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Suggested lead:
The U.S. military, in partnership with the Cameroon Defense Force, the Multi-nation Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, partner militaries, and inter-agency partners, conducts exercise Unified Focus 2018 in Douala, Cameroon. UF 18 is a staff exercise that brings the military partners of the MNJTF together to practice joint planning and coordination through a series
of prepared academic and practical exercises.
Capt. Micciche transcribed interview:
“Captain James Micciche from Bravo company 83rd civil affairs battalion from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.”
“So I am the FTX OIC, which while the title sounds important, is actually not. The folks underneath me, especially the EOD partners and the rest of my CA team, the ones that are actually doing the heavy lifting and hard work.”
“So the FTX really focuses on three things. Number one is preparing a group of Cameroonian engineers and sappers to deploy to the north, extreme north, the koola fada area, marrowa, were there is a lot of issues with boko haram and ISIS west Africa were we are working their survivability, their capacity to engage with and work with civil populous, as well as their ability to understand the threat from IEDs and defeat those.”
"So our African partners have been fighting a war for years around the lake chad basin and other areas, so they know it well. its this bilateral relationship we have with our partners, specifically Cameroon. we need to work by with and through them to be able to defeat the enemy. they know the area better than us, they know the culture better than us, and we can do is add a little bit to the tips, tricks and techniques to enhance their ability to combat terrorism."
"African partners have been fighting a war here in lake chad basin for a long time, 7 to 8 years boko haram has been a threat and now ISIS west Africa, so we want to make sure that they take some of the techniques and skills that they have, which they are fantastic warriors, they understand the culture, they understand the terrain better than anybody else, and so we can add a little bit extra that we can teach them on top to enhance their capability. additionally, i want to make sure our African partners know that we want to work with them, by them and through them to defeat the enemy and find a common ground in which we can do that."
"So the FTX is piggy backing on a existing security forces assistance program, an sfa, that's run by an EOD team out of Colorado, fort Carson, Colorado. to CA team came out last week to better prepare the group that they have for deployment. so they already had five full weeks of EOD skills, specifically assessing IED threats, defeating IED threats and unexploded ordnance. the CA team came in and we add a little bit extra training on top. our first main topic was teach T triple C; tactical casualty combat care, that allows the increased survivability of the soldiers to be able to treat injuries at the sight of fight, to be able to evac them to a point of care. secondly, we wanted to make sure they enhanced their civil military operations capacity, or CMO for short. CMO allows the soldiers to engage with and through their civilian counterparts. a lot of the enemies up to the north aren't traditional, which is force on force fight, its a coin fight, so we need to understand the civil populous, to understand that winning hearts and minds cannot win the battle at the end of the day. and finally, we taught them how to use translators, cause believe it or not, up in the north, french is not the most common language, it was lucky enough that staff sergeant Collins, one of my troopers have actually spent a large amount of time in northern Cameroon on a mission, so he was able to help those folks and shape the final exam to best replicate those situations that they'll find on the ground."
"so i think the most important thing to add is, that this would not be possible without our African partners, so we're at their behest and its been an absolute pleasure to work with them. i have learned from them as much as they have learned from me and i want to make sure they realize that and i hope they welcome us back as we fight this fight together and look to the future."
| Date Taken: | 03.16.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2018 13:39 |
| Category: | Interviews |
| Video ID: | 590196 |
| VIRIN: | 180318-N-GW139-001 |
| Filename: | DOD_105421041 |
| Length: | 00:03:11 |
| Location: | CM |
| Downloads: | 2 |
| High-Res. Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Unified Focus 18 - Cpt James Micciche interview, by PO1 Eric Coffer, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
