Afghan Air Corps commander calls Expeditionary Center a 'role model' for training

  • Published
  • By By Chief Master Sgt. Paula A. Paige
  • U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Public Affairs
JOINT BASE McGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  The commander of the Afghan national army air corps toured the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center here and said the predeployment training and education facility "will be a role model" for his country's armed forces.

"After 30 years of turmoil and civil war in Afghanistan and trying to change the system of the military, we require a lot of experiences," Afghan Maj. Gen. Mohammad Dawran said.

Referring to the Air Education and Training Command's Air Adviser Course held at the Expeditionary Center the general said, "Whenever I visit a foreign military educational installation, it gives me a lot of ideas to bring back to Afghanistan to try to improve life in Afghanistan. In the future, if we are in a position to send our military advisers to other countries, then this will be a role model for our training. Fighting terrorism and insurgency in Afghanistan forces us to learn new ways to counter every enemy tactic and method. The main goal of these visits is to witness all these training and experiences and take some lessons from them back to Afghanistan and try to implement them."

General Dawran was accompanied by a team of military officials that included Brig. Gen. Walter D. Givhan, who as commanding general of the Combined Air Power Transition Force leads a joint effort to develop, train and mentor the Afghan national army air corps. The two coalition partners came to the joint base to gain greater insight into the Expeditionary Center's mission and specifically AETC's Air Adviser course, which prepares Airmen deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan to train air force members in those countries. The course is managed by AETC officials with support provided by the Expeditionary Center staff.

General Givhan praised the training.

"I've been impressed with the product that this training produces," General Givhan said. "Over the last 10 months, I've had a chance to see several of the (air adviser) classes come through (Afghanistan)," General Givhan said. "We maintain constant contact and do video-teleconferences. We're part of this training. It's good to be here and see how that feedback is being incorporated into the training and how the training continues to be really the best we can make it in order to prepare our Airmen to do this supportive mission."

With the largest offensive by foreign troops since the U.S. toppled the Taliban in 2001 under way in Afghanistan, General Givhan said he knows the Afghan air corps commander will take back an appreciation of "how much we're putting into this training, how seriously we take this mission of helping Afghanistan and helping the Afghan national army air corps rebuild. We are making this training the best we possibly can in order to make the Afghan national army air corps the best that it can possibly be. I think he saw that here today."

For one member of the Expeditionary Center, the generals' visit was a reunion of sorts. Master Sgt. Richard Woods, director of the Senior Leader Maintenance Course at the center, completed the air adviser course before deploying to Kabul, Afghanistan, from July 2008 to January 2009. Once he arrived, he helped establish the Afghan air force's aircraft maintenance training school, training nine Afghan instructors and creating 12 courses. In that role, Sergeant Woods said he saw General Givhan at least once a week and General Dawran at the monthly student graduations.

"We had pictures put on the poster board from my time there and (General Dawran) recognized them," the sergeant said. "He was appreciative of all we've done. Our goal is to make Afghanistan a strong ally, a strong country and we're doing that. An often-said phrase over there is 'Some people read history; other people make history. We're the ones making history.'"

The AETC Air Adviser Course Director Lt. Col. Daniel Hummel was among a group of about 48 air adviser students who listened to General Dawran address students in a question and answer session about their upcoming mission to Afghanistan.

"His talk was about what air advisers could expect from his people and how he wanted our advisors to impart their professional standards," Colonel Hummel recalled. "The general said there must be continual feedback to get the job done. He was a motivated speaker. He cared deeply about his people and the Afghan National Air Corps."

When it came time for General Givhan to speak to the students, he "laid down the gauntlet, introducing himself in Dari," Colonel Hummel said. "He talked three minutes in Dari (an official language of Afghanistan), translating his own words back, emphasizing how important learning the
language is in accomplishing our mission."

That mission, Colonel Hummel said, is sending doctors to teach flight medicine, refuelers to teach not only how to fuel airplanes, but also to test the suitability of fuels.

"We send aerial port people to safely unload and load cargo to safe standards, to develop standards," he said. "We can't impose an American standard on them. They have to develop their own standards. We are there to make sure they are safe and effective standards. The Air Adviser Course teaches our folks the skills to survive in high-threat environments, (and) to succeed they need the culture and language. To become a trusted friend you need the language and culture. It's not enough to be fluent; you have to be sensitive to where the Afghan people are and where they need to be."

Robert Phares, AETC's contract instructor force lead for the Air Adviser Course, emphasized the importance of cultural training.

"You can teach anyone to shoot, or drive or be a medic," he said. "But the hardest thing to do is to foster mutual trust and understanding."

Assessing the visit, Col. Tip Stinnette, the Expeditionary Center vice commander, said the training institution "is just beginning to scratch the surface of its capacity to contribute to the mission of building partnership capacity. There is great potential across the suite of training and education courses offered within the Expeditionary Center to contribute to this important mission area."