Afghan National Army soldiers pull security security during a simulated raid on a cave complex at Hohenfels on Tuesday. (Seth Robson / Stars and Stripes)
HOHENFELS, Germany — The Afghan soldiers training alongside U.S. and European troops at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center this week already know how to fight.
That’s not what the training is focused on, Sgt. Christopher Curry, 37, a member of JMRC’s Grizzly Observer Controller Team, said Tuesday.
The training is aimed at getting members of western Operational Mentor and Liaison Teams (OMLTs) ready to embed with Afghan National Army units so they can help them cooperate with international forces in their country, he said.
Four OMLTs, made up of Latvian, French, Polish and U.S. soldiers, trained in their home countries before coming to Hohenfels, added the Newport News, Va., native.
"Our biggest focus is not so much passing on skills. It is interoperability … working together with the ANA … incorporating them in the planning portion of an operation so that it is one single unit rather than operating individually," he said.
The training also aims to reinforce the ANA doctrine, which governs the way the Afghans conduct operations and is modeled on U.S. Army doctrine, Curry said.
About a dozen U.S. OMLT members training at Hohenfels are from the Michigan National Guard and work closely with the Latvians as part of the State Partnership for Peace that involves links between National Guard units and eastern European militaries, he said.
One of the Michigan guardsmen, Sgt. Timothy Roberts, 28, spent Tuesday maneuvering through the Bavarian countryside alongside Latvians and Afghans as they conducted a simulated raid on a cave complex at Hohenfels.
The full-time guardsman and Iraq veteran said he’s not focused on teaching the ANA troops.
"They know how to fight. We are just here to reassure the population’s confidence in their army and government and help them liaise with U.S. forces," he said.
Roberts said the Latvians came to Michigan before the Hohenfels training, and his unit spent four months training with them in Latvia.
Latvian soldier Cpl. Maris Riekstins, 28, said he learned English from watching movies and television and gets on well with his U.S. counterparts.
"The Americans are simple guys. They are cool and smart," he said.
First Lt. Obaidullah, an ANA platoon leader training with the foreign troops, said he’s fought many battles against the Taliban including one in which he narrowly escaped two bomb blasts.
The most important part of the JMRC training is that it is hands-on, he said, through an interpreter.
"Until they (the Afghan troops) do real combat missions they can’t see everything with their yes. Here they can learn about reacting to contact, improvised explosive devices. And if there are mistakes, the mentors tell them what they need to do," he said.
