By Air Force Staff Sgt. April Lapetoda
CJTF-82 PAO
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – A graduation ceremony was held today in Charikar to mark the completion of a police training course for 30 Afghan National Police.
The training course, which was taught by taught by Army military police, Air Force security forces and DynCorp ANP mentors, included classes on ethics and values, community policing, map reading, logistics and field hygiene, said Army 2nd Lt. Charity Summers Task Force Cincinatus, officer in charge of training and platoon leader for 4th Platoon, 235th MP Company.
During the ceremony, ANP were addressed by the ANP Maj. Gen. Slaim Hassass, chief of police; Abdul Jabar Taqwa, Parwan governor; and Army Lt. Col. James Leary, 82nd Division Special Troops Battalion commander.
"Parwan is depending on you, Afghanistan is depending on you, we are all depending on you," said Leary as he addressed the ANP. "We are very proud of you and your accomplishments this week."
"Today's graduation is the first step of the long journey ahead," said Tech. Sgt. Francis Warren, NCOIC for ANP with the Bagram Provincial Reconstruction Team.
The joint effort between Task Force Gladius, Bagram PRT and the DynCorp ANP didn't end with today's graduation.
The class trained ANP provincial leadership, who serve as deputy chief and chief police officers, so they may take their knowledge back and teach at their districts, with continued assistance from MPs, said Summers.
"This training began with leadership and will filter down to lower levels of the police force, whereas making the entire force a better working agency," said Warren who taught the community policing class.
ANP Col. Gulam Mushtaba, Bagram district police chief has several plans for when he returns to his district.
"First off, I will explain the job of a policeman for my soldiers and how to communicate with the people and coalition forces," said Mushtaba.
"After we began working with them and building a cop-on-cop relationship (the ANP) really began to trust us and became more receptive to the training," said Warren.
Once the Afghan police and army are completely trained, they'll be able to do most of the patrolling we do and will be able to protect their own country," said Army Capt. Kevin Thaxton, TF Gladius, Battalion. "Once they are trained we can back off. Then it will be Afghans protecting Afghanistan."
The course was especially meaningful to the ANP and the graduation ceremony marked a significant importance to them.
"We didn't have a lot of information on the job of a policeman," said. "Now we know everything..."
"The most (useful) part of this class was the map reading class," said Mushtaba. Because of the map reading class, "now if we want help from coalition forces or if we see the enemy we can give the grid locations. The map is the eyes of the army. We can find the location of criminals and arrest them."
Training the ANP was a memorable experience for coalition forces.
"It's very rewarding to be able to share knowledge I have and I realize the importance of it," said Summers. "It's an honor to (see the ANP graduate) today and embark with the knowledge I provided to them."
"We're here to help instill pride in the ANP system...build it up from baby steps to walking," said Warren.