Members of the Honduran Army completed Security Forces Training (SFT) conducted by the U.S. Army with a graduation ceremony June 11, 2019, here.
Puerto Rico U.S. Army National Guard members assigned to Task Force – Borinqueneer trained 45 Honduran service members during a two-week course on security forces techniques and procedures.
“This was Security Forces Training and we interacted with the Honduran military and taught them a little bit about our techniques,” said U.S. Army Capt. Hermon Rivera, SFT Honduras officer in charge. “During the last 14 days, we were training the Honduran Army in different tasks including clearing rooms, weapons qualification, vehicle searches and tactical control points.”
The Honduran students came from different units, throughout the country, to learn and develop their skills and also take their new knowledge back to their units to teach their comrades.
“We learned formations like the T-organization and the serpentine as we went through breaching procedures. We also learned medevac evaluations for when we are in a combat zone and how to qualify with a rifle,” said Honduran Army Commando 2 Edikson Barahona, 2nd Engineer Company general relations. “The American soldiers taught us tactical measures and a lot of things, so that we can take it to our units and show them and keep on practicing.”
Barahona explained that the instruction is invaluable and will help strengthen their urban and counter-narcotics operations, and anti-human trafficking.
Countering threats is one of U.S. Southern Command’s key objectives in the region and the SFT helps build the Central America team.
“It helps us meet the commander’s intent in the area of responsibility to counter threats,” said U.S. Army Col. Francisco Rivera, U.S. Embassy chief of security cooperation and graduation guest speaker. “It benefits both Honduras and the United States in improving our security posture overall. This is another example of that long enduring relationship that we’ve had with Honduras.”
After meeting the goal of training the host nation forces it also helped strengthen partnerships between the two countries’ forces.
“It’s another example of our commitment to strengthen that partnership going forward as part of the U.S. Southern Command team overall and it’s also a commitment to the region, both with us and Honduras, to be able to promote regional security,” Francisco said.
