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On 3/6/2009 9:32:23 AM Command Sergeant Major Mark S. Ripka wrote
CSM Mark S. Ripka visits Africa Partnership Station, USS Nashville in Senegal
As the Command Sergeant Major of United States Africa Command, I spend the majority of my time on the continent of Africa conducting engagements with military leaders from African defense forces. During one of my most recent trips, I visited the Africa Partnership Station (APS) and observed military-to-military activities in Senegal and Liberia. I have outlined my visit below.
On 9 February 2009, I arrived in Dakar, Senegal with Fleet Master Chief Anthony Evangelista, NAVAF Fleet Master Chief, to conduct a visit with APS instructors, USS Nashville shipmates, and to engage members of the Senegalese military.
While the USS Nashville was in-port we visited the military-to-military activities in Theis (pronounced "Chess"). We observed the final day of land-based activities conducted by the U.S. Marines with Senegalese soldiers. The activities included a live-fire exercise, close-quarters battle, medical procedures, and map reading. We attended the U.S. Marine Corps-Senegalese graduation ceremony. On 10 February 2009, the focus was on shipboard activities and we attended various classes that had been on-going for several days, including Leadership and Port Security management. I noticed that the participants were fully engaged during the activities, taking notes and referring to the French-translated booklets provided by the U.S. instructors. The APS visit to Senegal concluded with a graduation ceremony aboard the ship, recognizing the Senegalese military members for their hard work and achievements.
On 11 February 2009, APS departed Senegal via Liberia en route to Ghana. While underway, the APS staff conducted routine daily staff meetings coordinating and preparing for future engagements. During a review of the Senegalese visit, it was noted that the U.S. trainers, who lived under the same conditions as the training audience, had earned a tremendous amount of respect from the Senegalese soldiers and leaders. The Commodore and the ship's Captain, with their senior enlisted leaders, conducted a round-table discussion with multiple African country Officers and NCOs--the discussion focused on making these activities more meaningful and useful to the training audience.
On 16 February 2009 we arrived in Liberia via Landing Craft Utility with the U.S. Marine Corps military-to-military activities detachment. The focus of this engagement was to observe the integration of the U.S. Africa Command NCOs, Southern European Task Force NCOs, Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa NCOs with the PAE/DynCorps trainers, Marine Forces Africa mentors, and the APS U.S. Marine Corps military-to-military activities detachment. Together, this team of trainers and mentors is working to help Liberia rebuild the capabilities of its armed forces.
The vast majority of the time during the visit was spent at Camp Edwin Binyah Kesselly (EBK) Military Barracks, the home of the Armed Forces of Liberia's 23d Brigade and Camp Ware, where the Brigade Training Unit conducts formal collective and initial entry training. While at Camps EBK and Ware professional development discussions were held with Armed Forces of Liberia officers and noncommissioned officers.
As you can see, this engagement included two countries that enable U.S. Africa Command to build strong military-to-military partnerships with African nations. It is my hope that through these engagements we can demonstrate the effective roles Noncommissioned Officers have in building professional military capabilities.
On 3/7/2009 3:27:22 PM Anonymous in Unspecified wrote Your web site is comprehensive, but it does not work well at all in Firefox. Firefox is much, much safer than IE. In Firefox, the text is not aligned properly and many times the photos do not appear in the gallery view box. Also, you have some information that is old. Africom has come a long way ... you should consider putting up current information of all the good things you have done since October 1.
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