Camp Leatherneck, July 9 (Newswire): For today's drill, an instructor explains, the Taliban will be played by U.S. Marines, and the "village" will be just down from the driving practice loop.
The Afghans grab their weapons and head out, taking cover behind a berm. A pickup drives up. The Afghans take aim and mimic the sound of a machine gun. The Marines tumble out of the vehicle, grabbing their chests as they fall to the ground.
That's a successful day at the U.S. Marine-run Joint Sustainment Academy in southwestern Afghanistan, which has been offering supplementary training on weapons, specialized skills and unit leadership to Afghan soldiers and police since 2009.
The Afghans who attend the academy say they learn things that were never taught in their official training: how to handle different weapons and how to organize a patrol or an ambush.
But now, even as U.S. officials talk about their commitment to training and advising Afghan security forces well past 2014, the Joint Sustainment Academy is preparing to shut down.
Officials in the U.S. talking about the need to decrease combat operations in Afghanistan have been much more reticent to highlight one aspect of the drawdown: that plenty of U.S. advisers and mentors are also leaving.
Those who stay will hop in and out of Afghan units rather than being embedded with one group in a move that is described as a way to get Afghan forces to take more responsibility.
"Someone made the decision, 'OK, I'm going to only have the personnel for this piece,' " said Lt. Col. Mike Cromwell, director of the academy at a U.S. base in Helmand province. "It just means fewer people. It's part of the overall drawdown."
Cromwell and the 31 other American service members running the academy end their tour at the beginning of 2013, and they have been told they won't be replaced. They say it's an opportunity to pass the torch to the Afghan trainers at the academy. But, Cromwell says, the academy as it exists on Camp Leatherneck is closing.
The Marines hope that the Afghan army and police see the value in what they have been teaching and incorporate it into their existing training centers at a nearby army base and at a police facility in the provincial capital.
"As we ramp down, those centers are the longer-term solutions," Cromwell said.
Training classes have already shrunk at the academy. Last year, the Marine academy trained 2,547 Afghans. Cromwell expects to train less than half that — about 1,000 — by the end of this year.
"We may not make that," Cromwell said.
And this is even though the academy is focused now on training Afghan soldiers and police to become trainers themselves — a goal that NATO and U.S. forces say is one of their most important priorities.
The general overseeing the two southwestern provinces of Helmand and Nimroz says the trainer cuts don't worry him.
"We're handing over this part of the training," said Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus. "We will continue to have security force assistance teams — out with the different battalions and brigades and with our police — that will continue to mentor, advise and train as we move forward toward the end of 2014 and potentially beyond."
The Afghans grab their weapons and head out, taking cover behind a berm. A pickup drives up. The Afghans take aim and mimic the sound of a machine gun. The Marines tumble out of the vehicle, grabbing their chests as they fall to the ground.
That's a successful day at the U.S. Marine-run Joint Sustainment Academy in southwestern Afghanistan, which has been offering supplementary training on weapons, specialized skills and unit leadership to Afghan soldiers and police since 2009.
The Afghans who attend the academy say they learn things that were never taught in their official training: how to handle different weapons and how to organize a patrol or an ambush.
But now, even as U.S. officials talk about their commitment to training and advising Afghan security forces well past 2014, the Joint Sustainment Academy is preparing to shut down.
Officials in the U.S. talking about the need to decrease combat operations in Afghanistan have been much more reticent to highlight one aspect of the drawdown: that plenty of U.S. advisers and mentors are also leaving.
Those who stay will hop in and out of Afghan units rather than being embedded with one group in a move that is described as a way to get Afghan forces to take more responsibility.
"Someone made the decision, 'OK, I'm going to only have the personnel for this piece,' " said Lt. Col. Mike Cromwell, director of the academy at a U.S. base in Helmand province. "It just means fewer people. It's part of the overall drawdown."
Cromwell and the 31 other American service members running the academy end their tour at the beginning of 2013, and they have been told they won't be replaced. They say it's an opportunity to pass the torch to the Afghan trainers at the academy. But, Cromwell says, the academy as it exists on Camp Leatherneck is closing.
The Marines hope that the Afghan army and police see the value in what they have been teaching and incorporate it into their existing training centers at a nearby army base and at a police facility in the provincial capital.
"As we ramp down, those centers are the longer-term solutions," Cromwell said.
Training classes have already shrunk at the academy. Last year, the Marine academy trained 2,547 Afghans. Cromwell expects to train less than half that — about 1,000 — by the end of this year.
"We may not make that," Cromwell said.
And this is even though the academy is focused now on training Afghan soldiers and police to become trainers themselves — a goal that NATO and U.S. forces say is one of their most important priorities.
The general overseeing the two southwestern provinces of Helmand and Nimroz says the trainer cuts don't worry him.
"We're handing over this part of the training," said Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus. "We will continue to have security force assistance teams — out with the different battalions and brigades and with our police — that will continue to mentor, advise and train as we move forward toward the end of 2014 and potentially beyond."
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