Afghan army graduates 100th Class

News: Afghan army graduates 100th Class

33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team

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Story by Spc. Luke Austin Follow This Journalist

Spc. Luke Austin

1st Lt. Dayton Loyd and Chief Warrant Officer Stephen Flamm stand ready to receive awards from the cadre of the Basic Warrior Training Course at the Kandak (Battalion) 100 graduation ceremony. Loyd and Flamm are mentors to the Afghan national army at Kabul Military Training Center in Kabul, Afghanistan, and became the first America Soldiers to receive awards for excellence from the ANA.

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Afghan national army graduated more than 1,200 soldiers from the ANA Basic Warrior Training Course at Kabul Military Training Center Feb. 19, marking this graduation as the century milestone for the ANA.

Kandak 100, the graduating class, represents the growth of the ANA to approximately 80,000 soldiers over the past seven years and 100 classes since the Basic Warrior Training Class began at KMTC in 2002, said Lt. Col. Brian C. Redmon, commander for the KMTC Mentor Group.

"To get to this point, KMTC has had to overcome major obstacles. This area was heavily bombed, mined and booby trapped," said Redmon. "Before any training could start, the area had to be de-mined, cleared and then major construction projects were undertaken to prepare for the increasingly larger classes."

The KMTC trains multiple classes of 1,200 ANA soldiers at any given time, making the population at KMTC over 10,000 soldiers year round, said Redmon. Managing this amount of Soldiers is a daily challenge the ANA overcomes.

The first class to graduate from the BWTC was small compared to the current sizes- a mere 414 soldiers.

"Original class sizes were as small as about 300, and peaking at just over 2000. They currently fill at 1200," said Lt. Col. Bradley Perrier, senior mentor, Basic Warrior Training Brigade.

With the large number of soldiers cycling through the BWTC, one of the biggest challenges is the lack of cadre, said Perrier.

"They are currently staffed at 65 to 70 percent strength. Yet they still provide the necessary training," he said.

All of this, with the added variety of ethnicities, makes the training of soldiers a trying time. But the cadre works very hard to break down the ethnic barriers and make up for lack of personnel, he said. Using KMTC's "Unity Starts Here" mantra, trainees learn to work together despite ethnic differences.