United States Marines with the Marine Advisor Team (MAT) arrived at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va. June 8 after a five-month deployment in support of Africa Partnership Station (APS) Nashville, an initiative to promote maritime safety and security in the Gulf of Guinea region.
The team, which consisted of U.S., Spanish, and Portuguese Marines embarked onboard the USS Nashville (LPD-13), traveled to Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon, conducting seminars with a total of 869 participants.
The diversity of requirements, according to each service branch’s mission and environment, challenged the MAT Marines to effectively share concepts that would apply to each party. To meet the training requirements requested by each country, the MAT Marines conducted a variety of seminars to include non-commissioned officer leadership, officer leadership, non-lethal weapons tactics, Marine Corps martial arts, intelligence, marksmanship, combat lifesaver skills, and basic first aid.
The experience of working with a variety of countries in challenging living conditions provided the MAT Marines with a unique opportunity to understand their foreign counterparts and the challenges they face on a daily basis.
“The biggest issue would be our cultural differences,” said SSgt. Jason Elsdon, advisor, MAT. “The way the Marine Corps does things and the way each branch we are advising does things differs. Personally, the effect taught me new training tools when dealing with someone who speaks a different language and has a totally different culture. It really makes you think of how I can better the training using what I have and the assets they have.”
The APS mission gave service members a chance to share their expertise and learn different ways to accomplish the same goal. The team spent time living beside some of their foreign partners, sharing each other’s culture, trying new foods and listening to new music. This sharing of culture and tactics brought these service members closer not just as coworkers but also as people.
“We lived in the same area as the host nations forces, so it made for a lot of off duty interaction and a lot more informal exchanges,” said Maj. Timothy J. Hiel, commanding officer, MAT. “It allowed us to see what kind of conditions and facilities these host nations were working with. I think we picked up a different set of skills in each place that we can share with our units back in the States, and I think it helped bring these countries a step forward as well.”
This type of understanding and camaraderie are the foundation of the APS mission, giving host nations not only a chance to learn new ways to approach matters but to also know that they have a friendly partner in the United States. While the APS mission aboard the USS Nashville may be complete, the APS mission itself continues in 2010 aboard USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44).