U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Ghanaian military train on base camp design

Efficiently and logically developing base camps for deployed forces is key to any mission’s success, and that is why experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were recently in Ghana teaching courses in base camp design to Ghana Armed Forces combat engineers and planners in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.


“Many of these Soldiers have been deployed to contingency operations in areas like Mali, Sudan and other countries, and they were very interested in learning from our team and we were interested in learning from them how to translate our ideas for practical real-world use in the field.” - Mr. Gerhard
By Christopher Gardner U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District ACCRA, Ghana Dec 12, 2022
View Gallery
fallback
Gallery contains 2 images

When the call comes to support United Nations peacekeeping operations, the Ghana Armed Forces regularly answer that call and are expected to set up their operations at times with little to no existing base camp infrastructure. They could be operating from the corner of an airport, a commandeered sports field or a tract of land in an undeveloped part of a jungle or desert scape – wherever peace needs reinforced.

Efficiently and logically developing base camps for deployed forces is key to any mission’s success, and that is why experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were recently in Ghana teaching courses in base camp design to Ghana Armed Forces combat engineers and planners in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.

“We covered natural disasters, humanitarian aid, border peacekeeping and combat scenarios,” said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Europe District’s Michael Gerhard, who was part of the Field Force Engineering team that conducted the training in Ghana. “Many of these Soldiers have been deployed to contingency operations in areas like Mali, Sudan and other countries, and they were very interested in learning from our team and we were interested in learning from them how to translate our ideas for practical real-world use in the field.”

The training is part of the larger African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership Program which the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa leads for the U.S. Army. Through this program, U.S. forces engage with military partners in Ghana and other Partner Nations around the continent to train them on everything from engineering capabilities to maneuvers and more to bolster their capabilities during peacekeeping and other missions on the continent.

“The APRRP program aims to provide peace stabilization forces in a short period of time and the training of African PN militaries, and specifically engineer units in this case, provides the base foundations for the modernization of those units in order to support UN peacekeeping operation missions,” said Senior Theater Security Cooperation Officer for SETAF-AF in the Deputy Chief of Staff Engineers Directorate Lt. Col Fernando Franco. “This also allows the USA to strengthen the cooperation and partnership with PNs on the continent. The feedback I have received from PNs is that the training provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is top quality and is contributing to advancing the UN PKO mission and the overall capabilities of the PN engineer units.”

The courses in Ghana covered the overall process of planning out a base camp, starting with the basics of what to look for when adapting a selected site, if that’s an option, to planning for what will be needed to layout and more.

“Depending on the mission and the number of people, it will determine the size of the base camp and the way you lay it out, so it makes sense. Where do you put the logistics? Where do you put the housing? Where do you put the common areas like operations, like meals, where do you put the latrines? Where do you put the trash pickup?” said Field Force Engineering Training and Exercise Manager Mitchel Glenn from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters. “It’s not just haphazard, we teach them the theory and concept as to how do you lay it out, depending on the situation what type of force protection you need when you’re building these and much more.”

Additionally, the team incorporated lessons learned from their Ghanaian counterparts in the previous training and current events to make it as relevant as possible to the Ghanaian personnel there.

“We incorporated an extra class on force protection that was developed as a result of the lessons learned from the initial training USACE conducted in Ghana back in May 2019,” said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters Environmental Support Team National Program Manager Arlene Weiner, who was part of the team in Ghana and has been involved in the program since that first training. “Prior to the start of this most recent training, USACE was briefed on the current missions of the GAF, which includes support to Mali at the Timbuktu site, and the 2022 training was specifically designed using sites in Ghana and Mali to give the students experience where they would likely be providing future support.”

She also added that, while planning the training, the team also took into account the recent involvement of the Ghana Armed Forces at the northern border between Ghana and Burkina Faso, where they supported missions protecting the Ghanaian border from attacks.

The training program has been going on for years and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has managed similar trainings with other armed forces in the past including in Rwanda. The program slowed down during COVID and the training in Ghana was one of the first the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers team has been able to resume in person overseas since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Being able to go to Ghana and work with the military guys there made a big impact,” Gerhard said. “They were really relieved to get a lot of answers to their questions, like on how to improve on what they’ve done in past deployments. They were asking about recycling and safe disposal of spent oil from machinery and we were able to give them ideas.”

In addition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers trainers, the mission was directly supported by personnel from the, the U.S. Embassy in Accra, the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, the U.S. Army Engineering School at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade based out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

“The Ghana Armed Forces, and in general PNs in Africa that are receiving the great training provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are seeing the benefits of being part of a greater mission that supports peace keeping operations in the continent and also helps to modernize their own engineer units,” Franco said. “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers brings a lot of expertise about base camp master planning training and in the many years that SETAF-AF has been working with the GAF, we have also benefited from their on-the-ground knowledge resulting in a fruitful partnership.”

More in Partnerships
Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord
NAIROBI, Kenya – Among the flurry of tactical live fires and squad movement drills, air ground integration and even the humanitarian initiatives at exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25), lies the one thing those who serve in any armed force must follow: The Law. The Law of Armed Conflict, or LOAC, is a key aspect of training for any military. JA25’s academics course aimed at learning from the international legal lessons of previous wars in an effort to reduce the amount of human suffering in future conflicts. “The soldier’s rules are a broad set of rules that we have pulled from the large breadth of international law,” said U.S. Army Maj. Tim Olliges, an operational law attorney assigned to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), the lead U.S. Army command and planner of JA25. “The LOAC is extensive and can be complex, so we pull out the ten most critical concepts that every soldier, right down to the private, should know before they go into combat.”
Read more
US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat
NAIROBI, Kenya – Imagine two scenarios. Scenario 1: Dawn breaks over the capital of Kenya. A U.S. diplomat leaves his residence for the embassy. After a 20-minute ride, his car arrives at the gate and he enters. He sits in his office to begin the day when, all of a sudden, he hears an explosion through the open window. It seems far off; it is not a large explosion. He thinks maybe it was just a car accident, but minutes later he smells something bitter in the air. His eyes water, sirens blare and a U.S. Marine Corps security detail enters his office wearing gas masks. They put a mask on him and tell him they must evacuate immediately because a deadly chemical is blowing over the compound. Scenario 2: U.S. intelligence receives credible information that radiological material is being loaded onto a ship in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. Time is short and no one knows which ship, only that it will embark soon, possibly bound for the hands of violent extremists or other state actors looking to imperil the U.S. homeland. There is no time to send U.S. security forces to intercept the package. Instead, the Kenyan Disaster Response Battalion (DRB) mobilizes and arrives at the port. Using tactics and tools gained from years of training with the United States, they find the ship and the weapon, placed there by a violent extremist organization, and prevent its departure, defeating the threat to America and its citizens. Similar scenarios have happened before in other areas of the world.
Read more
36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels
The U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and Belgian Ministry of Defence, in partnership with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and U.S. Indo Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Chaplain Directorates, hosted the world’s largest annual meeting of senior military religious leaders at the 36th Annual NATO & Partner International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference (IMCCC) in Brussels, Belgium, January 27-31, 2025.
Read more
More in Partnerships
Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord
NAIROBI, Kenya – Among the flurry of tactical live fires and squad movement drills, air ground integration and even the humanitarian initiatives at exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25), lies the one thing those who serve in any armed force must follow: The Law. The Law of Armed Conflict, or LOAC, is a key aspect of training for any military. JA25’s academics course aimed at learning from the international legal lessons of previous wars in an effort to reduce the amount of human suffering in future conflicts. “The soldier’s rules are a broad set of rules that we have pulled from the large breadth of international law,” said U.S. Army Maj. Tim Olliges, an operational law attorney assigned to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), the lead U.S. Army command and planner of JA25. “The LOAC is extensive and can be complex, so we pull out the ten most critical concepts that every soldier, right down to the private, should know before they go into combat.”
Read more
US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat
NAIROBI, Kenya – Imagine two scenarios. Scenario 1: Dawn breaks over the capital of Kenya. A U.S. diplomat leaves his residence for the embassy. After a 20-minute ride, his car arrives at the gate and he enters. He sits in his office to begin the day when, all of a sudden, he hears an explosion through the open window. It seems far off; it is not a large explosion. He thinks maybe it was just a car accident, but minutes later he smells something bitter in the air. His eyes water, sirens blare and a U.S. Marine Corps security detail enters his office wearing gas masks. They put a mask on him and tell him they must evacuate immediately because a deadly chemical is blowing over the compound. Scenario 2: U.S. intelligence receives credible information that radiological material is being loaded onto a ship in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. Time is short and no one knows which ship, only that it will embark soon, possibly bound for the hands of violent extremists or other state actors looking to imperil the U.S. homeland. There is no time to send U.S. security forces to intercept the package. Instead, the Kenyan Disaster Response Battalion (DRB) mobilizes and arrives at the port. Using tactics and tools gained from years of training with the United States, they find the ship and the weapon, placed there by a violent extremist organization, and prevent its departure, defeating the threat to America and its citizens. Similar scenarios have happened before in other areas of the world.
Read more
36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels
The U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and Belgian Ministry of Defence, in partnership with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and U.S. Indo Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Chaplain Directorates, hosted the world’s largest annual meeting of senior military religious leaders at the 36th Annual NATO & Partner International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference (IMCCC) in Brussels, Belgium, January 27-31, 2025.
Read more
More in Partnerships
Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord
NAIROBI, Kenya – Among the flurry of tactical live fires and squad movement drills, air ground integration and even the humanitarian initiatives at exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25), lies the one thing those who serve in any armed force must follow: The Law. The Law of Armed Conflict, or LOAC, is a key aspect of training for any military. JA25’s academics course aimed at learning from the international legal lessons of previous wars in an effort to reduce the amount of human suffering in future conflicts. “The soldier’s rules are a broad set of rules that we have pulled from the large breadth of international law,” said U.S. Army Maj. Tim Olliges, an operational law attorney assigned to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), the lead U.S. Army command and planner of JA25. “The LOAC is extensive and can be complex, so we pull out the ten most critical concepts that every soldier, right down to the private, should know before they go into combat.”
Read more
US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat
NAIROBI, Kenya – Imagine two scenarios. Scenario 1: Dawn breaks over the capital of Kenya. A U.S. diplomat leaves his residence for the embassy. After a 20-minute ride, his car arrives at the gate and he enters. He sits in his office to begin the day when, all of a sudden, he hears an explosion through the open window. It seems far off; it is not a large explosion. He thinks maybe it was just a car accident, but minutes later he smells something bitter in the air. His eyes water, sirens blare and a U.S. Marine Corps security detail enters his office wearing gas masks. They put a mask on him and tell him they must evacuate immediately because a deadly chemical is blowing over the compound. Scenario 2: U.S. intelligence receives credible information that radiological material is being loaded onto a ship in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. Time is short and no one knows which ship, only that it will embark soon, possibly bound for the hands of violent extremists or other state actors looking to imperil the U.S. homeland. There is no time to send U.S. security forces to intercept the package. Instead, the Kenyan Disaster Response Battalion (DRB) mobilizes and arrives at the port. Using tactics and tools gained from years of training with the United States, they find the ship and the weapon, placed there by a violent extremist organization, and prevent its departure, defeating the threat to America and its citizens. Similar scenarios have happened before in other areas of the world.
Read more
36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels
The U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and Belgian Ministry of Defence, in partnership with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and U.S. Indo Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Chaplain Directorates, hosted the world’s largest annual meeting of senior military religious leaders at the 36th Annual NATO & Partner International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference (IMCCC) in Brussels, Belgium, January 27-31, 2025.
Read more