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6th Afghan Battalion begins training

by Staff Sgt. Rhonda M. Lawson

KABUL, Afghanistan (Army News Service, Dec. 6, 2002) - A record-setting day wound up being just the jumpstart the 6th Battalion of the Afghan National Army needed to finally begin training.

After months of waiting, the battalion inprocessed more than 270 recruits who showed up at the Kabul Military Training Center on the morning of Nov. 25.

The group was the largest ever to sign up for the ANA at one time, according to Sgt. Maj. Dan, Operations sergeant major, who is identified by rank and first name only for security reasons.

The group -- coupled with a smaller group that inprocessed three weeks prior -- put the 6th BANA over the top as the largest battalion in the ANA with more than 700 soldiers. Before, the BANA was sitting at less than 300 soldiers, forcing them to put off training until the numbers increased.

Mostly consisting of Pashtun and Tajik ethnicity, the recruits ranged in age from their late teens to early 40s.

Inprocessing took most of the day. The recruits were broken into groups and taken into the center where they were interviewed, fingerprinted and given medical evaluations. During this process, Dan said they tried to emphasize to the group the reality of being a member of the ANA.

"They're told that they're joining the Afghan National Army as a soldier, not as an officer or NCO," he said. "In their local command, they might have been one of those items, but the (Ministry of Defense) actually picks the officer staff for each BANA. If they don't like that, they're given a chance to leave."

Dan added that he's not sure why so many people showed up in one day, but he credits much of it to the Afghan government.

"The Karzai government is definitely putting pressure on the Ministry of Defense to get a standing army," he said. "The Afghans see the standing army as one of the vital keys to stability toward the Afghan transitional government of President Karzai."

With the added troops, soldiers from the French army, which trains all even-numbered BANAs, began training almost immediately after they were outfitted. The team, part of the 16th Battalion de Chasseurs, of the French 2nd Armored Brigade, had been waiting nearly two weeks to get to work.

The 6th BANA just completed its first week of training, which included general information, marching and weapons familiarization.

"The training is divided into two parts," explained Maj. Patrick Leurs, the training team's executive officer.

"The first will last five weeks (and includes) general individual training, and the second phase is certainly the most important because it will train the platoons and companies in their specialties."

Leurs added that an important aspect of their training is incorporating sports because it helps the soldiers to work better as a team.

"It is a tradition for the French to incorporate sports in all the training," he said.

The fact that the team is now training the ANA's largest battalion hasn't hampered any efforts for the French. Leurs explained that they assessed the level of training by the soldiers' experience, many of whom had prior military training.

"The soldiers want to learn, they want to be trained, they are very motivated to receive information," Leurs said. "They tell us that they have recognition for the French help we provide to their future Army."

However, he said the challenge for the instructors is to slow down the training rhythm to break through the language barrier. All classes are taught with the help of interpreters, who translate the lessons into Dari and Pashtun.

"We are careful of differences between the soldiers who speak Pashtun because we do not want to isolate them," Leurs said. "In all platoons, we have some soldiers who are able to translate from Dari to Pashtun."

He added that they also teach with a hands-on technique to help the soldiers catch on faster.

"We minimize theory and increase practice," Leurs said. "Practice is more efficient above all with the soldiers who do not know how to write."

The center is now preparing to begin inprocessing for the 7th BANA.

"They don't start their training for almost a month or more, but the government is afraid that if we're not inprocessing these soldiers," Dan said, "that they're going to disappear and they're not going to come back."

(Staff Sgt. Rhonda M. Lawson is a member of the 28th Public Affairs Detachment.)