USAF teaches Afghan soldiers to identify, mitigate IEDs

Story by Tech. Sgt. Beth Del Vecchio
U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs

Staff Sgt. Kenneth Guinn (left) and Sr. Airman Lee Mclean, 966th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight Operating Location - Bravo partnership team, prepare an inert IED for practice operations March 13 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (USAF photo by Staff Sgt. Greg C. Biondo)

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghan soldiers are learning to identify, investigate and clear improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordnance, with help from U.S. Air Force explosive ordnance disposal technicians.

The 966th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight, Operating Location – Bravo, trains, mentors and validates Afghan National Army soldiers through practice and real-world scenarios.

The EOD technicians train, mentor and subsequently validate ANA soldiers through a number of practice and real-world operations to safely identify, investigate and render safe unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices.

Afghan National Security Forces counter-IED training began in 2007, in Mazar-E-Sharif. There, Afghan soldiers attend EOD and IED-defeat schools after successfully completing classes and tests. Graduates return to their platoon to train with coalition forces during a validation process on ANA camps with inert devices. Once validated, soldiers go to villages for real-world operations alongside coalition forces.

Once ANA soldiers are validated through both processes, they become certified and can conduct IED operations independent of coalition forces, adding one more team to the fight against the enemy's deadliest weapon in Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. Kenneth Guinn, part of 966th’s partnering team, conducts both dry and live validation here with ANA.

"I think being able to share real-world experiences with the Afghans is extremely beneficial," Guinn said. "We can share all the lessons we have learned the hard way, so they don't have to do the same. Eventually the ANA can take over and run missions on their own."

According to Lt. Gen. Michael Oates in 2010, then director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device-Defeat Organization, counter-IED operations in Iraq are a good model for the way ahead in Afghanistan.

"One major component was training the local security forces," Oates said. "Once the Iraqi security forces became appreciably better, we saw a reduction in the number of IEDs. And I think you will see the same thing in Afghanistan."

Fakhr Uddin, an ANA soldier currently training with the partnership team, said the Air Force mentors are important to his training and he appreciates them being in Afghanistan.

"Our country has a lot of IEDs," Uddin said. "I want to become an EOD technician in order to defeat these IEDs."

The counter-IED mission in Afghanistan is crucial to protecting Afghan civilians and coalition forces. As Guinn continues to train ANA soldiers, he is reminded every day of the impact his team has on the country's future.

"I don't think we will be able to successfully withdraw from Afghanistan unless we train ANSF to follow in our footsteps and independently continue the mission," he said. "I think the fruits of our labor will become evident only after we turn over the counter-IED mission, and if the teams that we validate are not successful with their mission, then we have failed with ours."

 

(c) ISAF