KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Twelve Afghan electric company technicians will be better able to maintain power lines throughout southern Afghanistan after learning to safely operate electric utility trucks donated by the United States during a training course on Kandahar Airfield June 10-19.
The course, taught by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Distinct-South noncommissioned officers, introduced 12 technicians from Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat, Afghanistan's electric utility company:
• fundamentals of power line maintenance and safety and
• operations of two "Cherry Picker" boom trucks that allow linemen to reach the top of utility poles and augur trucks used to drill and emplace utility poles.
Safety was also the primary topic for Sgt. Gabriel Akonom, Company A, 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineer District-South, one of three USACE NCOs leading the course.
"Our mission was to train the DABS employees use the bucket truck equipment that we're signing over to them, making sure they were proficient with them so they could work safely and efficiently," he said. "The majority of them expressed concerns about safety. That's because in the past, they did not have the equipment to do their work safely. They were climbing (utility poles) in their bare feet on ladders and scaffolds."
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This was first class of its kind taught in Afghanistan, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Hopkins, South District prime power liaison officer. A second class, led by the same NCOs, will take place later this summer in Helmand province.
"The students are very attentive and quite interested in the class," said Hopkins, who deployed to Afghanistan from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. "They look forward to using this equipment instead of dangerous scaffolds and rickety ladders."
"All of the instructors felt very confident with sending the students out the gates with the trucks; confident they would perform the work correctly and confident that they would be doing it safely." Akonom said. "That's what makes me the most proud."