Maintainers provide weapons training to ANA

4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs
Story by Spc. Sarah Bailey

Date: 04.16.2013
Posted: 04.18.2013 06:07
News ID: 105394

CAMP MAIWAND, Afghanistan – U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Samuel Caffrey, a Hastings, Pa., native and an armament repairer with Company B, 703rd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, trained Afghan National Army soldiers on how to disassemble and reassemble the M4 and M16 rifle, the M249 squad automatic weapon and the M240B machine gun at Camp Maiwand, Afghanistan, April 16.

The training is one of the many ways Company B, in conjunction with U.S. Army Security Forces Advise and Assist Team 1, with 4th IBCT, is assisting the Afghan National Army.

Over a period of three days, Caffrey trained the Afghan National Army soldiers on how to break down and care for weapon systems, so they can operate them more efficiently.

“The main thing is they know how to operate these weapons, and they can take that knowledge to take care of their own,” said Caffrey.

Caffrey’s lesson plan included hands on training that allowed the ANA soldiers to break down the weapons to a level they hadn’t done before.

“This training is much more in depth than we have had,” said Shafiullah Armani, an infantryman with the ANA 5th Kandak, 4th Brigade, 203rd Corps, “I want to learn this so I can teach my friends.”

U.S. Army Capt. John Rawlinson, a native of Kingsville, Texas, and the executive officer of SFAAT1, has been actively engaged with assisting the ANA for the past two months and has seen the progress the ANA soldiers have made. “They have never seen the weapons broken down to this level, and they are eager to learn,” he said.