Afghan officers visit Quantico

Afghans to apply lessons to developing army back home

By ROB DAVIS

Date published: 4/6/2005

Allies learn about Marines' training

With rifle fire crackling behind them at a Quantico Marine Corps Base shooting range, six Afghan National Army officers stood shoulder-to-shoulder for snapshots yesterday.

Marine officers helping to train the Afghans took turns posing with their green-camouflage clad visitors, trying to emulate their serious expressions.

The Afghan officers visited Quantico yesterday for a firsthand glimpse of the Marines' training regimen and to learn lessons to apply to their developing army back home.

They arrived Monday after a 38-hour flight from Kabul. They took a quick tour of Washington--stopping at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and the Marine Corps Memorial--before getting down to business yesterday.

They spent the morning in a cinder block enclosed classroom, taking notes on marksmanship training and peering through sniper-rifle sights.

Their afternoon included a tour of the Marine Corps University and the Staff Noncommissioned Officer Academy.

The six officers belong to one of the two Afghan battalions that Marines are responsible for training. Their trip here is part of the military's ongoing effort to modernize the rebuilding nation's army.

Marine officials said they believe it was first time Afghan National Army officers had visited an American base.

"It is a very important trip for me and my officers," Lt. Col. Ishaq Tamkin said through an interpreter. "The Afghan nation, the Afghan people, is looking forward to the day they have a very strong, very powerful army."

For now, they have a 20,000-strong force augmented by 17,000 American troops. The Afghan army is expected to reach its full strength of 70,000 by 2007.

No date has been set for the withdrawal of American troops. Tamkin said he hoped the Afghan army would be strong enough within three to four years.

Marine officials who coordinated yesterday's visit called it another step in the Afghan National Army's transition from loose-knit groups of freedom fighters into a professional security force.

Many soldiers are former mujahedeen, guerrilla fighters who battled the 1980s Soviet occupation. Tamkin said many of his officers have a wide range of combat experience: leading platoons, using guerrilla tactics. And laying mines. Afghanistan is one of the world's most heavily mined countries.

But Marine officials said that in the past, Afghan soldiers have been more like minutemen than trained fighters.

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Date published: 4/6/2005