1st TSC’s top NCO exchanges information with Afghan military

By Spc. Brandon Babbitt
1st TSC PAO

	Photo courtesy of Third Army Command Sgt. Maj. Danfert Espinal, second from left, 1st Theater Sustainment Command, watches a Kazak soldier load a machine gun at the Kazakhstan Noncommissioned Officer Academy during an information exchange May 30 through June 4.

KAZAKHSTAN, Afghanistan — Command Sgt. Maj. Danfert Espinal, 1st Theater Sustainment Command, with members of Third Army’s International Military Affairs team, led an information exchange in Kazakhstan May 30 through June 4.
Espinal represented Third Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Fourhman, who couldn’t attend the event, at the Kazakhstan Military
Noncommissioned Officer Academy near the city of Kapchagai.

Espinal toured the NCO Academy, located in the southern part of the country and spoke with Kazak military NCO candidates on the “in garrison” duties of NCOs.

“The main goal was to exchange ideas with their leaders on ways to better mold NCOs in the military,” said Espinal. “They also wanted to know about the U.S. Army’s way of building NCOs by promotions, counseling and the Uniformed Court of Military Justice.”
With the NCO Academy course lasting up to three years for most Kazak troops, Kazak policy makers at the academy are attempting to integrate the U.S. ideology of crawl, walk and run into their training.

Espinal said the difference between the U.S. and Kazak military is “night and day.”

In the Kazak military, NCOs don’t have the same delegated authority.

“Kazakhstan has only been a free country since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1991,” said Espinal. “So this is a young military trying to move away from that Soviet military philosophy into the American way, which will take time and work on their leadership’s part.

“It seems like the leadership that I spoke with wants to have their sergeants be strong and independent like those in the U.S. military, but they don’t quite know how to get there at this point,” he added.

Besides teaching a class at the academy, Espinal and other Third Army Soldiers were able to go into the field and see how the Kazak military trains their NCOs.

Espinal said the event was productive and he anticipates more events in the future like this in the future so the two militaries can share ideas and continue building on an already positive relationship.

The event was part of ongoing theater security cooperation between Third Army and the 20 nations inside its area of operations.

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