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    Afghan police graduate winter training class

    Sgt. Matthew Clifton
    22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

    FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHANK, Afghanistan – A ceremony was held, Feb. 21, to celebrate the newest group of Afghan national policemen to graduate from a winter training program.

    The 18 ANP officers, who came from various districts of the Logar province, are the third group to graduate from the class since its inception in January.

    The two-week course consisted of basic weapons training, medical classes, ethics instruction, small-unit tactics, hand and arm signals, traffic control and patrol techniques, and improvised explosive device awareness.

    "I am honored to be here today," said Lt. Col. Steven Baker, commander, 508th STB, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. "I want to congratulate this class on their high performance, motivation and desire to improve themselves.

    "With each class that comes here, I see the students, U.S. instructors and Afghan instructors getting better and better," he continued. "This is a key factor in our strategy to make Logar province the best province in Afghanistan."

    Baker thanked the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for making the classes possible and reminded the graduates of their responsibility to take what they have learned in the past two weeks back to their individual districts.

    The governor of the Logar province reiterated this message by telling the graduates they are the future of Afghanistan."

    "You have been trained by the most professional U.S. Soldiers," said Abdullah Wardak, the Logar provincial governor. "You all have performed exceptionally, but you must take what you have learned and be an example for the stability of Afghanistan.

    "We all have jobs to do to ensure security and we are stronger than the enemy," he continued. "For the past two weeks you have lived with the Americans and learned from them, and now we know we will beat the enemy."

    Wardak finished by reminding his newest policemen the U.S. Soldiers who taught them volunteered to be away from their families to come and help Afghanistan.

    It is now the job of the ANP to take over the responsibility of security in Logar, he said.

    The class, which started on Jan. 6, was meant to use the typically slow time during winter to implement basic skills training for ANP policemen who have not had proper training.

    The eventual goal of the class is to have ANP officers, who have worked side-by-side with the instructors, take over by the time the STB redeploys to Fort Bragg, N.C.

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 03.01.2008
    Date Posted: 03.01.2008 07:25
    Story ID: 16862
    Location: AF

    Web Views: 392
    Downloads: 384

    PUBLIC DOMAIN