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APS Nashville Trains African Sailors on VBSS Procedures

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS090304-06
Release Date: 3/4/2009 5:31:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Matthew Bookwalter, Africa Partnership Station Nashville Public Affairs

SEKONDI, Ghana (NNS) -- U.S. Coast Guard International Training Division (CGITD) instructors recently trained sailors from Ghana, Mozambique and Cape Verde on basic visit, board, search and seizure methods as a part of Africa Partnership Station (APS) Nashville.

The training, which continues until March 5, was colocated aboard USS Nashville (LPD 13) and a Ghanaian navy ship on Sekondi Naval Base during Nashville's 18-day port visit.

For the class, students received instruction on proper boarding and searching techniques, along with lessons on how to search suspicious personnel and weapons handling. The training will give the countries the tools needed to help in the fight against smuggling contraband and piracy – part of an ongoing effort to keep international waters safe.

"APS gives a good platform for this kind of training," said Africa Command Counter Narco-Terrorism representative Air Force Lt. Col. Alan Eininger. "Right now, we have three different countries fostering a relationship. When everything is over, we will have brought together 14 different countries with between 50 and 60 students."

Eininger said the training is important because the relationships built between countries in a training environment are the first step to safer waterways.

"The class gives a good foundation for maritime security," he said. "Hopefully, we will be able to supplement it with more training later. Over time, we will see that it has a great impact."

Bringing together students from three navies posed some unique situations for the training team, said CGITD instructor Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Greg Belkin.

"It's hard to train other countries like this because of different cultural boundaries, language differences and naval terminologies," Belkin said. "We get past those problems with repetition."

The training focused on basic board and search procedures, but the lessons work to improve water security throughout the world.

"The big picture is global maritime awareness," Belkin said. "We go all over the world teaching this stuff because we might run into each other in the future. If we all have the same training we can work together as one team."

The CGITD is based out of Yorktown, Va., and the instructors receive advanced training in counter-terrorism, force protection, survival skills, as well as training in their specialty fields before deploying as instructors.

The maritime planning course will be offered to several other African countries when Nashville visits Gabon and Cameroon in the coming months.

"This was a really good group of students," said CGITD instructor Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Amaury Perez. "We gave them a lot of knowledge, and they soaked it up like a sponge."

Nashville is currently deployed with APS, an international initiative developed by Naval Forces Europe and Naval Forces Africa which aims to work cooperatively with U.S. and international partners to improve maritime safety and security on the African continent. Nashville is focused on supporting the APS strategy in West and Central Africa.