KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan National Army soldiers completed the initial portion of an improvised explosive device detection course at Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province Friday.
ANA soldiers finished the three-day basic search segment of the Explosive Hazard Reduction Course at the Joint Security Academy Southwest.
Cpl. Wayne Phillips, an EHRC instructor with 61st Field Squadron, 33rd Engineer Regiment Explosive Ordnance Disposal, said the purpose of the course is to provide the ANA students with the knowledge to rid the country of the threat posed by IEDs.
“We’re teaching these guys the basic elements of searching for an IED and explosives to save their lives when they go out on the ground,” he said. “The IED threat is the main thing out here at the moment. We’re teaching them to exploit the devices and get rid of them to make a safe passage for other vehicles and other military personnel to go through.”
The first day of classes began with instruction on how to properly search an individual. Students were taught the techniques of finding hidden explosives on enemy personnel and how to effectively eliminate the explosive threat.
In the second part of the class, the students learned how to conduct an area search to find IEDs.
“We teach them how to do an area search just in case you need to get helicopters to come in,” Phillips said. “We teach them how to get the [helicopter] in safe and sound so it doesn’t land on an IED or anything like that.”
On the final day, the students combined their knowledge from previous lessons to clear a building of hidden explosives. The class had to safely enter a compound without triggering any of the mock IEDs and safely diffuse all hidden threats.
Saifullah, an EHRC student, said the compound search was a challenge for him and his classmates.
“Today’s lesson was the hardest out of all the IED searching classes,” he said. “Safely entering the compound with ladders was pretty difficult, as was clearing doors and gates of explosives.”
At the end of the day, the course instructors felt the soldiers successfully put into practice all the techniques they were taught.
“We are starting off with the basics, breaking it down section by section, and teaching them from the lowest level to the highest level we can possibly teach them to,” Phillips said. “We started off slow, but they’ve gained the knowledge very fast. They’re taking it all in, soaking it all up, and they’re digesting it very well.”
Saifullah is proud of his classmates’ performance during the search portion and said he feels excited to move on to more advanced IED detection and diffusion techniques in the upcoming explosive reduction course.
“We are learning all these techniques so we can protect ourselves during operations,” Saifullah said. “We are in the front lines and ahead of all our other forces. But most importantly, we’re doing this to better serve our country.”
| Date Taken: |
10.30.2010 |
| Date Posted: |
10.30.2010 04:51 |
| Story ID: |
59113 |
| Location: |
KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: |
72 |
| Downloads: |
5 |
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