EOD Airmen mentor ANA on counter-IED mission

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Beth Del Vecchio
  • U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan --  Airmen of the 966th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Flight, Operating Location-Bravo, assist in the transition of their mission in Afghanistan to the Afghan National Army as the only U.S. Air Force partnership training team in Regional Command South.

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 Improvised Explosive Device-Defeat schools after successfully completing classes and tests within their platoon. Those who graduate are sent back to their platoon to train with coalition forces during a dry validation process on ANA camps with inert devices. Once validated, the soldiers are sent out for live validation in the villages of Afghanistan with real-world operations alongside coalition forces.

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

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt Kenneth Guinn, OL-B partnership team, has conducted both dry and live validation here with the 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 U.S. Army 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 Afghan National Army soldier currently training with the OL-B 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 remains important to everyone in the country, to include Afghan civilians. As Guinn continues to train the ANA soldiers, he is reminded everyday 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 the Afghan National Security Forces 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."