Photo By Lt. Joe Nawrocki | A Salvadoran airman is reunited with his son at the airport in San Salvador after...... read more read more
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SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - Eleven Salvadoran airmen returned from Afghanistan to El Salvador Feb. 28. During their deployment, the group filled the roles of aviation advisers and International Security Assistance Force liaison officers, positions which have been filled by U.S. service members in the past.
The partnership between the United States and El Salvador is a long standing one. Not only does El Salvador host a joint air force base at Comalapa that serves as a platform for regional drug interdiction missions, but it has also contributed military personnel to assist with international peacekeeping missions in Iraq, Haiti and Lebanon.
Currently, El Salvador is the only country in U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility contributing forces to Afghanistan.
“As chief of the Salvadoran Air Force, I am very proud that our personnel can be a part of such an active mission and support an important role of another air force,” said Salvadoran Col. Carlos Mena, chief of the El Salvadoran air force. “They know that they are contributing to maintain the peace worldwide, specifically in Afghanistan.”
To prepare for this deployment, SOCSOUTH was instrumental in facilitating the process, from requisitioning the necessary equipment to recommending pre-deployment training.
A role SOCSOUTH is very familiar with as they use small units in military actions focused on strategic or operational objectives with partners throughout the region.
SOCSOUTH, based in Homestead, Fla., is responsible for all U.S. Special Operations activities in the Caribbean, Central and South America. It serves as a component for U.S. Southern Command.
“Having expert advisers who had already been there, as well as having a team of all volunteers for this Afghanistan mission, made training easier,” said Col. Mena. “It really makes the training easy because the airmen that went wanted to be there, they wanted to receive the training, and they wanted to be a part of the mission.”
The training that the Salvadoran airmen went through is similar to what U.S. service members receive in preparation for deployment. The Salvadorans also received psychological and medical evaluations and other exams to ensure they were fit for a combat mission.
The Salvadoran airmen said that while the training prepared them for their deployment to Afghanistan, there were some realities that could only be taught through first-hand experiences. After the 10-month deployment for the nine aviation advisers and eight-month deployment for the three ISAF LNOs, some of those realities were encouraging.
“Most of the time you know that the news usually shows only the bad side, the shocking news, but once you’re in theater you realize that Afghanistan has changed a lot,” said Salvadoran Col. Manuel Calderon, who deployed to Camp Arena in Herat, Afghanistan. “You are now able to see female children going to school and you see some women on the street not wearing burqas. It’s getting better.”
Lt. Col. Joel Quintanilla, who deployed to ISAF HQ as a logistics staff officer to Kabul Afghanistan, said, “The most rewarding part for me was helping to develop a better future for the people of Afghanistan. We are very proud to be representing our country, but I think as a troop-contributing nation, we’re doing plenty to keep the peace and freedom of the people of Afghanistan.”
The peacekeeping role will increasingly become the responsibility of NATO partners like El Salvador as the U.S. continues to bring troops home from Afghanistan.
“As the U.S. administration begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan, U.S. service members will have to be replaced with partner nations,” said U.S. Army Maj. David Schulz, deputy Army section chief at the Military Group in El Salvador. “Historically, El Salvador is one of the strongest partners in Central America and the missions that they’re doing now in Afghanistan are ones that had been done by U.S. counterparts in the past.”
El Salvador has an upcoming deployment that will replace U.S. troops in a role that will take them outside the wire as they directly partner with Afghan police. This particular mission will be supported by 13 El Salvadoran military personnel. U.S. Special Operations Forces personnel will be partnering with the Salvadorans when they train at Fort Polk, La., later this year.
In order to help prepare the team, Maj. Schulz coordinated a pre-deployment site survey and traveled with a team of five Salvadoran officers to Afghanistan for two weeks to meet U.S. and NATO leadership, to modify equipment requisitions as needed, and to meet their Afghan counterparts.
“It’s going to be the first Salvadoran contingent to go outside the wire, as their mission is to advise an Afghan police battalion in Herat, Afghanistan,” said Maj. Schulz, whose most recent deployment to Afghanistan was in 2011, when he was a company commander on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Schulz added, “It was a truly amazing experience, something I had never done before, but something I took a lot of pride in doing because of the importance of the mission.”
The Salvadoran counterparts agreed with the importance of the mission and said that things are better. However, stability in Afghanistan has yet to be completely achieved.
“Even though I fought the (civil) war here in El Salvador for three years, the thing that shocked me the most was an attack that occurred in September when a suicide bomber approached ISAF Headquarters in Kabul, but could not get through, so he killed himself outside the gate. He blew himself up, killing six children and three adults,” said Lt. Col. Quintanilla. “We had built a relationship with these children who sold knickknacks outside the headquarters, so it was a very sad thing to witness that.”
As Afghanistan works to establish and maintain stability in all regions of their country, NATO forces including military-to-military partners like the United States and El Salvador continue to support them. These partnerships not only illustrate the similarities of our militaries, but also strengthen the values and bonds shared among service members.
SOCSOUTH continues its partnership with El Salvador, as they continue to improve the capabilities of both militaries and to work toward meeting today’s challenges and asymmetrical threats.
| Date Taken: | 04.17.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 04.17.2013 20:27 |
| Story ID: | 105377 |
| Location: | SAN SALVADOR, SV |
| Hometown: | SAN SALVADOR, ES |
| Hometown: | HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA, US |
| Web Views: | 2,218 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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