Thanks for an outstanding plan that prepared me well for the course

MOUNTAIN WARFARE SCHOOL

I emailed you several months ago as I prepared to attend the USMC’s Winter Mountain Leaders Course. I ended up getting pushed to a later class for admin reasons, but I got home this past weekend after graduating and wanted to send my thanks for an outstanding plan that prepared me well for the course.

I had never skied before the course, and I did not pick it up very quickly, so once we put rucks on I fell a LOT. Having a different Marine fall every few minutes during movements dramatically slowed our pace down, and the problem was only compounded after several failed attempts to stand up in the powder resulted in the “victim” having to go through the lengthy process of wiggling out from under his ruck, sometimes removing his skis to get his legs in a better position, removing his sled harness, getting up, and re-donning all his gear. I was so grateful for all the chassis integrity work included in the plan – it allowed me to at least keep our halt time to a minimum whenever I fell because I was always able to get up quickly without removing any gear. I seriously benefited from the endless step-ups included in the plan as well – during individual movements I was able to make up the time lost from having shitty downhill technique and falling a lot by consistently taking long uphills much faster than most other students. Most importantly, I was able to cope with the mental fatigue of operating in very cold weather for extended periods of time because I was never too physically tired to maintain a clear head.

I saw you were in Hawaii right before we graduated, sorry I missed it hopefully you’ll come back to MCBH again soon. Thanks again for the work you and your team do.