DVIDS – News – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers trains Ghanaian army companions on base camp design

When the decision involves help United Nations peacekeeping operations, the Ghana Armed Forces commonly reply that decision and are anticipated to arrange their operations at occasions with little to no current base camp infrastructure. They could possibly be working from the nook of an airport, a commandeered sports activities area or a tract of land in an undeveloped a part of a jungle or desert scape – wherever peace wants strengthened.

Effectively and logically creating base camps for deployed forces is vital to any mission’s success, and that’s the reason consultants from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been not too long ago in Ghana instructing programs in base camp design to Ghana Armed Forces fight engineers and planners within the Ghanaian capital of Accra.

“We lined pure disasters, humanitarian support, border peacekeeping and fight situations,” stated U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District’s Michael Gerhard, who was a part of the Discipline Pressure Engineering staff that performed the coaching in Ghana. “Many of those Troopers have been deployed to contingency operations in areas like Mali, Sudan and different nations, they usually had been very excited by studying from our staff and we had been excited by studying from them how you can translate our concepts for sensible real-world use within the area.”

The coaching is a part of the bigger African Peacekeeping Fast Response Partnership Program which the U.S. Army Southern European Job Pressure, Africa (SETAF-AF) leads for the U.S. Army. Via this program, U.S. forces have interaction with army companions in Ghana and different Accomplice Nations (PNs) across the continent to coach them on every part from engineering capabilities to maneuvers and extra to bolster their capabilities throughout peacekeeping and different missions on the continent.

“The APRRP program goals to supply peace stabilization forces in a brief time period and the coaching of African PN militaries, and particularly engineer models on this case, supplies the bottom foundations for the modernization of these models in an effort to help UN peacekeeping operation (PKO) missions,” stated Senior Theater Safety Cooperation Officer for SETAF-AF within the Deputy Chief of Employees Engineers Directorate (DCSENG) Lt. Col Fernando A. Franco. “This additionally permits the USA to strengthen the cooperation and partnership with PNs on the continent. The suggestions I’ve obtained from PNs is that the coaching offered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is high-quality and is contributing to advancing the UN PKO mission and the general capabilities of the PN engineer models.”

The programs in Ghana lined the general strategy of planning out a base camp, beginning with the fundamentals of what to search for when adapting a specific website, if that’s an choice, to planning for what can be wanted to format and extra.

“Relying on the mission and the variety of folks, it’ll decide the scale of the bottom camp and the best way you lay it out, so it is sensible. The place do you set the logistics? The place do you set the housing? The place do you set the frequent areas like operations, like meals, the place do you set the latrines? The place do you set the trash pickup?” stated Discipline Pressure Engineering Coaching and Train Supervisor Mitchel Glenn from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters. “It’s not simply haphazard, we educate them the idea and idea as to how do you lay it out, relying on the scenario what sort of power safety you want whenever you’re constructing these and far more.”

Moreover, the staff integrated classes discovered from their Ghanaian counterparts within the earlier coaching and present occasions to make it as related as potential to the Ghanaian personnel there.

“We integrated an additional class on power safety that was developed on account of the teachings discovered from the preliminary coaching USACE performed in Ghana again in Could 2019,” stated U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters Environmental Help Group Nationwide Program Supervisor Arlene Weiner, who was a part of the staff in Ghana and has been concerned in this system since that first coaching. “Previous to the beginning of this most up-to-date coaching, USACE was briefed on the present missions of the GAF, which incorporates help to Mali on the Timbuktu website, and the 2022 coaching was particularly designed utilizing websites in Ghana and Mali to present the scholars expertise the place they might possible be offering future help.”

She additionally added that, whereas planning the coaching, the staff additionally took under consideration the latest involvement of the Ghana Armed Forces on the northern border between Ghana and Burkina Faso, the place they supported missions defending the Ghanaian border from assaults.

The coaching program has been occurring for years and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has managed related trainings with different armed forces previously together with in Rwanda. This system slowed down throughout COVID and the coaching in Ghana was one of many first the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff has been capable of resume in particular person abroad for the reason that starting of the pandemic.

“With the ability to go to Ghana and work with the army guys there made a big effect,” Gerhard stated. “They had been actually relieved to get loads of solutions to their questions, like on how you can enhance on what they’ve achieved in previous deployments. They had been asking about recycling and protected disposal of spent oil from equipment and we had been capable of give them concepts.”

Along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers trainers, the mission was straight supported by personnel from the, the U.S. Embassy in Accra, the U.S. Army Southern European Job Pressure, Africa, the U.S. Army Engineering College at Fort Leonard Wooden in Missouri and the 2nd Safety Pressure Help Brigade primarily based out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

“The Ghana Armed Forces, and on the whole PNs in Africa which are receiving the good coaching offered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are seeing the advantages of being a part of a larger mission that helps peace preserving operations within the continent and in addition helps to modernize their very own engineer models,” Franco stated. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers brings loads of experience about base camp grasp planning coaching and within the a few years that SETAF-AF has been working with the GAF, we have now additionally benefited from their on-the-ground data leading to a fruitful partnership.”