 From Soldiers Radio and Television, this is the Army Today, a daily feature from around the globe. On a small base in Zabel Province, Afghanistan, U.S. Army Pathfinders instruct Afghan National Army soldiers in the techniques of their trade. Pathfinders are the boots on the ground that allow aircraft to move supplies and provide combat support. After two weeks of training, today is the final day of classroom instruction, and the trainers want to see what their students have learned. We selected a number of skills that we wanted to test that are usually the most vital in what we do, and that included sling load training, that included setting up HLZs, calling in 9-line medivacs, hand and arm signals, air traffic control, a variety of other type of operations and missions that my unit has called upon to do at a moment's notice. In the rugged Afghan terrain, Pathfinders are essential to the supply chain and to any air combat operations. With coalition forces looking to hand over responsibilities to their Afghan counterparts, training like this is a big step in that direction. These soldiers will not only be the first-ever Afghan National Army Pathfinders, they will be the leaders and teachers of future Pathfinders. By the end of this deployment, when we do about six more courses, they will have their own training regiment as well, and they'll be training some of their own guys in their own regiment. In future courses, these students will teach alongside their American colleagues, sharing their own experiences and easing the difficulties in translation. If these first students are any indication of the quality of future classes, the U.S. Pathfinders have confidence in the program's success. Overall, I believe these guys did fairly well. They're a very sharp group. They picked up very much everything that we tried to teach them. This is the Army Today from Soldiers Radio and Television.