This is an interesting story about connections. Thought you'd enjoy it. Then-Bolivian Army Corporal Rod Mendoza (left) watches as then-U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Fensom (center), of 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), runs through reaction-to-contact drills during a 1997 Joint Combined Exchange Training exercise in Bolivia with the country's Manchengo ranger battalion. In the past 14 years, Mendoza has left the Bolivian Army and joined the U.S. Army's Special Forces regiment, served on several deployments and is now an instructor for the Special Forces Qualification Course. Fensom is now a sergeant major, and the deputy commandant of the David K. Thuma Noncommissioned Officer Academy at Fort Bragg. (Photo courtesy of Sgt. Maj. Patrick Fensom) RELEASE NUMBER: 120111-01 DATE POSTED: SEPTEMBER 5, 2011 Where this brotherhood began One small gesture of friendship by a team of Special Forces Soldiers set one young Bolivian corporal on a path toward wearing his own American green beret By Dave Chace SWCS Public Affairs Office FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, Jan. 11, 2012) – In 1997, eight Special Forces Soldiers traveled to Bolivia to train and advise a battalion of Bolivian Army rangers. Beyond running the battalion’s light infantry certification training, the Special Forces team used their downtime to refine their own techniques and tactical proficiency; and they allowed a motivated 20-year-old Bolivian Army corporal to participate in their team training sessions. For then-Sgt. 1st Class. Patrick Fensom and his teammates on Operational Detachment-Alpha 716, part of the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), this training was routine. A few hours of internal team training events during a six-week Joint Combined Exchange Training deployment was usual, and if one or two host-nation soldiers wanted to come along and see how American forces did business, they were welcome. For then-Bolivian Army Corporal Rod Mendoza, however, this experience came to define the next 14 years of his life. The Army’s Special Forces community is small, and friends are often reunited throughout their careers, but Fensom never expected to see Mendoza again; let alone to see him 14 years later as a Special Forces sergeant first class, training future ODA commanders at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. “In Bolivia, military service is mandatory, so I was doing my time [in the ’90s] and then I volunteered for ranger training,” Mendoza said. “Real American SF guys came to train us for a peacekeeping mission we were preparing to do with the United Nations. When they showed up, I was like, ‘Whoa, this is awesome!’” Fensom, now a sergeant major and the deputy commadant of the David K. Thuma Noncommissioned Officer Academy, part of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, was a Special Forces weapons sergeant on the 8-man team assigned to train Mendoza’s unit, Bolivia’s Manchengo battalion. “With the Manchengo battalion our mission was specifically to get them to a level where they could get certified by the United Nations to conduct peacekeeping operations,” Fensom said. “The training incorporated a lot of light infantry, medical and communications tasks, with equipment organic to their unit.” “We got along with a lot of the Bolivian soldiers, but [Mendoza] was one of the soldiers who wanted some extra training,” Fensom said as he flipped through an old photo album at his desk, pointing at photos of a young Mendoza on a rifle range. “[Our team] always took some time to conduct team training during deployments, and Mendoza was one of two Bolivian soldiers we invited to train with us.” Mendoza said he wouldn’t have been able to befriend the American team if it hadn’t been for their ability to connect with him on a cultural level. “[Our team] could converse pretty well in Spanish, and of course all our lessons were taught in Spanish,” Fensom said. “That really was a key to building that rapport; and if you didn’t speak Spanish really well, you had the Bolivian soldiers there to interact with.” “They spoke some good Spanish, like [then-Sgt. 1st Class Arthur Lilley],” Mendoza said. “He was a great Spanish speaker, and it was a good way to establish a friendship.” At the end of the JCET, Mendoza gave Lilley his Bolivian green beret as a gift; Lilley reciprocated, giving Mendoza his own American green beret, complete with the 7th SFG(A) flash and the American Special Forces regimental insignia. Mendoza finished his service in the Bolivian army in 1998, and spent some time as a firefighter at the Bolivian airport before moving to his wife’s home in Puerto Rico. “I didn’t know Puerto Ricans were allowed to join the U.S. Army, but as soon as I found out, I decided I didn’t want to be a firefighter, I wanted to join the U.S. Army,” Mendoza said. He enlisted as an indirect-fire infantryman and asked for an assignment with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, in order to be as close as possible to the heart of the Army’s Special Forces. His experience in an infantry unit was a great introduction to the U.S. Army, he said. “I liked serving in the Bolivian Army, but I always viewed the U.S. as having the best army in the world – as it is, of course, with the quality of its training, equipment and capabilities,” Mendoza said. “The first thing I did after becoming a U.S. citizen was to go to Special Forces Assessment and Selection, because that was my dream,” Mendoza said. “I was finally going to become one of those cool guys I saw while I was in the Bolivian army!” Mendoza was selected to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course to become a Special Forces weapons sergeant. “Of course there were lots of things I didn’t know, and I quickly saw the diversity in the things Special Forces groups can do and the areas they deploy to, especially after 9/11,” Mendoza said. “I saw the capability and how much we can do with just a team...
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Jan 18 2012, 12:14 AM
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