, and the team needs to go search for them.

"Of course, you can't do a technical rescue until you find the person," Dawson said. "That first weekend was for searching, looking for clues, following a trail, and finding an injured person."

According to Dawson, the second weekend's training was more technical and required the team to demonstrate its more specialized skills.

"They have to go up on a sheet of ice, or a rock face, and build a ridging system to get the person down safely," Dawson said. "That's what this weekend was; it was the actually building a system to do that."

According to Mason, to further the reality of the simulation, the training was initiated in much the same way an actual rescue call would be.

"On Friday, Feb. 21, right around 9 p.m., we got a call saying that we needed to be down in the shack [MCW headquarters] to get a briefing," Mason said. "Apparently, there were two lost ice climbers at Smugglers Notch, and the state police were looking for them, and they might need our assistance."

According to Mason, the team spent the night in the shack and awaited the telephone call from the state police and other rescuers which would put them into action. It wasn't until midnight or so that they called again, saying that they needed the rescue team's assistance. Other personnel hadn't found the victims, yet, so the team would be setting up a search team, not a rescue team, yet.

"We were told that we would be moving out at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, so we got up and packed the vans and headed out to Smugglers Notch," Mason said. "We got there and unpacked the van, and they gave us a general area of where they were climbing, so we headed to the ice route that they were supposed to be climbing."

It didn't take long for the team to find the two victims, and the team was soon utilizing all their technical climbing and medical aid skills to facilitate the removal of the victims from the site. According to Mason, they successfully brought the victims down.

Dawson was one of those who expressed a belief that it was the best Hawks' Watch training exercise he'd seen.

"One of the reasons why I think it was the best one we've done so far is that this is the first time that they [the rescue team] handled two victims," Dawson said. "They came up there and actually found out that it was two victims, not one."

According to Dawson, the total time from the minute the rescue team got in the area until the last person was down off the mountain was four hours.

Dawson said that he was very impressed, adding that he had thought it would take the team much longer, and that they handled the exercise with a lot of "competence."

"This is the most advanced the unit's ever been," Dawson said. "This is the graduation test for the rescue team."

Team members agreed.

"I think it went well; there are definitely things that need to be worked out, but that's what these things are for." Mason said.

MCW conducts annual Hawks' Watch training

By Dan Robinson
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Norwich University junior Troy Mason had a very eventful weekend, packed full of ice climbing, belaying, and the thrill of a mock rescue of two injured ice climbers.

The 20-year-old computer science major from Albany, NY, is currently in his third year as a member of the Norwich Army ROTC's Mountain Cold Weather Company, and is also the team leader of the unit's rescue team.

"This is the first Hawks Watch I have participated in," Mason said. "From what I have heard from the seniors and the Army cadre, this has been the one that's gone the smoothest since they have been here."

On the weekend of the Feb. 22-23, the Mountain Cold Weather Company (MCW) conducted a mock rescue of two injured ice climbers that were "stranded somewhere at Smugglers Notch."

The completion of the exercise wrapped up this year's Hawks Watch, which is a two-weekend training program that increases the company's knowledge of cold weather search and rescue techniques. It is a hands-on learning program that encourages the readiness of MCW in case of an actual call for assistance in locating a person lost in the mountains of central Vermont.

According to the Norwich University web site, "in 1960, SFC Don Jennings started the MCW rescue team."

The mission of this organization is to provide Northern New England with a rescue service capable of conducting search and rescue operations at any time of year under any climatic condition.

The web site also stated that the rescue team has gone on to provide this service on many occasions and in Northern New England, the MCW rescue team is recognized as an on-call asset for high risk rescues.

Army Major Augustus R. Dawson is the officer in charge of the Mountain Cold Weather Company at Norwich and is responsible for their training.

"The company has basically two layers of training," Dawson said. "You have basic mountaineering, which is taught to freshmen and sophomore cadets. Then you get into the technical training, which is the real search and rescue part, and those are juniors and seniors."

Dawson explained that the training they did that weekend was actual technical rescue training, something, he said, the members of the rescue team have spent the last two years getting ready for.

Matthew Gottschling, 21, is a business management major from Hilltown, Penn., who has also been a member of the MCW unit for three years, now, and is currently a member of the rescue team. According to Gottschling, Hawks Watch is basically a test of what your capabilities are as a member of the rescue team.

"Basically, it shows you where you stand training-wise," Gottschling said. "It shows the team what we need to work on, and what you can sustain, and what you can improve in a real life exercise: what goes well, what doesn't, and shows you how you can improve yourself."

Hawks Watch is the rescue team's test, according to Major Dawson. They test themselves on how well they have mastered the skills of the National Association of Search and Rescue (NASAR) training over the years.

NASAR training consists of the very basic ideas of rescue, clothing, eating right, hypothermia, first aid, how to report an incident, how to interview someone who has been injured, and is more oriented to the civilian side of mountaineering, according to Dawson.

"What we do is introduce NASAR in with the military mountaineering we teach them," Dawson said. "The survival, the technical climbing, all that accumulates with NASAR, and then the next year, where they really concentrate on the military mountaineering, and pulling all that together, and blend it in to the Hawks Watch."

According to Dawson, Hawks Watch is basically training for a scenario where there are people lost in a particular area, and the team needs to go search for them.

"Of course, you can't do a technical rescue until you find the person," Dawson said. "That first weekend was for searching, looking for clues, following a trail, and finding an injured person."

According to Dawson, the second weekend's training was more technical and required the team to demonstrate its more specialized skills.

"They have to go up on a sheet of ice, or a rock face, and build a ridging system to get the person down safely," Dawson said. "That's what this weekend was; it was the actually building a system to do that."

According to Mason, to further the reality of the simulation, the training was initiated in much the same way an actual rescue call would be.

"On Friday, Feb. 21, right around 9 p.m., we got a call saying that we needed to be down in the shack [MCW headquarters] to get a briefing," Mason said. "Apparently, there were two lost ice climbers at Smugglers Notch, and the state police were looking for them, and they might need our assistance."

According to Mason, the team spent the night in the shack and awaited the telephone call from the state police and other rescuers which would put them into action. It wasn't until midnight or so that they called again, saying that they needed the rescue team's assistance. Other personnel hadn't found the victims, yet, so the team would be setting up a search team, not a rescue team, yet.

"We were told that we would be moving out at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, so we got up and packed the vans and headed out to Smugglers Notch," Mason said. "We got there and unpacked the van, and they gave us a general area of where they were climbing, so we headed to the ice route that they were supposed to be climbing."

It didn't take long for the team to find the two victims, and the team was soon utilizing all their technical climbing and medical aid skills to facilitate the removal of the victims from the site. According to Mason, they successfully brought the victims down.

Dawson was one of those who expressed a belief that it was the best Hawks' Watch training exercise he'd seen.

"One of the reasons why I think it was the best one we've done so far is that this is the first time that they [the rescue team] handled two victims," Dawson said. "They came up there and actually found out that it was two victims, not one."

According to Dawson, the total time from the minute the rescue team got in the area until the last person was down off the mountain was four hours.

Dawson said that he was very impressed, adding that he had thought it would take the team much longer, and that they handled the exercise with a lot of "competence."

"This is the most advanced the unit's ever been," Dawson said. "This is the graduation test for the rescue team."

Team members agreed.

"I think it went well; there are definitely things that need to be worked out, but that's what these things are for." Mason said.