Courtesy Photo | U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Saltmarsh, Task Force Raptor, 3rd Squadron, 124th Cavalry...... read more read more
SINGO, Uganda – Texas Army National Guardsmen and Uganda Peoples Defense Force exchanged skills and experiences during two seminars, May 18 – June 30.
U.S. Army Capt. Bradley Grimm, Staff Sgt. Jason Smith, Sgt. Enrique Icedo, and Sgt. Andrew James, Task Force Raptor, 3rd Squadron, 124th Cavalry Regiment, Texas Army National Guard, were invited to participate in a Raven operational skills exchange with Ugandan airmen and soldiers.
“We shared best practices on how to operate the Raven small unmanned aircraft system,” said Grimm, intelligence officer for the squadron. “I shared my specific experience with the system, which is to take the images it provides, analyze them, and then provide the commander with a detailed report.”
According to James, the physics that go into launching the system up in the air is a whole other set of instruction.
“Launching the aircraft has nothing to do with how strong you are; it has more to do with form,” James said. “We practiced with large tree branches at first, so we could get our form down; eventually moving on to the actual Raven. It was good practice, and at the end we all became better at it and had more successful launches.”
In a separate training area, U.S. Army 1st Lt. James Welton, Staff Sgt. Michael Barker, Spc. Trinidad Gamez, Spc. Christopher Saltmarsh, Spc. Jonathan Becmer, Spc. Shawn Quinn, and Spc. Aaron Roberts, 3-124th CAV, helped UPDF instructors mentor soldiers in basic soldier skills.
“We shared our best practices on close-quarters battle, marksmanship skills, counter IED patrols, and basic combat casualty care,” Barker said. “It was a good experience to team up with the UPDF instructors and share these skills. I could tell the Ugandan soldiers were soaking up everything, because of how much they improved from day one.”
Barker appreciated the display of motivation and gratitude the Ugandan soldiers had for their mentors at the end of each successful training event.
“Every time they did well, they would sing a song for us,” Barker said. “I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but the enthusiasm these soldiers had for the training and its successes could be felt.”
At the end of the month-long exchange, the Texas National Guardsmen helped mentor over 200 UPDF soldiers and airmen. The Guardsmen are deployed to east Africa in support of the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, whose mission is to promote stability and security in the region.
| Date Taken: | 07.17.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.25.2012 13:10 |
| Story ID: | 92135 |
| Location: | SINGO, UG |
| Web Views: | 324 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, US and Ugandan soldiers exchange best practices, mentor soldiers., by Malcolm McClendon, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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