Atal Wali sets standard for Kandak training
By Staff Sgt. Jacob Caldwell
November 29, 2005
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Army News Service, Nov. 29, 2005) – Operation Atal Wali, or Operation Heroic Success, set a new benchmark for training Afghan National Army Soldiers in Kandahar and, for that matter, the country of Afghanistan.
Soldiers from the 1st Kandak, 2nd Brigade, 205th Corps, took part in a nine-day validation training exercise Nov. 12-20 at Kandahar Airfield and Camp Sherzai, the first such exercise ever conducted with the ANA.
The battalion, or Kandak-level exercise, trained ANA soldiers from the top of the chain of command down to the lower-enlisted ranks. Kandak officers, infantrymen, medics and artillerymen all honed their skills under the watchful eyes of Coalition Forces.
Leading the way on the training of the Kandak staff and conducting their first-ever training mission in Afghanistan, was a team of observer-controllers from the Joint Multinational Readiness Center out of Hohenfels, Germany.
Hohenfels ‘Wolves’ serve as OCs
The Timber Wolves, a maneuver battalion task force OC team, ran the command post exercise portion of Atal Wali at Camp Sherzai near Kandahar Airfield.
The purpose of the CPX is for the Kandak battalion staff to learn the military decision-making process, according to Maj. Eric Timmerman, the deputy senior observer-controller.
“The vehicle for that is an operation order that their brigade gave to them. Our method is to go through each of the steps of the military decision making process and teach a step, have a practical application using the operations order as a vehicle, and then have some discussion and work through it,” said Timmerman. “So that by the end of the (exercise) we can have them issue an operations order of their own to their Kandak companies and then conduct a combined-arms rehearsal that is produced by them.”
The Kandak leadership responded well to the training, according to Lt. Col. Peter Newell, Timber Wolf senior observer-controller.
“They are very engaged in the training,” said Newell. “Quite honestly, every army and every service that I have ever trained, the soldiers have responded the same way. If you give them good, challenging training, they will respond.”
The Kandak officers have never had training this involved and this detailed before, according to Afghan Maj. Azm ul-Din, the Kandak operations officer.
“Almost everything is different,” said ul-Din. “The training that we are getting from these professional training people is much better than the training that we had in the past.”
“I believe that when we go on missions in the future, this training will have a very good effect on us and our soldiers,” said ul-Din.
174th Airborne Bde trains infantry
While the Timber Wolves were training the Kandak staff, soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, from Vicenza, Italy, were running the Kandak infantrymen through basic rifle marksmanship exercises at the Kandahar Airfield firing range.
“We split it up into three phases,” said 1st Lt. Eric Nelson, a platoon leader in Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment (Airborne). “The first phase was pre-marksmanship instruction. We taught them much the same as what our privates get taught in basic training. We taught them the four fundamentals of marksmanship using some of the same techniques, like the dime and washer drills, the shadow box and blocks of instruction.”
“Then we went on to the second phase which was zeroing, which was something new for them,” said Nelson. “We had a lot of help from our international allies, especially the Romanian Black Wolf battalion that is here (at KAF).”
“Then we went into the third phase which was our close-quarters marksmanship classes,” said Nelson.
Soldiers show marksmen control
On Nov. 18, the Sky Soldiers ended the day’s exercises with an eye-opening demonstration for the ANA Soldiers showing the effectiveness of firing two-round controlled pairs versus firing a spray of bullets in full automatic mode.
“Now they understand that they control their ammo, they control their posture, and when they fire they know they will hit the target,” said Staff Sgt. Edward King. “Everyone knows that in full auto you spray-and-slay in every direction and you really can’t tell where the bullets are going.”
“This gives them an idea of what it’s like to shoot controlled pairs versus full auto and understand that they are more likely to hit the enemy,” said King.
King believes the message hit home when the ANA Soldiers saw the silhouettes after the demonstration. Twenty rounds were fired by one ANA soldiers at a silhouette in controlled pairs, while 30 rounds were fired at a second silhouette by an AK-47 set on automatic. All 20 rounds fired in controlled pairs were on target, while one only round fired on automatic made it to the paper.
Motivation exceeded expectations
The Afghan Soldiers motivation and receptiveness to the training exceeded all expectations, according to Nelson.
“We only asked for one company a day in the final three days, but they brought their whole battalion anyway because they all wanted to train. So we made it happen. I think we improved their marksmanship skills,” said Nelson.
“Our higher purpose was to get their chain-of-command and junior leaders to be able to start similar training exercises on their own,” said Nelson. “I hope we have that effect. I think we have, because towards the end of the exercise, we have seen some of their own leaders teaching them some of the things we were teaching them on the first day.”
173rd Medics trained ANA medics
Medics from the 173rd ran a shorter, four-day class Nov. 16-19 teaching ANA medics the ABCs of basic life-saving medical care.
“We didn’t know what skill level the ANA medics were at,” said Staff Sgt. Abraham Medina, a medic with Charlie Company, 173rd Support Battalion (Airborne). “So we taught eight different tasks that emphasize the care of your ABCs, your airway, breathing and circulation, and tried to beat that into them for the four days that we had them.”
“Some of them had previous medical training and some had combat life-saver skills. Some of them had none,” said Medina.
“I was surprised at those who had not had the medical skills and how quickly they came on board,” said Medina. “But I wasn’t surprised at those who had had medical training before. We just had to turn on the light bulbs for them. Once we started talking about the ABCs, you could see their faces light up. They had the ‘Oh-I-remember’ look on their faces.”
“Before they left, they looked at me and started yelling ‘ABCs!’ because that is all that I talked about during the training. If we got that into their heads, we were successful,” said Medina.
Soldiers from Bravo Battery, 3rd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment got the chance to work some more with the 4-1 ANA Battery, a unit they with which they have already trained.
“The idea was to give them some legacy training that they can carry on throughout their tenure as an artillery battery,” said Capt. Lee Waldrup, Bravo Battery Commander. “They had not done any kind of artillery training for a while. The last time they did it was about a year ago and they did it on D-30s (a 122 MM Russian artillery piece).”
Although the exercises on KAF were on 105 MM Howitzers, the basic concepts carry over to the Russian D-30s, according to Waldrup.
“We trained them on four areas,” said Waldrup. “How to fire the gun, how to compute data to translate a call-for-fire into data that the gun can shoot, and then we trained them on how to observe rounds, adjust rounds, and how to send a call-for-fire.”
“The cannon crew stuff was very simple. Most of the guys had already been trained on it because we had been doing training here on KAF for a month prior. So those guys picked it up very easily,” said Waldrup.
“This was a brand new experience for our battery and it was very easy,” said Waldrup. “The ANA soldiers were very professional, very eager to learn, and very motivated which always makes our job easier.”
After being presented a streamer for the battalion colors, senior leadership from the 205th Corps expressed their appreciation for the hard work of both their Soldiers and the Coalition Soldiers at a closing ceremony held Nov. 20 at Camp Sherzai.
“We all are witnesses of the very hard job that our friends did with our battalion, which was both physical and practical,” said Afghan Maj. Gen. Muslim Amed, 205th Corps Commander. “I am very happy that our battalion has completed this training and very thankful to all their trainers. I hope that the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the ANA Army Chief of Staff will plan training like this for us again.”
(Editor’s note: Staff Sgt. Jacob Caldwell serves with Combined Task Force Bayonet Public Affairs. For additional or different photos, e-mail Jacob.caldwell@kaf.afgn.army.mil)
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