Camp Ethan Allen is no joke
Ethan Allen, founded in 1938, the National Guard installation in Vermont named for the Revolutionary War Green Mountain Boys leader, has since 1983 been the official site of the Army Mountain Warfare School (AMWS). The job of AMWS is to hold regular class on how to keep yourself alive in the hills, both summer, and winter. The home team, the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) includes three dedicated mountain warfare National Guard battalions drawn from ski towns: 1/102 from Connecticut, 1/157 from Colorado, and 3/172 from New England. However, don’t let the placid outdoor nature of Jericho and Stowe fool you, the place can be deadly.
Last week, on 15 March, An avalanche carried six Army Soldiers several hundred yards down a mountainside near Vermont’s highest peak, 4,300-foot Mount Mansfield. They were undergoing mountain-warfare training. Five were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.