Photo By 1st Lt. Brianne Roudebush | Staff Sgt. Cyndi Pearl Auza, the safety program manager for the Counterdrug Task...... read more read more
CAMP ROBERTS, Calif. – Outfitted in tactical armored vests with M9 handguns secured at their hips, members of the California National Guard Counterdrug Task Force conducted a two-week ground tactical certification course at Camp Roberts, Mar. 14-25.
The training, which is an annual training for CDTF focused on small unit tactics, land navigation, weapons qualification, combat shooting drills, combat casualty care, reconnaissance, sling load and short haul operations. This year the training was expanded to include not only members of the ground tactical team, but also case support analysts, administrative specialists and headquarters personnel.
“Having this training helps the administrative team understand how their job feeds into the overall mission of the task force,” Sergeant Major Clinton Lockard, the CDTF senior enlisted advisor, said. “My goal is that they are able to conduct ground tactical missions throughout the year so their training comes full circle.”
Staff Sgt. Cyndi Pearl Auza, the CDTF safety program manager, was excited to be able to attend the training.
“As a safety program manager, I can’t just plan in a vacuum of my own thoughts on how the program should run without actually going out to the field and seeing how the missions are conducted,” Auza said. “My goal is to mitigate risk and being at headquarters, we’re far from the ground, far from the field, but now that I’m certified, I can actually go out and do the missions and help figure out best practices for the field.”
Auza, also an operations noncommissioned officer with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 49th Military Police Brigade, said the training was different from the training she receives with her unit. The CDTF training covers more infantry skills like small unit tactics and incorporates many law enforcement-specific tactics since the task force works so closely with federal, state local and tribal law enforcement agencies.
Since the 49th MP Brigade is currently the Homeland Response Force, Auza said she is able to take many of the things she learned at this training back to her unit.
“I have a better understanding from working at Counterdrug how our law enforcement agencies operate,” she said. “A lot of what we’re doing [as the HRF] is syncing our efforts with the LEAs and fire departments to be able to augment them and build better relations.”
Both Lockard and Auza commented on the wealth of knowledge available at the training. Many members of the ground tactical team have been with the task force for several years.
“The team learns things in the field that they can share with the new members,” Lockard said. “And because everyone is together at Camp Roberts, there’s a wide swath of talents.”
In addition to excellent training, Sgt. Gina Nguyen, an administrative noncommissioned officer with CDTF, said she used the time as an opportunity to bond with members of her team.
“It makes me appreciate more what [the ground tactical members] do for the program and makes me want to do all I can to help them from my end,” Nguyen said. “Now I can put myself in their shoes and really understand where they are coming from.”
Most of the time, the illicit marijuana grow sites the teams eradicate are located in rural or mountainous areas. In order to prepare for those missions, the training included shooting drills to increase speed and accuracy, first aid application in the dark, and a land navigation course that lasted from 6 a.m. to nearly midnight.
“There’s real danger involved in these missions,” Auza explained. “The teams hike into illicit grow sites where there might be armed growers trying to defend their gardens in remote locations with no easy access to roads.”
Auza added that she expected the training to be exhausting, but was not entirely prepared for how physical it would be.
“Sitting in headquarters reading through their reports doesn’t portray the intensity of their missions at all,” Auza said. “Reports just show numbers and stats, but there’s so much more they go through before even getting to that point. I know now how far these teams are pushed.”
| Date Taken: | 03.16.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.29.2016 13:02 |
| Story ID: | 193780 |
| Location: | CAMP ROBERTS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 555 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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