A trainer from August 2003 through June 2006 in the 196th Training Support Brigade, Major Donald Evans - in response to a U.S. Central Command tasking - led a six-man team to Djibouti from May to November 2005 in support of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Horn of Africa, with a follow-on assignment to go to Yemen and train the Central Security Forces Counterterrorism Unit in the conduct of urban operations. "When we got there," he said, "one of the issues we encountered was that there was no real method to the madness. They were kind of hit or miss with their training." After an initial assessment, Evans' team began putting the company-sized unit - a national asset used against known and suspected terrorists in Yemeni cities, but also deployed in non-urbanized areas throughout the country - through close quarters combat and intense marksmanship training. Having received training previously from other U.S. military personnel, the counterterrorist unit - in Evans' estimation - had not been sufficiently challenged. The Yemenis, he said, “were pretty sharp and capable of doing a lot more; it was just that every training group that came in started back at square one. These Yemeni guys were just tired of it so they were sandbagging a bit; they were having to do the same things over and over again when what they really wanted was to go to the next level.” Evans also dealt with a wide range of leadership challenges among both Yemeni officers and NCOs, and also discusses a number of equipment shortages. “They weren’t lacking for any type of weapons systems,” he said, “that’s for sure, but all things logistic were an issue.”

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