Georgian Mobile Training Team trains Afghan artillerymen

LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – An Afghan National Army officer shouts commands in Dari as the artillerymen under his command take action.

The tube of a Soviet D-30 howitzer rises into the air. A 122-millimeter round is loaded and the command is given to fire.

These ANA soldiers are conducting battle drills under the supervision of a joint French and Georgian artillery mobile training team at Forward Operating Base Gamberi.

“We are assigned to the artillery MTT to teach the Afghans the D-30 and all of the procedures in using it,” said Maj. Vasili Veshaguri, the officer in charge of the Georgian artillery MTT.

The Georgian detachment arrived in Afghanistan Nov. 5, and learned how to train the Afghans at the Kabul Military Training Center before heading to FOB Gamberi.

“First of all, the artillery branch is not easy,” Veshaguri said. “It’s complicated with formulas and calculations. The person has to know the armaments, parts, and advantages and disadvantages of the gun.”

The course is four months long culminating in a live-fire exercise where the skills of the entire battery are put to the test. The training begins with the basics of literacy and moved out to the field where the soldiers conducted crew drills and learned the basics of operating howitzers.

“We start from zero and then build, step-by-step, day-by-day, to improve their knowledge,” Veshaguri said. 

The battery’s training is divided into three parts: the French are training forward observers, or the eyes and ears of artillery, and the Fire Direction Center which covers the calculations and formulas required for indirect fire.

The Georgians are training the ANA in the third leg of the artillery pyramid, the gun-line operations.

“Our group is the backbone and strength of the battery,” Veshaguri said.

The Afghan soldiers’ greatest obstacle with the training process is a lack of a common educational background, according to Georgian army Cpl. George Amoev, a section leader with the D-30 battalion.

“Their motivation is so high that we overcome all of the challenges and obstacles,” Amoev said. “We have improvements every day.”

Amoev, who has experience working with many personnel as a section leader, approaches every situation with a different attitude and patience.

“My keys to success are being patient and explaining until it is clear,” Amoev said.