Airmen train Afghan Soldiers for first long-haul mission
By Staff Sgt. Jennifer Redente
455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
3/20/2006 - KABUL, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- U.S. Airmen recently trained Soldiers from the Afghan National Army’s Central Movement Agency for their first long-haul convoy mission.
The mission March 12 covered hundreds of miles from Kabul to Kandahar and involved two trucks, each carrying 6,000 liters of fuel.
The Airmen and ANA soldiers rose to the challenge when the coalition’s forward operating bases needed fuel and contractors were not available. They planned and coordinated the mission in a single day, said Maj. Richard Jones II of the 755th Expeditionary Mission Support Group.
Major Jones is the senior mentor with an embedded training team that arrived in January to teach ANA soldiers how to operate tactical cargo vehicles. At the time, the Central Management Agency had no working vehicles and its soldiers were living in the cabs of old trucks, he said. Further, many soldiers assigned to the agency had no experience as drivers.
“Now we have a brand-new fleet of vehicles and have moved into new buildings. (The) ANA is becoming a self-sustaining force, no longer relying on local contractors, but making nationwide movements on their own,” Major Jones said.
