SFC Ralph Parsons quizzes an Afghan National Army soldier during tactics training on responding to an ambush. Parsons is with the Kabul Military Training Center's Mentor Group. (Photo by G. A. Volb)
Itchy trigger fingers not allowed:
Alamo mentor stresses the basics with ANA soldiers
By G. A. Volb
KMTC Public Affairs
CAMP ALAMO, Afghanistan – “Kilke-ta-Az-masha Durku,” the 45-year-old Sergeant First Class from Lawton, Okla., told Afghan National Army soldiers on Kabul Military Training Center’s tactics range.
The words he spoke, in Dari, reminded the young Afghan troops to keep their fingers off the trigger when not needed. It was the type of exchange that had onlookers wondering if the seasoned noncommissioned officer was fluent in the language.
“Actually, that’s all I know,” said Army SFC Ralph Parsons, with a slight grin on a cold, wet day atop the rolling hills of KMTC’s ranges.
Parsons, a mentor with the Basic Warrior Training branch here, focuses on the ANA’s command staff instructor section, evaluating training, and helping them develop new tactics and techniques for instruction.
“The typical ANA soldier wants to learn,” he said. “I think they want to be challenged and want to belong to an organized group with a unified effort.”
On this day, there were about 600 soldiers from a training Kandak practicing their reaction tactics to an “ambush.”
“ANA soldiers excel at anything they can actually physically practice,” he emphasized. “They do extremely well at hands-on practicum -- like assembling and disassembling weapons, first aid and such.”
He said the biggest challenge is the obvious language barrier and having to use interpreters for everything. There’s also a certain level of trust that has to be developed between the soldiers and mentors.
“They know that with each new mentor comes change, and they expect that,” he said. “But sometimes they’re not sure who the expert is or who’s ideas and suggestions they should accept – yours or the previous mentor’s.”
Such things are important since the training methods push a lot of information at the soldiers in a small amount of time.
“When I conduct a check on their progress, sometimes they get eight out of 10 questions correct, and sometimes just one or two,” he said. “So those are the types of issues my team is trying to identify. They grasp the overall concept of the instruction, but not the details as to why something is.”
In the mud and rain on the tactics range, the training scenario tested their ability to discovering an enemy lying in wait and reacting to an ambush. “The concepts of laying down a base of fire, assaulting and flanking through the ambush site are also taught,” said Parsons. “To help them survive they must work together in fire teams, to communicate, put down a large base of fire and immediately react to contact, to assault through the objectives, and to be aggressive.”
The ANA, if nothing else, is aggressive according to those closest to the training. Parsons attributed that to their belief that one day they see Afghanistan being the country their grandparents told them about, a free and prosperous nation. Many too said the Taliban had terrorized their villages and families and that they are here for revenge. But first things first – and that’s the training.
This six-week course is broken into three major categories: First aid, tactics, and basic rifle marksmanship with AK-47s, plus Soviet weapons familiarization.
“These privates come from all over Afghanistan – all provinces and villages – but here at KMTC they are unified for the first time as one Kandak (battalion) and one Tolli (company). It’s my hope that, following the course, they realize they have the ability to learn a wide variety of tasks that it takes to be a soldier and a warrior. That they’ll continue to build on what they’ve learned here at their corps.”
