FORT BUCHANAN, P.R. -- The newest group of Department of the Army Security Guards began their training course here Jan. 19 and February 9 they completed their training to become the garrisons newest additions to the guardforce.
The group of 9 recruits, with varying military and law enforcement experience, has been hired to shore up a DASG staff, which has endured some turnover and losses in personnel due to some guards' status as active reserve Soldiers.
Some of the recruits, are returning to familiar territory.
"I was one of the contractors before the September 2010, I expect to perform how they expect (me) to perform. The training itself is much better than in the civilian one. It's more specific and it has staff who require us to be better students too," said Raymond Deming a former contracted security guard, now a recruit with the DASG course.
One of the new areas of emphasis the recruits will need to learn includes good customer service practices when interacting with members of the Fort Buchanan community. As one of the garrison commander's most prominent goals, customer service has been the consistent theme of the DASG training course.
Police Training Officer, Lt. Felipe Deida said the new class of recruits will learn the same skills in customer service that the inaugural class learned in September 2010.
"We're going to go through the training manuals both for police and security guard, after that probably information awareness," Deida said.
Victor Figueroa, a recruit, experienced military policeman, and former member of the Army and the Navy said he expected to perform well during the course given his familiarity with law enforcement but was just a little nervous about seeing techniques he was unfamiliar with.
One such technique, includes hand to hand self defense tactics practiced by Police Officer and DASG Instructor Richard Olmeda. Who, during a recent training day took the recruits through self-defense drills.
Olmeda's walk-throughs and instruction gave recruits the confidence to execute the moves cleanly.
In a few weeks the recruits will hit the streets and begin practicing their trade for real, with a well-rounded training program they can be sure the lessons they learned in the classroom will pay off in the field."It doesn't matter how many years you've been doing the work; you've got something to learn," said Deming.
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