The Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management international mobile education team visits Estonia.

Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management

Donna Ellenberger, U.S. Army Security Assistance Command (USASAC) case manager for Estonia, joined the DISAM mobile education team of Frank Campanell, Bob Hanseman, and Craig Brandt when it conducted a security assistance course in Tallinn, Estonia, the week of February 10, 2003. This was the first time that USASAC had participated in a DISAM course conducted for a foreign purchaser. This was also the test for a new DISAM overseas offering. The purpose of the course was to focus on the flow of products and information between Estonia and the U.S. It was aimed at developing the skills of those in the Estonian Defense Forces who are dealing directly with American agencies in carrying out their security assistance program. In December, DISAM made a short site visit to discuss the presentations with the course sponsor, Kairi Raudsepp of the logistics department of the Ministry of Defense and to gather an array of foreign military sales (FMS) cases, billing documents, requisition reports and discrepancy reports. T he latter were then used in class to teach the principles of the FMS process with specific reference to Estonian situations with which the students were familiar. Training manager Merje Peri of the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) coordinated all the preparations for the class AND insured its final success.

Classes were conducted at the Border Guard School in Suurupi, a beautiful wooded site on the coast. The course was opened with presentations by Tanel Ringo, head of the logistics department in Ministry of Defense (MOD) and Major Jim Zink, USA, Chief, Office of Defense Cooperation Tallinn. After a one-day overview of the entire process, the students were broken into three seminars on the basis of their daily work: case management, finance, and logistics. Donna assisted DISAM professor Bob Hanseman in teaching the logistics seminar by providing detailed information on requisition preparation, reading supply and using status, updating the Military Assistance Program Address Directory, and filling out the supply discrepancy report. In all the seminars, the idea was to use actual examples from Estonian cases in the presentations. At the end of the course, an evaluation was conducted through a competition of two teams answering questions about security assistance procedures, a modification of the review and compreh ension exercise (RACE) that is used in the resident foreign purchasers' course. Based on the fact that there was only a single question that neither team could answer, the week's course must be deemed a success.

At the graduation ceremonies, Major Zink emphasized how the DISAM course fit into the Estonian goal of promoting professionalism among its defense employees, and he expressed the hope that the training would be valuable as Estonian-American relations increase with Estonia's accession to North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

About the Author

Dr. Craig M. Brandt is the Deputy Commandant of the Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management. A retired Navy Supply Corps Officer, he has 39 years experience in logistics and security assistance. He is the editor of Military Assistance and Foreign Policy. He was awarded a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Cincinnati in 1985. Craig was formerly the Chair, Department of Logistics Management, Graduate School of Logistics and Acquisition Management, Air Force Institute of Technology.