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U.S. Army Africa coordinated a two-week Africa Deployment Assistance Partnership Team (ADAPT) training event in The Republic of Burundi recently. (U.S. Army Africa photos)

Georgia National Guardsmen train Burundi military

Sept. 26, 2012 — By Rich Bartell, USARAF Public Affairs

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BUJUMBURA, The Republic of Burundi – A pair of Georgia Army National Guardsmen from the 110th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion trained more than 30 Burundi Armed Forces personnel during two weeks of instruction on deployment, unit movement planning recently.

Capt. Brad Copas of U.S. Army Africa’s G-4, Multi-National and Interagency branch, supervised the two-member GARNG team during an Africa Deployment Assistance Partnership Team training known as ADAPT.

ADAPT is a U.S. Department of State sponsored program focusing on training African partner nation military personnel to improve host nation involvement in peacekeeping operations, Copas said.

“The ADAPT program gives us an ability to assist and improve our working relationships with our African partner nations. Master Sgt. Derek Gill and Staff Sgt. Samuel Perez were very effective in training Burundi troops,” Copas said.

“This is the second phase of training for the Burundi military and they recently received equipment that will improved their ability to move cargo and other military specific freight,” Copas said. He said the course was modified to meet training goals.

Copas is a native of Tompkinsville, Ky., and a Kentucky Army National Guard officer on active duty with USARAF.

With French the official language of Burundi, interpreters were instrumental in translating the training for the Burundi students.

“Our course materials are in English so translation to French was imperative. Luckily, we had two students in the course who had studied in the U.S. Again, it was a good learning situation for all of us. The student interpreters were augmented with a contracted interpreter, so we had a total of three. Additionally, the two weeks working as translators helped them improve and build on their English language skills as well. All in all, it was a win-win situation,” Copas said.

Copas said the training covered several areas of unit deployment to include: airlift movement and load planning; equipment preparation, weighing and marking and palletization.

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