PANJSHIR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Twenty-four Afghanistan national policemen, along with many local dignitaries, participated in a graduation ceremony after completion of an advanced class in police tactics and emergency rescue, May 17.
The ceremony took place at the ANP station in the Rokha District where each student received a certificate of training. Each graduating officer already had a basic knowledge of police work, but with the mentoring of their trainers, they emerged better prepared to handle future challenges.
"Panjshir will be an example for the rest of the country to emulate," said Lt. Col. Curtis Velasquez, Provincial Reconstruction Team Panjshir commander. "We hope you go out and show the community the level of professionalism we have seen here."
Along with the typical police training of detaining, interrogating and crime investigation, trainees were taught the skills needed for mountain rescues. The majority of the trainers are mountain-skills trained in their home state of Vermont, and two have been employed to teach these same skills to U.S. Army Soldiers.
"We decided to introduce them to a more advanced form of training here including medical and mountain rescue because of the amount of car accidents here and the road conditions," said Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Jennings, Panjshir Embedded Training Team member. "We want them to be more of a first responder and assist in the rescue."
Their eagerness and abilities outweighed the obvious language and environmental roadblocks.
"They are eager to learn, and they like the hands-on learning," said Jennings. "We are getting a lot of our manuals translated over to Dari so they can have them when we are gone."
Each student was called up to receive the certificate and a handshake. After the handshake, most would turn around and hold up the document with pride sounding off, "This is for Panjshir; the people and Afghanistan."
This is just the beginning of the training for this group of police. The ETT and the PRT look forward to many more opportunities to teach and train their Afghan counterparts in the skills of their profession.
| Date Taken: | 05.17.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 05.25.2010 05:46 |
| Story ID: | 50222 |
| Location: | AF |
| Web Views: | 169 |
| Downloads: | 157 |
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