Kentucky Marine trains Senegalese Commandos

Photo By Capt. James Stenger | United States Marine Lance Cpl. Dewayne Gregory teaches land navigation techniques to members of the Senegalese Companie de Fusilier Marine Commandos. The commandos were trained by a team of U.S. Marines from Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa 14.1 in Senegal in February, in support of U.S. Marine Forces Europe and Africa and U.S. Africa Command’s mission to assist partner nations in addressing their security challenges.  

SENEGAL

03.11.2014

Story by 1st Lt. James Stenger 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa     

NAVAL AIR STATION SIGONELLA, Italy - The Marine Corps prides itself on empowering junior Marines to take orders and accomplish the mission in a professional and timely manner.

Lance Cpl. Dewayne Gregory, a Marine with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa 14.1, embodied this mindset during a recent month-long theater security cooperation mission in Senegal.

Gregory, a native of Monticello, Ky., was part of a team of Marines and sailors tasked with training the Senegalese Companie de Fusilier Marine Commandos (COFUMACO) on maritime security force assistance, marksmanship exercises, patrolling techniques and small boat tactics and skills.

According to 2nd Lt. Connor O’Sullivan, the assistant team leader for the security cooperation team, Gregory played an integral role in teaching his Senegalese partners in a classroom setting before the two groups physically trained together.

“Lance Cpl. Gregory was supposed to come in and teach land navigation and marksmanship … I’d say he did about 12-16 hours’ worth of land navigation instruction,” said O’Sullivan. “And then right away he turned around and organized a static fire and combat marksmanship shoot, with a fire and movement range, as well.”

O’Sullivan said that while he was there to supervise the range, it was Gregory who executed the mission from start to finish.

“I didn’t really know what to expect. So I pretty much built my classes from the ground up,” said Gregory.

Gregory described the Commandos’ desire to take his classes and make them their own, in such a way to understand the material fully. He said it was not unlike a group of Marines wanting to help each other to accomplish a task given to them by their leadership. In his eyes, that made a big difference.

“I had to skip over some things in my classes because I didn’t realize how well prepared the COFUMACO would be. We gave them a two hour execution period for the final exercise-simulated amphibious raid, and they accomplished it in under an hour,” he highlighted.

“I’ve personally never taught a class like that, so to see my actions and my teaching ability come out through them was just really exciting,” he said.

• Date Taken: 03.11.2014
• Date Posted: 03.12.2014 09:10
• Story ID: 121880
• Location: SN
• Hometown: MONTICELLO, KY, US