BUTLERVILLE, Ind. – The PRT course teaches civilian employees from the U.S. State Dept, U.S. Dept of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for Int'l Development how to live and work in Afghanistan. They spend 4 weeks preparing for their assignments with the final week of training at Muscatatuck.
Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit provided realistic scenarios for the training, guarding the mock embassy that the civilians had to enter and roadways they had to traverse. Team members also sat in on Marine briefings and saw first-hand how what they do affects the Marines in country.
Elizabeth Rood, director of the Stability Ops Div for the State Dept’s Foreign Service Institute, said she saw value in the interagency training, even when coordination issues arose. “There were some cases that the Marines were in a facility that we were intending to use,” Rood said. “The PRT or another civilian group might be going out to meet people and discover that there's a maneuver unit already doing something there that wasn’t a planned encounter. So it’s not a bad thing that these movements are going on simultaneously.”
Purdue and Indiana universities also take part in the training, providing important info on Afghan farming techniques and info on what to expect once the civilians arrive in country.
