ANAP graduate training course

05.07.2007

Story by Spc. Micah Clare 

4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs

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By Pfc. Micah E. Clare
4th Brigade Combat Team82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs Office

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GHAZNI, Afghanistan — The intense light of the late afternoon sun lit up the uniformed Afghan faces during a ceremony March 5. Just weeks ago, they gave up their civilian lives and now were being recognized as the newest additions to the Afghan National Auxiliary Police.

After a week-and-a-half of qualification training conducted by the Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team, 36 Afghans stood in their new uniforms as they became short term, supplementary members of the law enforcement branch of the Afghan government.

"The people of Ghazni look up to you," said Navy Cmdr. James Hamblet, Ghazni PRT commander, in his address to the new ANAP members. "They see men who are going to keep them and their families safe. It's a very big responsibility, but it's one you men are able to accept."

Many of the new policemen had already accepted part of this responsibility a year earlier by assisting the full time Afghan National Police without training or regular pay, explained Army Staff Sgt. Philip Weiser, the PRT's non-commissioned officer in charge of the ANAP's military training. When the Ghazni PRT's training program finally became available in late December, they took the opportunity to get better training, equipment and pay by volunteering to join full time, he said.

During the 10-day training period, the recruits learned both civilian law enforcement and military maneuver techniques, said Joe Valadez, a training advisor with Dyncorp, an international management company that trains and mentors Afghan policemen.

After the initial in-processing, the recruits were taught about their government's constitution, human rights and principles of democratic policing.

"We instill in them the idea that Afghanistan is moving towards a more democratic society where people have the right to practice whatever they want without being harassed by police as they were in the past," Valdez said.

The trainees were taught peaceful and professional police techniques, like making arrests and using non-lethal methods to take down a criminal. The trainees were also taught military tactics such as team movements, reconnaissance, reacting to contact and first-aid to help them work better with the regular ANP.

"Besides police station security, Afghan policemen can get ambushed while on convoys," said Weiser. "They have to know to how to fight the enemy in a military style."

The older recruits use their previous fighting experience to benefit the others, even during their free time.

"The most experienced ones are very focused on making sure everybody understands what's going on," Weiser said. "I'll put them on break, and I'll see them practicing marching."

A big part of the recruits' military training is learning how to "rely on their buddy, and how they can't take on an entire army on their own," Weiser said.

Having a force intended to supplement the ANP is absolutely essential, he said. Besides assisting them in providing security for district centers and police stations, they are needed to go out on patrols, respond to disturbances and set up checkpoints, Weiser said.

The 36 new auxiliary policemen who graduated March 5 are the newest of nearly 300 since the start of the program here. They will go out and serve in many different districts in Ghazni Province.

"Every generation of any country has a small group of men who step forward in difficult times to protect their country," Hamblet said to the Afghan policemen in his closing remarks at the graduation. "In this time, you are the great generation of men in this country who are willing to sacrifice and make this country a better place."