AT LEAST 14 student-officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Command and General Staff College (AFPCGSC) are undergoing a five-day immersion at the headquarters of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) in Camp Navarro, Zamboanga City.
Lieutenant Colonel Abdurasad Sirajan, Westmincom information officer, said the student officers belong to the Command and General Staff Course (CGSC) Class 71, who commenced their five-day immersion on Monday, November 7, 2022. The immersion ends on Friday, November 11.
Sirajan said that the immersion of the CGSC Class 71 to the different Unified Commands (UCs) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines aims to transition the student officers from theory to practice. This involves a planning exercise at UCs where real-world scenarios would be used.
During this activity, they are expected to assess the UC’s operational environment; identify the current conditions; frame the problem and identify the adversary being confronted by the UC; derive lines of operations to achieve the desired conditions; and orient themselves on the UCs Staff functions.
At the end of the activity, the students are required to develop an Operational Approach using relevant data and information gathered from the UCs.
Military officers with the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel are among the student officers of the CGSC Class 71.
They are accompanied in their immersion by two directing staff and two support personnel from CGSC led by Colonel Dante Robert Grasparil, Head of the Academics Branch.
Grasparil and his staff paid a courtesy call to the Westmincom leadership during their arrival at Camp Navarro, this city.
They were received by Colonel Yasser Bara, Acting Chief of Unified Command and other key officers at the Laong Laan Hall of Westmincom.
“The immersion is a very good learning-by-experience approach,” said Brigadier General Arturo Rojas, acting commander of Westmincom.
“It is a better way to fuel one’s innate leadership traits that are vital in fulfilling their hopes and dreams of becoming one of the elite senior officers of the AFP in the coming years,” Rojas added. (SunStar Zamboanga)