NCOS TAKE ON MULTIPLE ROLES TOENSURE SUCCESS IN PANAMANOVEMBER 3, 2016By CLIFFORD KYLE JONESNCO JournalThe NCOs in Panama are selected for their experience, maturity and Spanish-language abilities,and they have clearly defined roles training Panamanian security forces — but they routinely gooutside those roles to help the U.S. achieve its goals.Sometimes that means learning about new equipment; sometimes it means cross-training withother Technical Assistance Field Team members; sometimes it means taking on duties faroutside the regular role of an NCO.Sgt. 1st Class Leobardo Nuno, TAFT Panama’s maintenance NCO, does all three.TAFTs are deployed by the U.S. Army Security Assistance Training Management Organization,a subordinate organization to the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command. USASATMOcurrently has 38 TAFTSs and 43 teams in more than 20 countries around the world.Nuno’s primary responsibility is helping Panamanian security forces maintain their equipmentand develop tactics and procedures to keep that equipment running well. On a recent afternoon ina remote jungle outpost, he found himself under the hood of a Jeep J8.“Jeep J8s are not a regular part of [the U.S. Army’s] inventory, so I have to study and learnthem,” he said. “They have to show me some of the issues that they’re talking about in order forme to develop a correct answer for them and also to assist them technically to fix them.”He and members of Panama’s Servicio Nacional de Fronteras, known as SENAFRONT, wereworking on the Jeeps’ air conditioning system. The hoses, he said, were too close together andwere rubbing against each other.“He links in with the maintenance personnel and makes sure they’re doing the right things tomaintain their fleet of donated equipment,” said Maj. Bernard Gardner, who led the U.S. ArmyTAFT in Panama until recently. “That also applies for weapons. He has a good background inweapons maintenance and how [the Panamanians] need to get into the parts request system to getspare parts to fix them.”Nuno also helps with the Panamanians’ cache of night vision goggles — maintaining, testing andgetting rid of them as needed and ensuring spare parts are on hand. But when in Panama, NCOsgo beyond their military occupational specialty.“In addition to being a maintenance supervisor assistant for the TAFT here in Panama, I like toassist and cross-train with the other TAFT members,” Nuno said. “Yesterday, I was heresupporting them with the range, but by the same token, I was learning the tactical stuff that theyshow the units and training them on the basic soldier skills.”Nuno, like many of the NCOs in TAFT Panama, pulls double-duty when he travels from TAFTheadquarters in Panama City. He had a maintenance mission at SENAFRONT’s facility, but hecoordinated his visit with the tactical training team so he could help with a weeklongmarksmanship course for SENAFRONT forces.“Sometimes [maintenance] is not a full-time job, so it’s a perfect opportunity for him to alsocross-train — come out, do tactical training with these guys and focus in that arena as well,”Gardner said. “He’s kind of a jack-of-all-trades.”Helping the EmbassyOne of Nuno’s other trades in Panama is human-rights vetting.As required by the United States’ Leahy Law, the Defense and State departments are prohibitedfrom providing military assistance to foreign entities that violate human rights standards.Each person who takes part in the training conducted by U.S. forces must be vetted to ensurethey don’t violate the Leahy Law. Panama is what is known as a fast-track country, unlike someother Central and South American nations that have histories of violent factions in regularconflict and many documented human-rights abuses. In Panama, the vetting can be conductedlocally, and the U.S. Embassy approves participants in coordination with other U.S. agencies.The TAFT took over the vetting process more than a year ago, with Nuno and Sgt. 1st ClassRafael Faria Rodriguez conducting most of the work. They link with Panamanian schoolhouses,collect names for requested training, ensure information is recorded correctly, run the datathrough Embassy computers and files, and then track the process to ensure all agencies are doingthe appropriate vetting, Gardner said.“Since taking it over, about 1,000 have been vetted,” Gardner said about nine months into theTAFT’s new responsibility.“Panama doesn’t really have human rights problems like some other Central Americancountries,” he said. “So the check is really for criminal background of trainees. With nearly1,000 names submitted thus far, we have had three that came back (flagged), and we had to makea decision. It’s usually because they had some sort of connection to a drug-traffickingorganization.”Keeping operations runningSuch behind-the-scenes is common for Sgt. 1st Class Freddy Matostoro, the TAFT’s seniorlogistics advisor.He said he doesn’t get to travel with members of the TAFT often, but his work is instrumental inensuring their training happens.Matostoro is in charge of developing the training budget and ensures that all U.S. SouthernCommand and U.S. Embassy requirements are met.His challenges started upon his arrival, just under a year ago. The TAFT had been operating witha cash fund. Panama uses the U.S. dollar as its currency. Unfortunately, unbeknownst toMatostoro, the U.S. government had shifted from using cash to using credit cards.“It wasn’t until budget close that they noticed I didn’t have a credit card,” Matostoro said in thespring. “Long story short, it took five months to get my credit card. So now halfway through mytour, and I have yet to buy anything.”Challenges aside, the other members of the TAFT recognize how central Matostoro’s mission isto accomplishing theirs.Faria said, “We have people right now out at Darien and all the things that we are doingsimultaneously here, all that requires — all the resources, the vehicles, the fuel, even the toll passthat we put in the vehicles; all the supplies, wood, nails, hammers, tools all that stuff; and alsothe ammo when it gets ordered — that’s him who does it.”Faria said he and the other members of the TAFT could not possibly keep track of all the details.“He’s the one who keeps track of all that, so that’s what keeps all of us on the road and on themove and doing missions here,” Faria said. “Without him, we couldn’t do it.”And Nuno is happy to be part of the TAFT’s mission in Panama.“It’s one of those assignments that no one tells you about. But once you get in, you start realizingthe impact we have here in Panama and any other country is huge. It’s a huge impact. By thesame token, that impact can only be seen with time,” he said. “Every day, we continue todevelop relationships with the international forces. The impact from that can be seen at a higherlevel than we are. The impact that we have here, the training that we do here, it helps thePanamanian forces to develop a good security system. That way they can control the drug flowand the immigration flow from different areas.“We work as one single team, that’s No. 1,” he continued. “The relationship within our team ishuge, because we come from different backgrounds — we have infantry guys, we havearmament, we have commo — yet we all come together as one.”
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