BRIDGEPORT, Calif. - Frigid wind blows across Levitt Lake as Marines gather on its frosted, glinting surface. At 9,000 feet, the temperature is well below freezing. With a pack on one shoulder and ski poles gripped tightly, a mountain leader steps onto the skis, sharply inhales the crisp air and prepares to take the plunge into the freezing water below.Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center Marines participated in an Ice-Breaker Drill during Winter Mountain Leaders Course 1-15, Jan. 30, 2015. The drill was conducted in the MCMWTC training area, to educate Marines on what they should do in the event that they should fall through the ice. Instructors, permanent personnel and students participated in the plunge. It’s been approximately

BRIDGEPORT, Calif. — The men emerged over the crest of a ridge and guided their horses along a tree line, skirting a wide meadow. They picked their way along narrow trails, climbing higher into the Sierra until a panorama of snowcapped peaks and a broad green valley unfolded beneath them.The men, Special Forces soldiers dressed in jeans and other civilian clothes, led their horses into a thick stand of pine trees, where they dismounted and let the horses drink from a clear mountain stream before breaking out their own rations.Full article...http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/22/horses-marines-afghanistan/10744395/

MOUNTAIN WARFARE TRAINING CENTER, Calif. - The MWTC near Bridgeport, Calif., has begun teaching an advanced horsemanship training course in order to teach Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel the necessary skills to enable them to ride horses, load pack animals, and maintain animals for military applications in remote and dangerous environments. “We’re taking this course so that we can integrate unconventional warfare into the Marine SOF horsemanship program. As vets, we can help educate the Marines and other SOF on these matters,” said a SOF veterinarian assigned to U.S. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC). “It’s a very unique course because it combines the conventional warfare tactics of the Marine Corps with the