Go the Guam Guard !
("Purported"; I don't know this site but it looks real) excerpt of briefing by a General Ghormley about his role in the Horn of Africa:
"I want to make it really clear I'm not a direct action unit. I don't saddle up and go out and hunt down the enemy. That's not to say I don't have the inherent right of self-defense. My people go out, they have force protection. This time around, my force protection is provided by Bravo Company, 1st of the 294th, the National Guard out of Guam. Absolutely spectacular soldiers. They go out, they protect my Civil Affairs teams and Civil Military Operations operations. We don't seek to engage the enemy, but we do seek out those in need. The way we go about seeking out those in need, I send out CA assessment teams, Civil Affairs assessment teams, and they go out throughout the villages, they go out into the towns, they meet with the leadership of the villages, the Imam, the village elders, the mayor, ask them what they believe that that village could use to enhance that stability, to make life easier for the people. People want the same thing there as we want here. If you're a father or a mother, you want to be able to provide for your children. They're no different. If their child is hurting, they want to do something about it. We're trying to provide that. So they go out, they collect these projects, they take them to the embassy. I'm one of the tools that the embassy can employ. I try to solve the -- I try to address, I should say, the mission performance parameters, the MPPs, that each of the embassies have got. I do that through my civil affairs. Once the embassy has agreed to what my CA assessment teams have come up with, they bring it back to the CJTF headquarters. Each of those projects are vetted, racked and stacked, prioritized, and then they're addressed with resources. Our primary maneuver elements? Doctors, veterinarians, well drillers, civil engineers. And it's so important that you understand about my -- the folks that go out and what they can accomplish. Where can seven soldiers who work for five months to drill a well affect 1,500 people for the next 10 years? I had -- there's a small town out in -- Yoboki, in Djibouti. The well is 640 feet deep, drilled through volcanic rock. Took us five months to drill it. Those young soldiers pumped water on the Army's 230th birthday. They said it was coincidence; I don't believe it. I think they did that just to prove a point. But they pumped water. It comes out at 105 degrees. The nomads out there, the Bedouins, have never had a well out there. Now, for the next at least 10 years, they're going to have a water source. Quite a significant impact. "
http://www.rantburg.com/index.php?HC=1&D=9/23/2005#130332
"I want to make it really clear I'm not a direct action unit. I don't saddle up and go out and hunt down the enemy. That's not to say I don't have the inherent right of self-defense. My people go out, they have force protection. This time around, my force protection is provided by Bravo Company, 1st of the 294th, the National Guard out of Guam. Absolutely spectacular soldiers. They go out, they protect my Civil Affairs teams and Civil Military Operations operations. We don't seek to engage the enemy, but we do seek out those in need. The way we go about seeking out those in need, I send out CA assessment teams, Civil Affairs assessment teams, and they go out throughout the villages, they go out into the towns, they meet with the leadership of the villages, the Imam, the village elders, the mayor, ask them what they believe that that village could use to enhance that stability, to make life easier for the people. People want the same thing there as we want here. If you're a father or a mother, you want to be able to provide for your children. They're no different. If their child is hurting, they want to do something about it. We're trying to provide that. So they go out, they collect these projects, they take them to the embassy. I'm one of the tools that the embassy can employ. I try to solve the -- I try to address, I should say, the mission performance parameters, the MPPs, that each of the embassies have got. I do that through my civil affairs. Once the embassy has agreed to what my CA assessment teams have come up with, they bring it back to the CJTF headquarters. Each of those projects are vetted, racked and stacked, prioritized, and then they're addressed with resources. Our primary maneuver elements? Doctors, veterinarians, well drillers, civil engineers. And it's so important that you understand about my -- the folks that go out and what they can accomplish. Where can seven soldiers who work for five months to drill a well affect 1,500 people for the next 10 years? I had -- there's a small town out in -- Yoboki, in Djibouti. The well is 640 feet deep, drilled through volcanic rock. Took us five months to drill it. Those young soldiers pumped water on the Army's 230th birthday. They said it was coincidence; I don't believe it. I think they did that just to prove a point. But they pumped water. It comes out at 105 degrees. The nomads out there, the Bedouins, have never had a well out there. Now, for the next at least 10 years, they're going to have a water source. Quite a significant impact. "
http://www.rantburg.com/index.php?HC=1&D=9/23/2005#130332
posted by Guambat Stew at Friday, September 23, 2005
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