More Than 200 Afghan Uniformed Police Graduate

By Staff Sgt. Ryan Sheldon
DVIDS

Editor's note: The 3rd Infantry Division headquarters deployed to Afghanistan in August to assume responsibility for Regional Command-South. Since then, Sgt. Uriah Walker of 3rd ID PAO has sent along some stories from RC-S public affairs soldiers to keep us updated on what's going on in 3rd ID and Regional Command-South as a whole.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan -- More than 200 Afghan Uniformed Police officers graduated from the basic police academy course here Oct. 11.

The AUP graduates received a motivational speech from Brig. Gen. Nasrullah Zarifi, the Afghan National Police Regional Command--South training commander before filing into a tent for their ceremony.

Romanian training advisers, along with Col. Chris Reed, the commander of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan Regional Support Command-South, attended the ceremony.

“I want all of you to know that today is a great day. Today is the day that you take a new role in the defense of your country,” Reed said. “I congratulate you, I salute you and I look forward to serving with you as you defend your country.”

The AUP graduates performed their traditional march before receiving their certificates from Zarifi, Reed and Romanian training advisers.

The officers completed an extensive eight-week training course that included self-defense, crowd control, first-aid, marksmanship and literacy.

With literacy levels low in the country, literacy classes have been implemented in the AUP training classes.

“We know education is very important, especially reading and writing,” Zarifi said. “I think shooting and searching in a village is the easy part of doing this job. I was a teacher and also an instructor and it is very important that you are literate.”

At the conclusion of the graduation ceremony, the graduates can expect to load their bags on a truck and begin their journey as official AUP officers.

“A couple of years ago, we had civilians putting on the uniform and being made fun of,” Zarifi said. “The officers putting on the uniform now are very happy and not ashamed to wear the AUP uniform. I am very honored to do this job.”

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