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PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – U.S. Soldiers stationed at Forward Operating Base Lightning, Paktya province, Afghanistan, along with senior leaders from the Afghan national army 203rd Thunder Corps, visited FOB Vulcan in Ghazni province, April 28, to view the progress of several construction projects and assess the need for further construction on the base.
The U.S. personnel and their 203rd Corps partners received feedback from senior leaders of the 203rd Corps' 3rd Brigade, headquartered at FOB Vulcan, on their most pressing concerns related to facilities on the FOB. The biggest issues the U.S. personnel identified were the need for a larger dining facility, repairs to the wells on the base, classrooms for language training and electrical repairs to several barracks. The U.S. personnel viewed the potential improvements to the FOB as a golden opportunity to not only provide better facilities for the ANA soldiers but also to build for the future by helping the ANA find solutions to the problems it faces.
One of the visitors from FOB Lightning, U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jim Brown, a native of Indianapolis and the command sergeant major for the Indiana National Guard's Regional Corps Training Team 2, stressed how important new facilities are for the retention of ANA Soldiers.
"The Corps is here because the Soldiers need to have good facilities for food and medical [needs]," said Brown. "They need their training and their equipment but beyond that, if we want the Soldiers to recontract for five years in the Afghan army, then during that first enlistment we better have a warm, dry place [for them] when they're not in the field, a place to work out to stay in shape and good latrines."
In addition to the need to provide improved facilities for the ANA soldiers, the U.S. personnel placed importance on working with the ANA soldiers to have them come up with their own solutions for existing and future issues with their facilities.
"That's our mission, its partnering with them so they understand what they need to do to fix their problems. If we make it their [issue], they'll want [to fix] it more," said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class William H. Dawson of San Bernardino, Calif., who is attached to the 82nd Airborne's Headquarters Company and is a logistics partner to the 203rd Corps.
U.S. Army Maj. John E. Pitt of Valparaiso, Ind., an engineer partner to the 203rd Corps with the Indiana National Guards 113th Engineer Battalion from Gary, Ind., also discussed how vital it is for the ANA to take control of the construction process on their base.
"If I just go straight to a contractor and tell him what I think the Afghans need, and they never have a voice in saying what they need, they're never going to own it and claim responsibility for what's built ... we have to include the Afghans in the planning and construction process in some form or another if we're ever going to have them take the lead," said Pitt.
"That's combined action, [if] the Afghan national army is part of the process then they can't always look to the Americans for a fix, they can look left and right because they are part of that process. We're really helping them help themselves," added Pitt.
| Date Taken: | 04.28.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2010 22:58 |
| Story ID: | 49017 |
| Location: | PAKTYA PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 391 |
| Downloads: | 165 |
This work, Afghan National Army, U.S. Soldiers assess facilities at Forward Operating Base Vulcan, by SGT Andrew Reagan, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
