The Finnish Army's Cold Weather Operations Basic Course graduated a small class of Finnish and American service members near the Arctic Circle in Lapland, Finland, Jan. 16, 2015. In addition to the Finnish students there were five U.S. Marines and three U.S. Army Alaska Soldiers were in attendance.

The course is designed to train squad- and platoon-level leaders in the knowledge and skills required to successfully conduct military operations in austere, arctic environments. The course challenges the students' physical and mental endurance, stamina and confidence in the harsh winter conditions.

"It is a course that mirrors our Cold Weather Leaders Course up at Fairbanks," said Sgt. 1st Class Shalim Guzman, a 32-year-old Coamo, Puerto Rico native and platoon sergeant with Delaware Company, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division. "We were there to compare their knowledge and our knowledge within the cold-weather operation and environments."

The CWLC also trains squad and platoon-level leaders in skills required to successfully conduct small- unit operations in cold, snowy environments. Emphasis is placed on the effects of cold on personnel and materiel, use of basic cold-weather clothing and equipment, winter field craft, snowshoe/ski techniques and Arctic-Region navigation and route planning. Guzman has now attended both courses.

"Once we got there we recognized immediately the difference in the courses," Guzman. "Everything that their course does is on skis and mainly the stuff that we do here is done on snow shoes."

The key learning elements of CWOBCs include squad movement and fighting techniques in sub-arctic conditions, safe and effective weapons handling in sub-zero conditions, ski technique with military skis, using snow vehicles, making and using snow shelters for fighting and accommodation, orienteering in snow-covered terrain, basic winter survival skills, and sustaining health and performance in cold-weather operations, and understanding the importance of nutrition and hydration in winter conditions.

"Overall it was a tremendous experience," said Sgt. 1st Class Cory James Birdsong, a 35-year-old Salina, Kansas, native and 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division schools non-commissioned officer. "It was a unique opportunity to see how the Finnish army operates and get a different take on how another unit also operates in an arctic environment."

The CWOBC is a 10 full training day course that is divided into three different parts. The first part, five days of basic training and basic exercises that ended with a test exercise where students tested on all learning objectives to be able to participate in the second part of the course.

"The training was physical," said Guzman. "It was the second hardest school I have done since Ranger school, we skied about 120 kilometers, and beginning to the end you have your skis on the entire time."

"We as U.S. Soldiers in Alaska are not use to skiing as much as we did in Finland; we do ski for Physical Training every now and then but to ski as much as we did for that period of time was really hard to adapt to," Guzman said.

The second part of the course included four days of live fire training where the students were divided into small groups and were given scenarios to complete.

"The training was all delivered in English, the instructors and students there all spoke English very well," Birdsong said. "The first few days they showed us how everything worked how they did everything and the rest of the time we were doing operations, raids and missions using the skills we learned."

In addition to the group scenarios the Finnish soldiers helped out majorly making most of the task easy to understand Guzman added.

"I think this partnership will work out great," said Guzman. "The Finnish soldiers that I got to meet were extremely happy for us to be there and to actually do some of the things that they do. They were also happy to let us use their equipment and give them an honest opinion on how well it worked. Overall the partnership was amazing and they took really good care of us from the beginning." "We were treated very well," said Birdsong. "Finnish Army Capt. Juha Massinen, the overall course leader, treated us just like we were his soldiers."

In the final part of the course, the students had to jump into freezing water, remove their skis, come out of the water and build a fire. After sustaining their fire they were able to change ending the 10-day course with and After Action Review.

"Here in Alaska, we don't do that," said Guzman. "For me to go to another country, and jump into below-freezing water at the very end of all the training was mental challenging, but overall it was a good course and can't wait for them to come try out CWLC."