Ugandan Experience To Remember
Ugandan Experience To Remember
Ugandan Experience To Remember
Note: Captain Morris is the battalion captain for the U.S. Army 2nd Combined Arms Battalion,
JINJA, Uganda (September 26, 2010) – As we made our decent into Entebbe, Uganda’s
International Airport, we could see Lake Victoria and the lush green surroundings, which was a drastic
change to what we had become accustomed to while in Djibouti. Our two-hour drive from the airport to
our final destination in Jinja included a quick stop in Kampala, the capitol of Uganda, to exchange
currency. Once we were out the large city, we were surrounded by large sugar cane and tea fields on
both sides of the highway. Our driver informed us that these are two of the major agricultural exports
We arrived in Jinja late in the afternoon and the city was still buzzing with people along the
streets and in the market areas. We were very surprised at the amount of shops and goods available to
people in this area. Our hotel, Gately on the Nile, was a remodeled home along the banks of Lake
Victoria, less than one kilometer from the source of the Nile River. We were given the opportunity to
change hotels, but chose to stay due to the extremely friendly staff, great food and amazing location.
Our lead Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance trainer, Ron Corkrin, scheduled
a meeting for us and the rest of the trainers on the Sunday prior to our mission beginning where we
were provided the operations order we would use for the Command Post Exercise. Because of past
assignments and experience, U.S. Army Major Kevin Braun worked with the personnel and logistics
sections, U.S. Army Captain Kimberly Young worked with the communications section and I worked with
We spent the first day of training getting to know our counterparts in the UPDF and
understanding their future mission. The CPX was just one stage in their training for their mobilization on
deployment to Mogadishu this winter. Instead of having the normal crawl, walk and run phases of
training, it felt more like we went straight to the run phase, which at first frustrated us and the staff, but
Radio communications and communication between the staff sections were a huge hurdle that
they eventually overcame as the week went on. They were eventually able to distinguish between
current operations and future operations and divide themselves into sections to work on both at the
same time. We watched as the section leaders took charge of their missions and came up with plans
that were tactical and efficient to complete each mission. We gave the staff members a questionnaire
pertaining to their training experience and most of the comments were very supportive of our
On graduation day we presented two battalion coins, one to the battle captain and one to the
battalion executive officer, to recognize them for their hard work and achievements during the CPX. We
also received authorization to wear our U.S. AFRICOM patches while in Uganda, so we had our
Being part of this mission helped us gain a better understanding as to why we are here and how
we can help Africans solve African problems. This will be an experience we will never forget and could
quite possibly be one of the most rewarding experiences of our military careers. We were not only given
the opportunity to work with a foreign army with an important mission, but also had the opportunity to
travel to a part of the world that we might otherwise never have visited.