131st Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Story by Sgt. Brandon Mc Carty

By Army Sgt. Brandon McCarty
Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa Public Affairs

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti – She lay there motionless with a fatal wound on the left side of her head. The victim of a crime committed on an expeditionary base in Africa. But Jane Brigo, field representative for Central Texas College, is just playing dead.

Service members enrolled in the Criminal Justice course, offered by CTC, practiced their detective skills during a detailed "mock crime scene" exercise at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, Aug. 18.

"I wanted to get out of the classroom and give the students some hands-on training," said Bret Duncan, CJ instructor / CTC field representative. "A practical exercise makes learning much more fun."

Students were given the opportunity to practice skills learned in the classroom such as fingerprinting, marking evidence at the scene of a crime, photographing and sketching the crime scene, and interview and interrogation techniques.

"(My fellow service members and I) are learning some real-world stuff, like the things you see on the TV show 'Crime Scene Investigation'," said Army Sgt. Eugene Popov, operations non commissioned officer with The Old Guard. "It is pretty cool to have a complete, real-looking crime scene to work with."

Eight service members are enrolled in the CJ course. The class meets six days a week for three hours a day. It is the first class ever offered in Djibouti.

When Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa service members are not attending courses for higher education, they are conducting operations such as well-drilling, school construction, medical and veterinary civic action programs and military-to-military training through a humanitarian mission of capacity building and military training to help Africans help themselves.

Breaking up the monotony of a long deployment with a chance to better one's education and learn more about how investigators do their job is time well spent, said Duncan.

"I have wanted to get involved with law enforcement for many years, but never had the time to take classes," said Marine Sgt. Matthew Dean, 6th Provisional Security Company. "And now I am getting the education for what I want to do. I plan on becoming a police officer when I depart from the military."

After all the evidence has been "tagged and bagged," fingerprints have been taken, interviews conducted and the detective work has ended, here is the final verdict: Col. Mustard did it in the kitchen with the candlestick.

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