On a chilly, snow-covered day, 22 intelligence professionals, from six African nations and the United States, graduated from an 11-week introductory intelligence course at the Joint Multinational Training Command, Dec. 17, in Grafenwoehr, Germany.

The course was designed to equip junior officers with the basic skills to operate on a military intelligence staff.

The Military Intelligence Basic Officer Course-Africa (MIBOC-A), a U.S. Africa Command-sponsored and U.S. Marine Corps Forces Africa-executed course, included students from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Tunisia and two students from the United States.

General William E. Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command, addressed the graduating class during a brief ceremony.

“We are all here because we have a shared vision for the continent of Africa,” said Ward during the ceremony. “Whether we are at the strategic level, at the Director of Military Intelligence level, or at the operational or tactical level, we are working to achieve a shared vision. It is in all of our interests to see an African continent that enjoys sufficient stability, economic growth, and an ever increasing and much deserved place on the world stage…MIBOC-A provides essential skills vital to helping address the fundamental defense and security challenges facing Africa.”

This was the fifth iteration of the course and the first time the course was conducted on a U.S. facility. Previous MIBOC-As were held at Mali (first and second), Nigeria (third), and Senegal (fourth).

The course included lessons on basic intelligence functions, the intelligence cycle, critical thinking and analysis, insurgency/counterinsurgency operations, terrorism/counterterrorism, and briefing techniques. The course culminated with a final exercise that incorporated all previous lessons.

Instructors from the Regional Joint Intelligence Training Facility (RJITF), located at Royal Air Force Base Molesworth, England, conducted the entire course in English and French. They translated and interpreted course material, questions and dialogue as they taught.

“[MIBOC-A] is adapted from the U.S. Army Basic Intelligence Course,” said David W. Bruce, RJITF, and lead instructor of MIBOC-A V. “We’ve also adapted some things for the African audience.” All equipment and scenarios were tailored to what they might encounter in Africa, according to Bruce.

In addition to equipping junior officers with basic intelligence skills, the course was also designed to promote partnerships and to train MIBOC-A students to become future instructors.

MIBOC-A planners expressed that future iterations would be executed by MARFORAF but taught by MIBOC-A Alumni. Uniformed personnel from the U.S. would be present as mentors and facilitators, according to Lt. Col. Plauche St. Romain, officer in charge of MIBOC-A V, MarForAf. St. Romain is a reserve intelligence officer from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“We have students in the class now who are capable of being instructors full time, if necessary,” said St. Romain. “In fact, we have former students from Mauritania and Burkina Faso who have come in to be guest instructors for this course.”

Another key aspect of this course was to facilitate an environment that promotes partnership and collaboration among the students. In turn, the students not only learned from the instructors, but they learned from each other.

Lt. Col. Jon Hetland, Theater Security Cooperation Mission Planner, MarForAf, and officer in charge of MIBOC-A IV, would like to take the collaboration a step further. “Eventually, we would like to have all the students from the past MIBOC-As to be able to collaborate with each other.”

“We’re emphasizing partnership,” said St. Romain. “Partnership and sharing of information are critical to joint success. Just like when you go to a school in the U.S.; one of the most valuable things you get out of the school are the long-lasting professional relationships with other students.”

MIBOC-A planners are working on collaboration tools, such as web portals, that will allow these former students to forge greater relationships with other students and instructors, said Hetland.

“Any time you build personal relationships going through an exercise or a course together, it’s going to facilitate future planning for other exercises and other training events,” said St. Romain. “That kind of familiarity breeds levels of confidence and trust that enables us to work together on the [African] continent. Partnership at the personal level facilitates and enables partnership at the operational level.”

Most importantly, individual students gained knowledge to help enhance the security of their respective countries.

“We learned a lot. We learned about a lot of tools to make our intelligence work better,” said an officer from Burkina Faso, who was a former company commander. “I will also share my experience with my colleagues.”

According to St. Romain, MIBOC-A compliments the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership Program, a State Department-led initiative specifically developed to address potential expansion of operations by terrorist and extremist organizations across West and North Africa.

“The U.S. military, like all militaries, learns a great deal from partner nations when we sit and listen to [student’s] ideas, experiences and concerns,” said Terrance Ford, director of U.S. Africa Command’s Intelligence and Knowledge Development Directorate, during the graduation ceremony. “My hope is that MIBOC-A will help lead to future engagements where the U.S. Military can actively partner with Africans to meet security challenges—important to all of us.”