Transcript of video

Operation SCULPTURE

Operation SCULPTURE
Canada’s participation with the International Military Advisory Team (IMATT)

Sierra Leone, West Africa
19 March to 3 April, 2007

Lieutenant-Commander Drew McNeil
Deputy Commander, Operation SCULPTURE
International Military Advisory Team (IMATT)

The Republic of Sierra Leone gained its independence in early-1960’s. From there it went through several fairly corrupt governments, many military coups, and all of that culminated in a decade-long civil war throughout the 90’s. The war ended officially in 2002, about two years after the British and Canadians came in to assist the country. In the last four years, we’ve seen great strides in terms of taking a country that’s been ravaged by war, promoting the peace and stability aspects, and rebuilding the armed forces here so that in the future, they will be able to take care of this country and once again become a prominent country in Africa.

Op SCULPTURE has 11 Canadian soldiers involved, and we’re part of a much larger team of international military advisory and training team here in Sierra Leone. That team consists of about 103 personnel, is United Kingdom-led, and comprises currently five different countries from around the world.

- IMATT Headquarters, Freetown -

Canada’s role here in Sierra Leone with Op SCULPTURE and the IMATT team is to help the Republic of Sierra Leone armed forces transition to a democratically accountable, a sustainable, and an affordable armed forces. Some kind of force that can handle the tasks and missions given to it by the government of Sierra Leone. When Canada joined this mission about six years ago, we came over primarily as a team of trainers. We were responsible for actively training the Republic of Sierra Leone armed forces’ personnel. Over time, and with the concept of sustainability in mind, we’ve taught the Sierra Leoneans how to do the training themselves, and we’ve transitioned now into an advisory role. They do the training, we advise them on how better to do that and how to make it a sustainable operation for the future.

- All this stuff right here belongs to this quadrant, right? -

There are many challenges here facing both the Republic of Sierra Leone armed forces and IMATT. For several decades now, infrastructure has been neglected, and that has resulted for the military very poor accommodations, very poor buildings, a navy fleet that is constantly in trouble, equipment that they don’t have to carry on their operations, that sort of thing.

- Military Classroom at Bo -
- Military Treatment Room –
- Military Infirmary –

Because the country is very poor, the military also receives a very small annual budget to conduct their operations, and that causes quite a lot of challenges in running your day-to-day operations.

We also have a current program in place that addresses the literacy and numeracy skills of the other ranks in the Republic of Sierra Leone armed forces. Keep in mind there was a 10 year civil war where the education system was greatly disrupted. Many people have been deprived of a basic education. This program is key to the future of the Republic of Sierra Leone armed forces. What we hope to do over the next three years is address illiteracy problems within the forces and provide training that will bring those literacy and numeracy skills up to a common level, equivalent to a grade 10 level in our country. What that will do is provide many of the other ranks with opportunities for advancement within their career fields, to take advanced leadership courses, and to improve the overall the health of the military here.

- … and the author is Clifford… Now the author is now introducing the girl, and lets see the introduction made by the author -

Commander Daniel D. Yanka
Commanding Officer
Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces Education Centre

The IMATT-funded education program that we have already started will last for three years, and we hope that by the end of these three years we should have been able to get rid of illiteracy within the force. When our war escalated in the country, there was need for soldiers to come in to fight the war. Through that, commanders at various levels recruited a whole lot of illiterate soldiers. Prior to that, the current RSLAF also inherited illiterate soldiers since the colonial days. There was a student who enumerated a lot of benefits he has received. He came into the army without reading and writing, but now he can boast of reading and writing letters and even he’s opting to go to secondary school by next academic year. We have also assisted a lot of officers as well as a lot of soldiers that have benefited from the literacy programs out here.

- C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N, children -

Lieutenant-Commander Drew McNeil

We also have one Canadian soldier here from the Navy who is responsible for assisting the maritime wing of the Republic of Sierra Leone armed forces in their training and maintenance issues of their small fleet of navy vessels.

Petty Officer, 1st Class Steve Smith
Maritime Maintenance Training Advisor, Operation SCULPTURE
International Military Advisory Team (IMATT)

My role here is to assist in the training. It’s also to monitor their corrective and plan maintenance, and I’m also there as an advisor when they need assistance for technical problems. I’m also there when they’re conducting courses and making sure that they maintain a high standard, so that they maintain professionalism and safety.

The maritime wing, the size of it is 200 men. It’s actually the smallest element RSLAF, but they’re also very productive. Their major patrol boat, P105, is from China, they have three cutters which are from the American Coast Guard. The P105 usually does two patrols per month and they do five-day patrols. The cutters will go out for two days, sometimes three and we have three of them so they rotate through.

Some of the challenges is lack of parts, a lack of tools. A lot of countries don’t support the equipment that they donate. And also lack of money. The country is basically broke so we have to do a lot of inventive ideas, and we save on resources and things like that.

The training has improved. They’ve got to the point that they now can take the boats out of the water, get them onto the trailers, and into compounds for maintenance without supervision. They have no problems doing first-line maintenance: that’s changing oil filters, fuel filters, air filters. They’re getting better, they’re being more professional, and they’re taking care of their equipment.

Sierra Leone needs a navy because during the war, a lot of fishing vessels were out and they were basically taking all the fish off the banks here. This area is rich, it’s better than the Grand Banks of Canada. We’ve also got drug smugglers, we also have smugglers, and there’s also some skirmishes up on the Guinea border so they need the boats to patrol the areas. Sierra Leone actually makes money from the fishing licenses, and when they bust an illegal fisherman, they also get fine money. I’m satisfied when I see the ships go to sea. I know that the maintenance has been done, I know they’ll get back to sea properly.

- As a long-term vision, what we want is to make Sierra Leone, the training here, allow them to have a sustainable military so that once IMATT is gone, or once we’ve reduced our numbers, that you can continue to produce the people to do all the jobs in the navy, and within the budgets that your government will provide. -

- Oh John! How are you? How have you been? Long time no see. So how’s the shooting going? -

Lieutenant-Commander Drew McNeil

The Republic of Sierra Leone armed forces is primarily an infantry-based organization. Thus, many of the members we have here from Canada are infantry advisors. They, on a day-to-day basis, work with the armed forces throughout the country at their various brigade and battalion sites, in day-to-day individual training, and team or collective training.

- And then they get to the range and there’s live-fire to be done, Ok. -

Major Jean Lavigne
Infantry Advisor, Operation SCULPTURE
International Military Advisory Team (IMATT)

Level one and level two training, that is basically individual training with hands on the weapons and basic medical material that they have to know in order to become good soldiers. That level one and two training, it is preparatory for level 3 training which is preparation for the deployment on operations.

- 0-1-2-8, target 1. Target 2, 25-2. Target 5, stop, 0-3-9-8. Stop. Scoring: you have two scores, two marks for each successful hit on the target. -

Some of the successes so far have been certainly the training of their instructors. They are a lot more armed with confidence and the skills that they require to be good teachers.

- Make ready, safeties off, sites up, cock. Sites up. -
- Show for inspections. Coaches, show gun clear –

- When delivering my orders, if we happen to come under attack, gentlemen, go to cover, take position, and then await my orders. Is that clear? Sir! -
- The dissident forces, mercenaries, and former enemy combatants have vowed to attack the Congo and the diamond mines. –

We follow the training, we advise the battalion commander on all matters operational and administrative. This exercise is part of the level three training that all companies have to take before they are sent on their operational mission which is going to be forward patrol base along the border of Sierra Leone. This is done in order to monitor the crossings with the neighbor nations.

My role as advisor during the company commander’s O-group for this operation was to listen to his orders and monitor what he was giving in preparation for the next operation. After he’s given his orders, I’ve sat with him and discussed how it went and what were the points that he had right and what were the points he had to improve on.

The company commander’s O-group went very well. He was confident, and he gave his orders in a right manner. He forgot a few things, and we covered them at the end, and he will, before the patrols are sent out, will go back to his platoon commander’s to rectify what he had wrong.

- I think you were comfortable with what you were doing, and you were well prepared. What kind of control measures are you going to use to deploy your patrols? If you deploy them all three at the same time knowing that one platoon has five kilometers to walk, another platoon has three kilometers to walk, and the other platoon has one kilometer to walk, are you going to send them all at the same time? -
- Move from this location to the village locations, there’s going to be moonlight. –
- Ok, they will have some light. –
- That’s why I say visibility at night is moderate. –
- Moderate. –
- Because from 7:15 to some minutes after midnight, there is moonshine –
- Because remember now, one of the positions is a diamond mine. There’ll be a lot of workers there that work on a diamond mine under the gun, and you know what I mean by that. It’s going to be confusing because you’re going to be attacking at night. Now if attacking at night’s going to be a limitation to you sir, make sure you can always ask the commander “listen, can I attack at first light?”, because you don’t have night vision. Granted, there are certain situations where because other companies are attacking other areas and they need to be done simultaneously, that you would have to do it on a certain time. But you’ve got to ask. If you don’t ask then you’re not going to get it, and it’s going to be difficult to do any attack at night without any night vision or any illumination. It’ll be confusing and there’s going to be a lot of civilians getting killed because of that.

Lieutenant-Commander Drew McNeil

Op SCULPTURE’s had many successes here in the country of Sierra Leone. We’ve moved from a training role here to an advisory role. That’s one of the big success stories. We’ve taken the maritime wing and transformed it into an organization that now generates revenue for the country of Sierra Leone. This mission, Op SCULPTURE, is a small mission for Canada. There’s only 11 Canadians here, but it’s an important mission for Canada. We have an enormous impact on the peace and stability in this country, and over the last six years, have built up a solid reputation not only with the military, but with the general public. It’s really remarkable to see what 11 people can do in a country this size, in terms of turning it around and getting it on the road to success.