MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan – Afghan patrolmen and non-commissioned officers filed into a classroom at the Afghan National Police 303rd Corps Headquarters here to learn basic map reading and first aid skills, Aug. 20.
Command Sgt. Maj. Talash, the 303rd command sergeant major, partnered with combat advisers from 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team to resource the training. But the inner workings of getting patrolmen to the classroom and authorizing the training through the 303rd chain of command is a credit to Talash, said Sgt. Maj. Ifrain Zavala, the team sergeant major for Stability Transition Team White Horse, 170th IBCT.
Talash said he hopes attendees will bring skills they learn in the class back to their fellow patrolmen.
“What I learned at the sergeant major’s course in Kabul, I brought back with me to show others. I want these non-commissioned officers to do the same at their level,” Talash said.
Planned for five days, the training will cover first aid techniques and basic map reading. The first aid portion is a condensed version of the U.S. Army’s Combat Life Saver training, an annual qualification for U.S. soldiers.
Spc. John M. Gipson, a Waverly, Ky., native, now the White Horse team medic, taught the patrolmen how to use a tourniquet.
“This is the main tool you have to save you or your buddy’s life if you are bleeding,” he told the class.
The patrolmen used a tourniquet commonly found in U.S. Army first aid kits during the class. Gipson then taught them to create a tourniquet using materials they may have around them during a firefight, a task familiar to many of the patrolmen.
“I learned this before the Americans arrived, in the first civil war against the Taliban,” said Cpl. Saifuddin, assigned to the 303rd, referring to the war between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban after the Soviet Union left Afghanistan.
Saifuddin said he has attended roughly 10 courses in subjects ranging from vehicle maintenance to weapons since he joined the Afghan uniform police seven years ago.
“I went to a course about weapons, then showed [his patrolmen] everything. How to open the gun, how to assemble and disassemble, and how to oil it,” he said.
First aid and map training are crucial to Saifuddin and his men. They run supplies from the corps headquarters to police stations located throughout northern Afghanistan, said Zavala.
For others, the class reinforced recent training. Mixed in with the Afghan uniform police were patrolmen from the Afghan National Civil Order Police, special units called to action when uniform police need auxiliary support.
Their initial and recurring training is more extensive due to the nature of their mission, said Sgt. 1st Class Charles A. Davis, the non-commissioned officer in charge of operations for White Horse.
1st Sgt. Hasmat, who serves as a deputy platoon commander responsible for more than 30 civil order police, said the training, especially the map reading portion, will help him and his men.
“We are always dealing with such things in a combat environment; mountains, hills and trees. We need to know where they are before we go in,” said Hasmat.
Zavala said 303rd Corps leaders want to bridge the competency gap between the Afghan National Civil Order Police and the Afghan uniform plice by having them train together.
This is the second class the White Horse team has instructed to 303rd policemen. Now halfway through their deployment, Davis said the team’s goal is to transition what they’ve started to their replacements who are expected to arrive in early 2012.
“Repetition helps a lot,” he said about the importance of recurring training. “But every class someone is different. You have some people who’ve seen a map but never went into detail with it. If we give a good handoff to the next [stability transition team] they can pick up the ball and keep running with it.”
