Subscribe
CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – It’s more than just a final field exercise; it’s putting into practice what you’ve learned during the previous eight weeks of training in preparation for being sent out to protect your fellow countrymen as a member of the Afghan national security force.
The Afghan Border Police and Afghan National Army soldiers attending the Joint Security Academy Southwest Joint Non-commissioned Officer course here conducted their final exercise, Feb. 20-21, at the Camp Bastion III combat town before graduating.
“We’re doing an evaluation of the recruits on all the things that we’ve taught them up to this point. It’s a culminating exercise for all the classroom work that they’ve done up until this point,” said 1st Lt. Mark Lindsley, 26, from Gainesville, Texas.
“Today was a round robin. One of the exercises was a vehicle checkpoint, another is cordon and search, and the final one is a medical portion where they’re actually assessing and treating a (mock) casualty,” said Lindsley, team officer-in-charge of this joint NCO course.
This course is comprised of NCOs from all branches of Afghan security forces, who are instructed as a group to ensure that there is a baseline of training service-wide.
“One of the biggest things about the Joint NCO course is, usually in the Afghan Armed Forces it’s the army, police and border police and it’s all completely different training, and this is one of the first courses that actually combines those together,” said Lindsley. “We have the border police and the army in this course, so it’s more of the team leadership aspect of not only leading your peers but also working together as a group.”
Many of the NCOs at the course have already served in their country’s armed forces, but are returning to acquire additional knowledge to bring back to their units and subordinates.
“We’re fortunate enough to get the NCOs,” said Sgt. Mario Desalvo, 24, Joint NCO course instructor. “The guys that have been in a year or longer with a lot of these guys already serving in places in Afghanistan, so when we get these guys they have a basic understanding of how the military works and how different tactics work.”
Even though the soldiers have a basic understanding, the Marine instructors are able to instill additional knowledge and tactics that the soldiers can use once they return to their respective units.
“They still have to work at some things, but you can see they’re grasping the training, leadership and the situation, which is most important,” said Desalvo, from Broomfield, Colo. “They’re making adjustments to their tactics as they see fit, without the Marines driving them as much.”
One of the soldiers attending the class, ANA Sgt. Gulrahman, said this class is invaluable to him and subsequently his country.
“Since we’ve joined this class with the U.S. Marines, we’ve learned standard lessons from them including house searching, and interacting with the local people during patrols,” said Gulrahman. “We’ve learned how to question them and convince them that we’re here to help by bringing peace, stability and prosperity.
“During our two-month course we’ve learned a lot from our Marine instructors. We will use these procedures to save our lives and help our people.”
| Date Taken: | 02.21.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 02.21.2011 07:21 |
| Story ID: | 65812 |
| Location: | CAMP LEATHERNECK, AF |
| Web Views: | 71 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, JSAS Joint NCO course conducts final exercise, by Sgt Shawn Coolman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
