Trainers ensure ANA ready to use state-of-the-art HMMWVs

  • Published
  • By G. A. Volb
  • Camp Alamo Public Affairs
CAMP ALAMO, Afghanistan --  The roads are more than a little tricky here even for the safest of vehicles, but add a six-ton up-armored "HMMWV" to the equation and driver training takes on a new level of importance.

Enter Army Capt. William Snyder and Air Force Capt. Todd Klusek, the tandem challenged with marrying inexperienced Afghan National Army troops who, in many cases have never been behind the wheel of any car, with the all-purpose assault vehicles used by coalition forces.

Captain Snyder, from Grand Island, N.Y., said they're in the process of "training ANA instructors on how to drive and maintain the new up-armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles," better known as HMMWVs, so they can teach their troops without assistance.

"It's important," according to Snyder, "since the ANA will be getting new UAHs that'll be used as their main battle vehicle throughout the country."

As Officer in Charge of UAH Special Projects here, Captain Snyder said the students are "eager to become drivers, so they really pay attention to what is being taught."

To date the two instructors have taught just under 100 ANA counterparts, but are looking to graduate some 500.

Captain Snyder, with the 27th Brigade Combat Team here, arrived in Afghanistan April 3 and will be deployed until January.

"It's a large, mountainous course," said Captain Klusek, who was born in Syracuse, N.Y., but grew up in Kenmore. "It (the track) provides them the opportunity to negotiate large hills and work the clutch on steep inclines."

He said, "Time in the vehicle is also essential, so they're in the driver's seat every day for four of the five weeks the course runs.

"We start them out in light tactical vehicles and work them up to the 1025s (HMMWVs)," he said, which are the light-skinned version. "Then they move on to the up-armored version, which they'll be receiving between now and November."

"They love it," he said, "because a lot of them will receive a driver's license once they graduate. One of the ANA soldiers went out of his way to tell me his life long dream was to drive a HMMWV."

Captain Klusek, who serves with the 7th Logistics Readiness Squadron out of Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, is finishing up an Army "in-lieu-of" tasking here. He'll return to Dyess in July after six months here.