A ceremony marking the completion of a maintenance mentorship program was held for nine Afghan Soldiers July 20 at AFSBn-Bagram, 401st Army Field Support Brigade.
The Soldiers were the second group to complete a program that partnered 401st AFSB, 101st Sustainment Brigade and 201st Corps Logistics Kandak in support of the counterinsurgency program laid out by Gen. David H. Petraeus. The program gave the Afghan Soldiers the opportunity to improve their vehicle maintenance or welding skills.
The previous group only worked on vehicle maintenance skills, but this group included Soldiers who worked in Allied Trades to increase their skills and knowledge of welding and paint booth operations.
“This hands-on program is like our AIT,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Katrina M. Najee, 101st Special Troops Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade. “This partnership is important for the CLK to be able to stand on its own.”
“They will know what to do and be able to teach future generations,” said Lt. Col. Robert J. Davis, 101st STB commander.
Davis said they hope to be able to expand the maintenance mentorship to the 203rd CLK soon.
“They [the 203rd CLK] are a brand new unit. They will be about two and a half months out of basic training and will get world class maintenance training.”
“We want to leverage what AMC has to offer and keep expanding skill areas,” he said.
The maintenance mentorship program leverages AC First contractors to work directly with the Afghan Soldiers. The vehicle maintainers worked on M1114 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles that are being sold to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan under a Foreign Sales Case managed by Army Materiel Command’s Security Assistance Command. The welders practiced stick or TIG and MIG welding as they made signs, stools, lockers and tool boxes.
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