I wanted to put this up, because they gave a mention to MPRI training the Equatorial Guinea navy. I posted the job ad for this gig awhile back, and it is cool to hear a little something about it. Although the hardhat Stetsons decorated with the ‘stars and stripes’ is a little much for me. lol Check it out. –Matt
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U.S. helps African navies with floating academy
Tue, Apr 20 2010
By David Lewis
ABOARD USS GUNSTON HALL (Reuters) – Men in blue overalls haul on the ropes alongside American crewmen sporting hardhats shaped as Stetsons and decorated in the stars and stripes.
“Pull harder! Coil the ropes!” one of the Americans barks at the “ship riders,” a term used for the West African sailors aboard the U.S. amphibious landing vessel as she slips her moorings in the port of Dakar.
This is a floating academy, part of an effort by the U.S. military to train local navies and coast guards to combat rising instability in the Gulf of Guinea — an increasingly important source of oil and other raw materials for western markets which has drawn huge international investment.
The United States says the destabilizing effects of piracy, drug smuggling, and illegal fishing in the area are also costing West and Central African coastal economies billions of dollars each year in lost revenues.
“You have an area that is traditionally a landward-focused region which is awakening to the impact of the maritime domain,” said Captain Cindy Thebaud, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Destroyer Squadron Six Zero and head of the project.