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GAF Jungle survival exercise ends
Achiase (E/R), July 15, GhanadotGNA - Lieutenant General
Joseph Boateng Danquah, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the
Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), has warned service personnel who
offer their services to the civil populace without Command
authorisation to desist from such practices or face outright
dismissal.
"You, as service personnel are once again being warned to
desist from offering your services to further the parochial
interests of any individual or agency. If you do it you
should be prepared to face outright dismissal.
"Our training, skills and discipline must at all times be
harnessed to protect the interest of our dear country and of
course, the general public within the confines of the
Constitution", Lt. Gen. Danquah said.
He also cautioned the public to desist from contracting the
services of individual service personnel, whether relatives
or friends, in the pursuit of personal interests, since such
offenders would be handed over to the police for
prosecution.
Lt. Gen. Danquah was speaking at the closing of the GAF's
four-day jungle survival exercise for the various arms of
the military at the Jungle Warfare School (JWS) at Achiase
in the Eastern region.
The exercise, code named, Exercise Tiger's Path 07, is a
bi-annual tri-service patrol and counter insurgency and
jungle warfare exercise on a competitive basis at the forest
reserves in Akim Achiase and surrounding areas in the Birim
South District.
The exercise, the seventh in a series, which formed part of
the training activities for the 2006/2007 training year of
the GAF, involved platoon size teams from the Army, Support
Services and the Southern and Northern commands, the Navy
and the Air Force.
It was aimed at testing members of the GAF in jungle craft
and skills, leadership and endurance abilities and to
enhance inter-arm service co-operation among the troops.
It was also to test, at the tactical unit level, the
capacity of troops to deal rapidly and thoroughly with
insurgents in difficult environments, such as the jungle,
should the need arise.
Participants were tested in navigation, search and rescue,
offensive tactical operations, obstacle crossing and
marksmanship.
They were also tested in first aid skills in jungle setting.
About 85 officers and 261 men, including six observers from
the Nigerian Army took part in the exercise.
Lt. Gen. Danquah noted that as the ECOWAS and the AU
continued to play significant roles in sub-regional and
regional peace enforcement, contemporary armies in Africa
needed to train and condition themselves within the terrain
in which they could be called upon to operate, as part of a
multinational force.
He said training in jungle warfare continued to assume
increasing relevance in both regional and sub-regional
environments, as domestic, sub-regional and regional
security situations, have more often called for the
extensive use of jungle tactics and skills.
Recent events worldwide, especially in Africa, he noted,
indicated that the nature of armed conflicts was changing
dramatically from inter-state to intra-state, shifting the
focus of training to combat operations against irregular or
paramilitary forces that operate from jungle bases or urban
areas with various levels of sophisticated arms and
equipment.
He thus appealed to people who undertook unauthorised
felling of trees in the jungle environment of the training
area of the Jungle Warfare School to desist from the habit
to enable the preservation of the forest for posterity.
"If we are to sustain our ability to fight in the jungle
through training, then it necessarily means that we must
have jungle training areas.
"It will therefore be in our interest to preserve the forest
from the illegal tree-felling activities of chainsaw
operators. In doing so, we will also be preserving and
protecting a vital national resource,” he said.
The CDS noted that the Jungle Survival Exercise was
physically demanding and commended the teams for
successfully accomplishing all tasks set for the exercise.
He told the participating teams and other military personnel
that he would make their welfare a cornerstone of the GAF,
adding that, the first requirement to achieve their welfare
was excellent training.
"For, if we are unable to accomplish any mission assigned
us, we would be demoralised and no amount of good things of
life would be enjoyable to us."
"On the contrary, once we are well trained, we can
successfully accomplish all missions, and with that will
come many rewards. Therefore, in peace time, training
remains our primary occupation and will continue to remain
the most attractive welfare package that can be bestowed on
you", he stated.
He said plans were afoot to upgrade the JWS to international
standard, to empower the school to continue to extend
training assistance to other countries in Africa, Asia, the
America's and Europe.
The United States, Britain and some sub-regional countries
have expressed their willingness to train their soldiers in
jungle craft at the JWS.
Lt-Col. Robert Nyaka, Commanding Officer of the Jungle
Warfare School said the performance of the competing teams
in this year’s exercise was an improvement over the last
exercise held in 2005, and commended the teams for their
determination, team spirit and the instinct of jungle
survival.
The exercise was based on a scenario where since March 2007,
some imaginary armed insurgents, led by a self-styled
mercenary, established training and administrative bases in
the forest of the Birim South District.
From these bases they terrorise villages in the district
with the aim of infiltrating Ghana for an armed rebellion.
The government and people of Ghana resolved not to allow the
insurgents' activities to grow.
According to the scenario, the government last week tasked
the GAF to crush the insurgents and the High Command of the
GAF took up the challenge and constituted a task force
nicknamed: "Task Force Tiger" to deal with the situation.
The forces that were deployed to quell the situation rapidly
traced the insurgents to five bases, and in simultaneous
battles, five platoons of Task Force Tiger destroyed the
reinforced platoons of insurgents at their bases.
The deployed forces were the five competing teams in the
jungle survival exercise.
At the end of the competition, the Southern Command of the
GAF was adjudged the overall winners, while the Support
Services Brigade came second, with the Ghana Navy placing
third .
Other awards were presented to the teams for excelling in
various disciplines. The Support Services Brigade three of
the awards. These were the Best Team in Navigation, the Best
Team in Vectoring and Marshalling, and he Best Team in
shooting.
The Southern Command team won the award for the Best Team in
Attack and the award for the Best Team in Obstacle Crossing.
Private Beatrice Awuah, from the Southern Command was
honoured for being the best female participant.
This is the second time that female soldiers had taken part
fully in the physically demanding competition.
The Air Force and Northern Command team did not win any
award.
GNA
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