At the request of the Burundian military, U.S. Army Africa's Africa Deployment Assistance Partnership Team (ADAPT) conducted a deployment capability training event with uniformed members of the Burundian Defense Forces June 6-10, 2011 at the Bujumbura Military Airfield in Bujumbura, Burundi.

Traffic Management Specialists Sergeant First Class Joseph Shaw and Sergeant First Class Christopher Labugen of the 21st Theatre Support Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany, along with Ammunition Specialist Sergeant First Class Luis Febles and Theater Security Cooperation Program Manager Alexander Menzies from USARAF Logistics Directorate in Vicenza, Italy, taught and monitored the training event.

ADAPT is a U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) program managed and executed by USARAF. The team was in Bujumbura to share best practices on deploying personnel and equipment via aircraft, and to enhance force projection capabilities of African militaries to better support peacekeeping operations, humanitarian relief operations and UN missions.

"This is our first ADAPT with the Burundian military," Menzies said. "This event was based off of a pre-deployment site survey we conducted last year so the lesson plan was specifically tailored to meet existing Burundi training requirements."

Menzies said another focus of the training is to foster positive relationships between the U.S. and African military forces.

"This successful military-to-military ADAPT event demonstrates the important partnerships between U.S. Army Africa and African partner nations in increasing deployment capabilities and capacity," Menzies said.

Increasing deployment interoperability with U.S. forces in joint/combined operations, training and exercises is a focal point of this military-to-military training opportunity.

"Training and having the capability to deploy personnel and cargo are crucial enabling components to a deploying force. As a matter of fact, Burundian forces soldiers are already applying the ADAPT training to their real world operations," Febles said.

During the graduation ceremony, before students and instructors parted, Burundi 's Air Base Commander Colonel Jean Claude Niyongeko commented, "Africa Command said it would help Burundi...and they followed through and did what they said. Not every country can say that!"

ADAPT is a four phase program, that occurs every 12 months and USARAF has already conducted training in Rwanda, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Botswana, and Ghana.