Vermont Army Mountain Warfare School unveils new instruction building
From left to right: Marty Sienkiewycz, MG Greg Knight, Senator Leahy, Chris Bertrand.
Courtesy of the Office of Senator Leahy.
Scissors sliced through the yellow ribbon to a round of applause as Senator Leahy and the Vermont National Guard unveiled the new Army Mountain Warfare General-Purpose Instruction Building at Camp Ethan Allen on Friday, April 22.
The $27 million facility is over 80,000 square feet and includes an educational space, a dining facility and a four story indoor climbing wall, according to the Vermont Army National Guard. The new building can accommodate up to 174 staff and students and will host its first students in the Summer of 2022.
The building may be new, but the school is not. The Vermont Army National Guard has operated the only mountain warfare school in the nation out of Jericho since its founding in 1983.
Construction of the new school was in part due to the inefficiency of the previous building the school operated out of, Major General Gregory Knight said.
“It didn't have the proper ability to support our students and their needs, and it didn't have the space that we have here,” Knight said.
The new building is able to host up to 1500 students per year, more than twice the capacity of the previous building, Knight said.
Major General Greg Knight Speaks at the ceremony.
Courtesy of the Office of Senator Leahy.
The building also allows for every soldier to be accommodated in private hygiene facilities without disrupting the group, Knight said.
“When you're creating an environment like this, unit cohesion is very important. So you can say, ‘women, you're gonna go over here and men you're gonna go here.’ Well, that's really not the future of the army,” Knight said.
The army prohibits gender identity discrimination and protects the privacy of all service members, according to the 2021 army transgender policy.
“I don’t care what your gender identity is; soldiers are soldiers,” Lieutenant Commander Steven Gagner said.
Funding for this project comes in large part from Leahy. Through his work on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which he chairs, Leahy helped allocate $30 million toward the project, according to the conference report to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY20.
“I know you're facing the challenge of an ever changing global security environment,” Leahy said. “You have to have a military that can train and act in some of the most difficult environments.”
Senator Leahy speaks with LTC Steven Gagner and MG Greg Knight.
From left to right: Knight, Leahy, Gagner.
Courtesy of the Office of Senator Leahy.
The project combines many of the things Leahy cares about, said Sherman Patrick, Military Legislative Assistant for Leahy.
“It's stuff that's good for Vermont, stuff that's good for the nation, and stuff that helps the men and women who serve,” Patrick said.
Soldiers enrolled in the school’s Basic Military Mountaineer Course learn such tactics as land navigation, high-angle marksmanship, first aid, casualty evacuation, and ascending and descending techniques, according to an article from the National Guard.
