Wednesday, March 17, 2010

OIL PLATFROM PROTECTION TRAINING FOR GHANA NAVY (PAGE 28, MARCH 18, 2010)

A US Naval Ship, USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44), has docked in the home port of the Western Naval Command in Sekondi under an African Partnership Station (APS) on training and community relations project.
The mission will also train Ghana Navy personnel on oil platform protection, search and rescue operations, small boat maintenance, intelligence, maritime law, medical emergency first response, meteorology, fisheries management and anti-terrorism construction and training.
The personnel aboard the vessel, which is under the command of Captain Cindy Thebaud will work in collaboration with coastal countries in West and Central Africa to achieve maritime security.
According to Captain Thebaud, the mission was purely based on the needs of the country they visited and that APS partners were ready to share and learn from each other.
She explained that one significant thing about APS was that the sovereign states chose the training programmes that were best for their objectives.
APS, she said, was not limited to ship deployment to Africa but also involved training to ensure that together, coastal countries remained stable and safe in Western and Central Africa.
While in the home port of the Western Naval Command, the crew will also make donations also partake in both classroom and hands-on training which started last Friday on topics such as fisheries management, small boat maintenance and oil platform security.
These community relations project will afford the sailors the opportunity to visit some schools and orphanages to present gifts to the inmates and, as well, carry out rehabilitation work in various schools and health facilities including the Twin-City Special School, Sekondi School for the Deaf and the Ogyam Orphanage.
"The officers on board the vessel said what they intend to achieve was to help create a conducive learning environment,” Logistics Specialist, Brian Welch said.

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