{"id":434689,"date":"2025-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=434689"},"modified":"2025-05-04T06:35:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T06:35:49","slug":"michigan-sierra-leone-partnership-moves-ahead-with-multidisciplinary-engagements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=434689","title":{"rendered":"Michigan-Sierra Leone Partnership Moves Ahead with Multidisciplinary Engagements"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Shane Mills, readiness non-commissioned officer for the 246th Transportation Battalion, Michigan National Guard, discusses U.S. Army fleet management documentation processes with vehicle drivers from the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), April 17, 2025, at the RSLAF Joint Logistics Unit in the Murray Town district of Freetown, Sierra Leone
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\n U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Derek Smith, 177th Regional Training Institute, Michigan National Guard, leads a discussion with instructors assigned to the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) Armed Forces Training Center, April 16, 2025, at the RSLAF AFTC, Benguema, Sierra Leone.
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\n From left: Mr. Brian Brace, Africa State Partnership Program coordinator, Michigan National Guard; Dr. Mohamed Boie Jalloh, Director of Planning, Policy, and Research, National Public Health Agency of Sierra Leone; U.S. Army Maj. Steven Haggerty; Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Foday Sahr, executive director, NPHA-SL; Dr. Mohamed Alex Vandi, deputy executive director, NPHA-SL; RSLAF Capt. Thomas Tobey, RSLAF operations planner, and U.S. Air Force Capt. Andrew Layton, Bilateral Affairs Officer, Michigan National Guard, met at the National Public Health Agency of Sierra Leone\u2019s main office in the Wilberforce District of Freetown, Sierra Leone, April 17, 2025.
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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone \u2013 The partnership between the Michigan National Guard and the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) took another step forward April 11-18 with three separate engagements conducted at various RSLAF facilities in Sierra Leone\u2019s capital region.<\/p>\n

Cooperation focused on professional military education, vehicle operations and fleet management, and disaster response planning and interagency cooperation.<\/p>\n

Each event supported the priorities identified for the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program by Sierra Leone\u2019s senior military leaders in 2024, when the partnership began. After a formal signing ceremony in September, teams from Michigan visited Freetown in November to establish the professional military education and vehicle operations lines of effort, in addition to promoting military justice and the rule of law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are moving forward to deepen ties with our partners in the RSLAF and to support lines of effort that make both our organizations stronger, more fluent, and more prepared to conduct our respective missions,\u201d said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Scott House, the Michigan National Guard\u2019s executive integrator for the Sierra Leone SPP. \u201cLess than one year into this relationship, we\u2019ve already conducted six events in Sierra Leone, setting a foundation for mutual understanding that we will keep building upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planning is underway for members of the RSLAF to observe exercise Northern Strike in Michigan this August. Northern Strike is one of the Department of Defense\u2019s largest reserve component exercises, hosted annually at the National All-Domain Warfighting Center in northern Michigan. This year\u2019s Northern Strike is expected to draw approximately 7,000 participants from nearly every service component and branch of the U.S. armed forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe appreciate this partnership with the Michigan National Guard and look forward to developing the full benefit of our cooperation,\u201d said RSLAF Brig. Gen. Sahr David Ngaujah, RSLAF chief of general staff. \u201cThere are more good things to come as our relationship grows.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SPP supports U.S. State Department and Department of Defense objectives by linking the National Guard of a U.S. state with the armed forces of a sovereign partner nation for mutually beneficial security cooperation. The SPP began in 1993 with 13 partners and has grown to include 106 partnerships with 115 nations.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nationalguard.mil<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheNationalGuard<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/USNationalGuard<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.nationalguard.mil\/Leadership\/Joint-Staff\/J-5\/International-Affairs-Division\/State-Partnership-Program\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Shane Mills, readiness non-commissioned officer for the 246th Transportation Battalion, Michigan National Guard, discusses U.S. Army fleet management documentation processes with vehicle drivers from the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), April 17, 2025, at the RSLAF Joint Logistics Unit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434691,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=434689"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434695,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434689\/revisions\/434695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/434691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=434689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=434689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=434689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}