Airmen train Afghan cops

  • Published
  • By Capt. J. Elaine Hunnicutt
  • Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team
NANGARHAR, Afghanistan --  Three Airmen trained and graduated 900 Afghan National Police in Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Lagman provinces, an area also called N2KL, during a nine-month deployment as part of a Department-of-State-owned program that provides a secondary-level of professional police officer education at the Jalalabad Regional Training Center. 

"I have three of the finest Airmen working at the RTC training the backbone of the communities in N2KL," said Lt. Col. Paul Donovan, their Air Force commanding officer. 

"These individuals are the top of their career field and have been on autopilot since we arrived," said Colonel Donovan. 

"I rarely see them because they are located on a separate compound, but they are never forgotten, and we do our best to include them," said the Colonel. 

"They have always maintained great attitudes throughout the two months of training and now during the mission - I couldn't have asked for a finer group of Airmen - I only get rave reviews about their performance and professionalism," said Colonel Donovan. 

Tech. Sgt. Brady Holcomb, deployed from Langley Air Force Base, Va., has served for 12 years and is from Mountain Home, Idaho; Staff Sgt. Curtis Hames, deployed from Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., has served for 14 years in both the Marines and now the Air Force where he is assigned to the 66th Security Forces Squadron, his hometown is Enid, Oklahoma; and Staff Sgt. Kevin Krouse, deployed from Bolling Air Force Base, DC, has served for nine years and is from Mount Wilson, Penn. 

There are seven Regional Training Centers total located in Kandahar, Herat, Gardez, Mazar-e-Sharif, Konduz, Bamyan and Jalalabad. 

The trainees attend an eight-week course that provides instruction in the following areas: general police duties, weapons proficiency, first aid, human rights, community policing, basic border police training, and Afghan law and constitution. 

"A police man who is educated is more capable of making rational decisions or judgment calls," Sergeant Krouse said. 

An entire police department comes to train, while they are backfilled by a traveling police department out of Kabul. Team building is what Sergeant Holcomb focuses on the most with his training sessions. 

"I get in a group of cops that have minimal training, and when they leave they can field a decent police department," Sergeant Holcomb said. 

"It is better that they come as a group because one problem that we face is that the village elder runs the city not the police chief - together they learn how to change this mindset among themselves and are better able to enforce the law," he said.
"We administer firearms training on a live range and apply squad movement techniques. In addition, they receive training on vehicle searches and police checkpoints," Sergeant Krouse said. 

"If they find a terrorist with a suicide vest using these search techniques before they are able to detonate themselves, then they will save lives," he added. 

"The Air Force Police seem to have a more civilian approach to policing than do most (Army) "field" police units. They understand our training approach as it applies to the police operating in an environment requiring a combination of civilian and military police units," said Charles Bent, Dyncorp regional commander. 

"The Air Force police are extremely good instructors and role models for the Afghan students. Being American military, they are looked up to by the students and Afghan commanders as military professionals," Mr. Bent said. 

"Their conduct with the students also helps to cement the Afghans experiences with Americans as "positive" in nature. This carries out to the field where the new Afghan police interact with other Americans, and helps the Afghans to assimilate better to the U.S. Army field instructors," he said. 

Most of the students are illiterate and have a second job in addition to being a police officer to offset their low wages. Since their options are limited and their ability to feed their families comes into play when making decisions, ethics training is vital for the success of the police department. 

Sergeant Hames, who teaches the advance course to the NCOs focuses on "ethics."
"I feel like I am steering a battleship in the right direction," Sergeant Hames said. "I have them all day, for eight weeks, and I tend to change their way of thinking." 

"I am teaching them that the village elder does not trump the law," Sergeant Hames said. "I feel I have made a difference; when I go outside the wire, I know how they operate." 

"The job they do and the professionalism they display is a credit to all the persons that serve our country as members of the Armed Forces," Mr. Bent said.