US Steps Up Winter-Warfare Training As Global Threat Shifts

(Associated Press) LOLITA C. BALDOR February 20 2019 MARINE MOUNTAIN WARFARE TRAINING CENTER Calif. (AP) Hunkered down behind a wall of snow two U.S. Marines melt slush to make drinking water after spending the night digging out a defensive position high in the Sierra Nevada. Their laminated targeting map is wedged into the ice just below the machine gun. Nearly 8000 feet (2440 meters) up at a training center in the California mountains the air is thin the snow is chest high and the temperature is plunging. But other Marines just a few kilometers away are preparing to attack and forces on both sides must be able to battle the enemy and the unforgiving environment. The exercise is designed to train troops for the next war one the U.S. believes will be against a more capable high-tech enemy like Russia North Korea or China. The weather conditions on the mountain mimic the kind of frigid fight that forces could face in one of those future hotspots. We havent had to deal with these things. Weve been very focused on Iraq and Afghanistan" said Maj. Gen. William F. Mullen head of the Marines Training and Education Command. What we really have to do is wake folks up expose them to things that they havent had to think about for quite a while."