PANZER KASERNE, Germany -- U.S. Marine Forces Africa bid farewell to their Marine Corps Security Cooperation Group last week as the reservists who make up the detachment return to their respective Home Training Centers in the United States.
The MCSCG, or Security Cooperation Team, consisted of 14 Marines and two Navy corpsmen whose primary mission for the past year has been to increase interoperability and bolster partner-nation relationships by engaging and advising foreign militaries on the African continent.
“We conducted more than 25 missions in 13 different countries,” said Maj. Paul A. Stieglitz, the officer-in-charge.
Participating countries included: Burundi, Mali, Liberia, Chad, Uganda, Senegal, Tanzania, Kenya, Tunisia, Togo, Malawi, Cameroon, and Benin.
“We had Marines from infantry, communications, intelligence, logistics and engineers. Overall, it was a good mix of skill sets,” added the Alexandria, Va., native.
Training with the host nations included non-lethal weapons training, engineering training, counterinsurgency operations, logistics procedures, vehicle maintenance, intelligence management, mechanized operations, and fundamentals of non-commissioned officer leadership.
“We tried to show them, through our Marine Corps NCO leadership, the importance of having a strong NCO-corps that can be relied on,” Stieglitz added.
The effort goes along with U.S. Africa Command’s mission to increase defense capabilities of African states in order to deter and defeat transnational threats and to provide an environment that is conducive to good governance, security and development.
“The African militaries know their job and they’re very professional; sometimes it’s just tweaking their system or making a few changes to make them more efficient,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jerry L. Ruffner, MCSCG team member and Greenville, S.C, native.“They are absolutely on their way to being ready to support the Africom mission.”
The recently-departed Marines and sailors are part of the last Security Cooperation Team to rotate through MFA.
“It is truly the end of an era,” said Brig. Gen. Charles G. Chiarotti, deputy commander of Marine Forces Europe and Africa.
The MCSCG mission has been part of MFA operations since 2009 and will be replaced by Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa that is currently operating around the continent and based at Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy. Both groups consist of mainly Marine reservists from all over the United States with civilian jobs such as medical staff, law enforcement, engineers and small-business owners.
“We provide good bang-for-the-buck; we have all kinds of Marines who do something in their civilian life that helps the mission,” said Ruffner.
For future operations, the SP-MAGTF will rotate from NAS Sigonella to African partner nations to train with their militaries for theater security cooperation and limited crises-response capabilities.
“The Security Cooperation Team has blazed the path for SP-MAGTF’s mission,” said Chiarotti.