The Chief of Staff Uganda Peoples’ Defence Airforce Maj Gen Paul Lokech has advised UPDF Commanders to always think big and be creative if they are to manage soldiers and the population in the war theatre.
Gen Lokech said this on Thursday evening while officiating at the closing ceremony of a two weeks TableTop exercise where 65 UPDF officers and 11 mentors from USA were participating at Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability Centre(URDCC) in Jinja.
The exercise was meant to validate URDCC deployment capabilities.
He said this course reflects what is supposed to be done during peacetime. “We are now at peace in Uganda, so this is the time to prepare for any emergency and that’s why this exercise was organized” Said Gen Lokech.
Gen Lokech advised commanders to be versatile, not to expect it light, move in heavily with all equipment, have a sense of humanity and work with all components while in a war theater.
The commandant URDCC Brig Gen Peter Gaetano Omola who was also acting as exercise commander said this was to support Africa peacekeeping rapid response partnership(APRRP) programs by validating URDCC and identifying areas of improvement through partners and mentors.
He said this was the third exercise in preparation for the upcoming Command Post Exercise scheduled to take place in April 2020
The team leader of the US mentors Lt Col Bob Aroyo appreciated UPDF for the hospitality and commended the good relations between Uganda and the USA. He said this exercise was an approval that URDCC is now ready.
Present at the function were the Chief of Staff URDCC Brig Gen Johnson Muuma, the head of the civilian component URDCC Ms Amanda Magambo, mentors and staff of URDCC among others.
