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GLOBE Serving Camp Lejeune and surrounding areas since 1944 WWW.CAMPLEJEUNEGLOBE.COM
VOLUME 73 EDITION 47
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 23, 20 2011
MARJAH DISTRICT, AFGHANISTAN
Photos by Cpl. Alfred V. Lopez
(Left) Cpl. Samuel Escutia Jr., a combat engineer with Company A, Combat Logistics Battalion 1, cuts through a wing wall, recently. (Right) Cpl. Eric McMullen, a combat engineer with Company A, Combat Logistics Battalion 1, guides a bulldozer to fill a culvert. The Marines are currently repairing the support structure on a bridge located at a major intersection that connects Marjah and Nawa Districts.
LANCE CPL. ALFRED V. LOPEZ Regimental Combat Team 5
Combat engineers with Company A, Combat Logistics Battalion 1 and local workers improved road conditions by repairing a key bridge, Nov. 12. The bridge, which needed critical foundation repairs, is vital for both local travel and military missions on a major intersection between Marjah and Nawa. “Today’s project involves a bridge which has wing walls that are eroding,” said 1st Lt. Steven Thomas, a platoon commander
with Company A. “Our goal is to replace those wing-walls to make them last longer and make the bridge more stable for the civilian and military traffic.” Wing-walls provide the bridge with structure to the heavy support foot and vehicle traffic passing through the intersection. “The water flowing through here also provides water for the farmers, and this bridge is vital to the locals traveling to the bazaar,” added Thomas. “By improving this intersection, the travel conditions will improve for the locals, as well as
our convoys that come through,” said Cpl. Logan Homstad, a fire team leader with Company A. The combat engineers managed to control local civilian traffic while completing their work, leaving local commerce unaffected. “The biggest challenge is that it’s right next to a bazaar,” said Homstad. “There’s a lot of traffic moving around the area.” “We have to keep the locals out of the way because there’s a lot of heavy equipment moving around,” explained Thomas. “We don’t want any of them to
get hurt, as well as impede our progress.” Some of the locals even lent a helping hand to the Marine engineers, as they clearly understood repairs to the bridge would be beneficial to the local community, Thomas added. The mission was easier because of the support and manpower of the locals, said Cpl. Travis Dye. The Company A Marines worked expediently, digging out the existing structure with heavy equipment, and emplacing the new wing-walls that will keep
the bridge supported in the years to come. “My Marines were outstanding…They had to wade into the water, sometimes getting waste deep into the mud,” explained Thomas. “Some even had to get pulled out with the help of a few Marines, because the mud was so thick.” The bridge is one of Company A’s many projects supporting infrastructure development here in southern Helmand. “We’re happy to be here,” said Homstad. “We’re happy to do projects that matter.”
CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN
Marines launch tactical officers’ course at Helmand academy PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS JONATHAN CHANDLER
Regional Command Southwest
The inaugural running of the Tactical Leaders Course, a training program for small unit-level Afghan officers, has begun aboard Camp Leatherneck, Helmand province. During the nine-week course, the Joint Sustainment Academy Southwest will host 21 lieutenants and captains from various Afghan
National Security Forces and provide advanced training in skills key to small unit success. The students come from all branches of the ANSF in Helmand province, including the Afghan National Army, Police and National Security Directorate, said 1st Lt. Joshua Oresko, an instructor at JSAS. “We want to make successful squad leaders, platoon commanders, company commanders and staff officers,” said Oresko. “Just like every course at
JSAS, the TLC is joint in order to provide all services' officers with a common knowledge and skill set.” The course will provide training packages in map reading, land navigation, weapons skills, tactical leadership, driving, tactical communications and dismounted and mounted patrolling. Students will also be exposed to operational planning and considerations for running operations centers. The result is a training package similar to that U.S. forces experience
during pre-deployment and basic officer courses. “This class will benefit the students because we incorporate so many new ideas that few of them have mastered, or even been exposed to,” said Oresko. “We want the students to walk away from this course being able to train their men properly, receive a mission, process that information, plan an operation, prepare and issue an order, and make tactical decisions – all the skills that a good officer should have.”
CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN
INSIDE THE GLOBE
Extensive training leads CLB-1 EPT to success with ANA CPL. KATHERINE M. SOLANO 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward)
VICTORY IN NAWA: VOICE OF PROGRESS PAGE 9A LEJEUNE SPORTS 1B INSIDE LEJEUNE 1C CLASSIFIEDS 4C CAROLINA LIVING 1D
Like those before them, Combat Logistics Battalion 1, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), made a concerted effort to put together a well-rounded group of Marines to create their Embedded Partnering Team. The EPT is responsible for training, mentoring and advising Afghan National Army units as they work to become independent from coalition forces, a priority of 2nd MLG (Fwd.) as they prepare to transfer authority to 1st MLG (Fwd.) in the coming months. According to 1st Lt. Owen Finnegan, the CLB-1 EPT assistant officer in charge, not only were the individual Marines handpicked, but their pre-deployment training was crafted, planned and carried out over the span of multiple months. “There was a real attempt by the leadership of CLB-1 to ensure there wouldn’t be anything we weren’t ready for, so we wouldn’t be caught unaware or unprepared,” Finnegan said. For Marines on partnering and advising teams, the survivability training they receive, including advanced medical and combat readiness
courses, is crucial because they often conduct operations without coalition support as they work to increase the ANA’s independence. The particular unit that the CLB-1 EPT is mentoring is the 5th Kandak, 1st Brigade, 215th Corps, and thus far they have shown they are ready and willing to learn and operate without assistance, according to Finnegan. “Our (ANA) unit is actually rather proficient,” Finnegan said. “They run all their convoys on their own.” Despite the unit’s ability to operate on many tactical levels on their own, there are still challenges that the EPT faces while mentoring the Afghan soldiers. “Our major issue is now that the Afghans can do a lot of these things on their own, how do we step away?” Finnegan pointed out. “Now they don’t even want us to go on the convoys with them. They do that on their own and they are proud of it and they should be. This ANA kandak has become a success story very quickly.” Finnegan added, once the Marines finish supply and maintenance training with the ANA, their job will be even closer to being complete. “It’s our goal to work ourselves out of a job, so we aren’t in this business anymore,” he said.
Photo by Cpl. Katherine M. Solano
Soldiers with the Afghan National Army participate in relay races with weighted ammunition cans brought to them by the Marines with the Embedded Partnering Team, Combat Logistics Battalion 1, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), on Camp Shorabak, Afghanistan, Nov. 16.