They met starting March 7 in a stone-walled room of the Afghan unit’s headquarters facility, and projected Powerpoint lessons the Marines had created onto a bedsheet.
“We opened up a computer, showed them, this is where a CD drive is, this is what powers a computer, this is where the memory is stored, things like that,” said 1st Lt. Brian Prior, communications adviser for the team. “And those guys are great with hands-on stuff. Every single one of them is a MacGyver.”
More challenging, he said, were the lessons focused on program installation and more advanced functions, but the soldiers eventually improved through repetition, Prior said.
Crucially, said data chief adviser Sgt. Derek Crowley, the Marines were able to teach the Brigade’s cipher officer how to send encrypted emails over the limited bandwidth available to the brigade, making the process of communicating with 215th Corps headquarters vastly more secure.
“For a long time, they were [communicating] over radios. That’s all easily intercepted,” Crowley said. “Now that they’re able to use networks that are secure and use the basic functions of a computer and how to send an email and encrypt an email they can send stuff encrypted over satellite.”
Crowley and Prior said they knew they were teaching effectively when Afghan troops would jump into the material and begin teaching a computer concept to their fellow students, while the Marines sat back and watched.
At the end of the class, the students received certificates signed by the Marine team’s commander, Col. Christopher Douglas, and the brigade’s executive officer.”
What a god damn joke. In case anyone is confused, this is what your tax dollars tacitly support.
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