State Partnership Program Advances with New Events (3/28/12)

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Senior Master Sgt. Jeffrey Lien, North Dakota Air National Guard 119th Maintenance Squadron, talks to African military members during a tour of an aircraft that belongs to the Ghanian Air Force that's similar to the C-27. Lien and Chief Master Sgt. Michael Holm are in Ghana participating in the African Partnership Flight, a multilateral engagement that allows interaction among African militaries to improve interoperability and cooperation between forces. Lien and Holm are sharing information with Africans from the maintenance career field. (Photo by Capt. Penny Ripperger, 119th Wing Public Affairs)

FARGO, N.D. — North Dakota National Guard members and their Ghana Armed Forces counterparts spent this month taking part in numerous events together. The visits, workshops and an inaugural African Partnership Flight event brought together the two nation’s militaries again as they enter the eighth year being matched together in the Department of Defense-sponsored State Partnership Program.

“This partnership has provided immense value to not only the North Dakota National Guard and the Ghana Armed Forces, but to the world as a whole as relationships are strengthened to help respond on a global level,” said Brig. Gen. Alan Dohrmann, North Dakota deputy adjutant general. “I’m always impressed to see our dynamic relationship enhanced with each event, propelling our nations forward as we learn from one another through sharing and collaboration for the benefit of others.”

Dohrmann spent last week in Ghana meeting with senior leaders involved in the partnership, as well as witnessing numerous events taking place simultaneously there involving North Dakota National Guard Soldiers and Airmen.

The biggest event this month was the African Partnership Flight, which began March 10 and continued through this past weekend. The multilateral and multi-regional event consisted of U.S. forces from U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Air Forces in Africa and Europe, National Guard Bureau, 818^th Mobility Support Advisory Squadron and the North Dakota National Guard. In addition to Ghana forces, service members from the African countries of Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Senegal also took part.

“The North Dakota National Guard was invited to be part of this event because we have a strong State Partnership Program with Ghana,” said Chief Master Sgt. Doug Faldet, 119^th Wing component maintenance flight chief, who served as the noncommissioned officer in charge of African Partnership Flight. “The coordinators of African Partnership Flight wanted to leverage that and use our knowledge with the Ghanaians, making this first Partnership Flight a success.”

During the two weeks of the event, military members from the U.S. and Africa took part in classroom instruction and hands-on aircraft training before conducting an exercise where the African military members demonstrated to their leadership how they were able to secure an area while loading a C-130 aircraft with cargo.

In addition to Faldet, seven other North Dakota National Guard members were in Ghana to facilitate classes focused on aircraft ground maintenance, safety, public affairs and chaplaincy.

Master Sgt. Jeffrey Lien, 119^th Wing airframe repair specialist, and Chief Master Sgt. Michael Holm, 119^th Wing quality assurance superintendent, led the ground maintenance course, which focused on topics such as supply and parts procurement, fuel systems repair, general aircraft maintenance and corrosion control.

Lt. Col. Kurt Fleck, North Dakota National Guard international affairs officer, and Senior Master Sgt. Michael Knight, 119^th Wing accessions element superintendent, facilitated the safety course. Fleck previously served as the state safety officer and Knight was the 119^th Wing ground safety manager.

“To see how changes have been implemented in Ghana, based on our past trips here, was extremely rewarding,” Fleck said. “To know that we made a difference here really made it worthwhile.”

Communicating those procedures and more was addressed by Capt. Penny Ripperger, 119^th Wing Public Affairs Officer, who facilitated a course on media relations, social media and crisis communications. The event tied into the others taking place, with participants using their skills to tell the story of their fellow military members through words, photos and video.

Rounding out a busy time of events, two North Dakota Air National Guard chaplains — Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Bruce Krogstad and Chaplain (Maj.) James Cheney — facilitated a course on chaplaincy in the military and how supported spiritual health becomes a “force multiplier” by enhancing mission readiness.

“I learned so much from this,” Cheney said. “These Africans brought a wealth of experience. I definitely learned more than I gave.”

Three other State Partnership Program events took place earlier this year. In January, three North Dakotans introduced more than 200 in Ghana to the WebEOC program, which serves as an online emergency operations center. Geneva Anderson and Ken Jarolimek, with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services, and Juli Sickler, with the North Dakota Department of Health, worked with NADMO — National Disaster Management Organization, Ghana’s version of FEMA — to lead the event. It concluded with a pandemic response tabletop exercise in Elmina, Ghana.

Also in January, two North Dakota National Guard officers provided a workshop that introduced the Ghanaian military to information and intelligence collection. Maj. Russell Wolf, an intelligence officer for the 141^st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, and 1^st Lt. Jay Sheldon, an analyst for the intelligence branch of North Dakota Army National Guard, discussed steps and processes involved in collecting different types of information, as well as reporting and monitoring it.

In February, an engineer exchange had Sgt. 1^st Class Kelly Johnson and Sgt. Dale Wasness facilitating a workshop on construction techniques, from pouring concrete slabs to the types of brick that can be used in a masonry wall to electrical and plumbing techniques.

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Since the 2001 terrorist attacks on America, the North Dakota National Guard has mobilized more than 3,800 Soldiers and more than 1,800 Airmen in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Currently, nearly 300 North Dakota Guardsmen are serving overseas while more than 4,000 remain in the state for emergency response and national defense. For every 10,000 citizens in North Dakota, 65 serve in the North Dakota National Guard, a rate that’s more than four times the national average.

Photos

High-resolution photos to accompany this release are available on Flickr:

- African Partnership Flight Set

- African Partnership Flight Gallery from U.S. Air Forces in Europe

Video

View and download video to accompany this release.

Ghana army Flight Sgt. Gabriel Owusu-Addo, Ghana Armed Forces department of public relations, documents a class being facilitated by Capt. Penny Ripperger (background), 119^th Wing public affairs officer, during the first day of African Partnership Flight here March 13. Owusu-Addo, who is participating in the public affairs portion of APF, has served in the military for 22 years. African Partnership Flight 12-2 is a two-week military-to-military multilateral and regional engagement event designed to enhance African partner nation Air Forces capacity with greater regional cooperation and interoperability to enable increased air domain safety and security. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Brok McCarthy/Released)

Chief Master Sgt. Doug Faldet, North Dakota Air National Guard 119th Wing, prepares to do an interview March 16, 2012, in Accra, Ghana, about his participation in the inaugeral African Partnership Flight. Faldet is exchanging information on aircraft maintenance with military members from a handful of countries. A public affairs workshop is taking place in conjunction with the Partnership Flight, and the soldiers in the foreground are observing how to conduct an on-camera interview. (Photo by Capt. Penny Ripperger, 119th Wing Public Affairs)

Lt. Col. Kurt Fleck and Senior Master Sgt. Mike Knight, both with the North Dakota National Guard, pose with their class March 16, 2012, in Accra, Ghana. Fleck and Knight are facilitating a safety class during African Partnership Flight. (Photo by Capt. Penny Ripperger, 119th Wing Public Affairs)