{"id":110087,"date":"2019-12-11T09:59:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T14:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=110087"},"modified":"2019-12-11T09:59:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T14:59:36","slug":"army-national-guard-staff-sgt-thomas-carpenter-graduates-from-brazilian-army-jungle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=110087","title":{"rendered":"Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Carpenter graduates from Brazilian Army jungle school"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Carpenter, second from right, and other Soldiers who graduated from the Jungle Operations International Course conducted by the Brazilian Army Jungle Warfare Training Center, brandish their machetes following a graduation ceremony Nov. 30, 2019, in Manaus, Brazil. Carpenter was the 30th American soldier to graduate from the tough, demanding course. (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Carpenter, a\nProspect resident, has successfully passed the six-week long International\nJungle Operations Course run by the Brazilian army at its Center for Jungle\nWarfare Instruction in Manaus, Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carpenter, a full-time non-commissioned officer in the 2nd\nBattalion, 108th Infantry, was the number three graduate in the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, he is the 30th\nAmerican Soldier to graduate from the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Most jungle military experts consider the Brazilian\narmy Jungle Warfare School to be the premier jungle school in the world,”\nsaid Army Lt. Col. Rob Santamaria, a military liaison in the U.S. Embassy in\nBrasilia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Carpenter, right, stands with two other soldiers recognized as honor graduates from the Jungle Operations International Course conducted by the Brazilian Army Jungle Warfare Training Center. Carpenter finished third in the class. (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

“Staff Sgt. Carpenter’s graduation from the Brazilian\narmy Jungle Warfare Schools International Course has given the New York Army\nNational Guard instant credibility and garnered much respect with the Brazilian\narmy,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York National Guard entered into a training and\nexchange partnership with the Brazilian military in March of this year as part\nof the National Guard’s State Partnership Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program pairs state National Guard’s with militaries in\ncountries around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New York National Guard has had a partnership with the\nSouth African National Defence Force since 2003. The partnership with Brazil\nputs New York in the small group of state National Guard’s with two partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carpenter, age 38, was selected to represent New York,\nbecause the invitation to send representatives to the jungle warfare school\ncame at short notice, according to New York Army National Guard Command Sgt. Major\nDavid Piwowarski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He is a consummate professional who has always been\nwilling to accept challenges,” Piwowarski explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Staff Sgt. Carpenter embodies the spirit of the\nminuteman,” Piwowarski said. “On very short notice with no specific\ntrain-up, he responded with toughness to this demanding course with just the\ntraining he already had under his belt and a lot of guts.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carpenter is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School, the\nU.S. Army Airborne School, and he holds the Combat Infantryman Badge. He has\nserved two combat tours in Afghanistan and competed in the 2015 Best Ranger\nCompetition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most demanding part of the course was the swimming\nrequirement, Carpenter said. He had to be able to swim long distances wearing\nfull uniform, carrying a weapon and towing a backpack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was quite a struggle to get the swimming,”\nCarpenter said. “It was a nightmare.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a week after he arrived at the school’s Manaus, Brazil\nheadquarters, he was in the pool working with instructors until he could swim\nin full uniform, with his weapon, towing a pack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to swim well is such a vital part of the jungle\nwarfare course because rivers replace roads in the rain forest, Carpenter\nexplained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Where they operate in the Amazon jungle there are only\ntwo roads,” Carpenter said. “Most everything is done through the\nriver system. They use the river networks to transport supplies and\npeople.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On arriving at the school all participants must pass basic\nskills tests, including the swimming requirement, to indicate that they can\ntackle the course. Then they move into the jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first phase of the six-week course focuses on living and\nsurviving in the jungle, Carpenter said. The soldiers learned what they could\nand couldn’t eat. They also learned to avoid deadly insects, and animals, and\nsnakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We didn’t do any snake eating but I had to catch\none,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dealing with the constant moisture was another skill they\nlearned, Carpenter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The rain is not like the rain here,” he said.\n“It is like a monsoon rain. It is a constant battle to keep the rust away\nand keep everything in good operational order.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navigating in the dense jungle is also a special skill,\nCarpenter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Depending on the season, the water levels in streams and\nrivers can be drastically different. The Brazilians issue different maps for\ndifferent times of the year reflecting those changes, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the jungle canopy makes it difficult to create maps that\nhave precise contour features, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soldiers learned to follow the “dry line”\nwhile navigating, he explained. They would stay on the high ground and avoid\nthe ravines, which meant it takes longer to go anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those survival and navigation skills were tested in a four\nday exercise in which each squad was dropped in the jungle and given a distance\nand a direction and tasks to conduct along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second phase of the training involves learning to\noperate in the rivers. Eventually, Carpenter and his squad-which included\nsoldiers from China, Canada, France and Paraguay-conducted a two kilometer\nriver insertion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We were in the water for three hours that night,”\nhe recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final phase of the training focused on military tactics\nin the rainforest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That training was similar to the Army’s Ranger School,\nCarpenter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men planned and conducted patrols and tactical missions.\nThey rappelled into the jungle from hovering helicopters. This phase was capped\nwith a long range patrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main difference between Ranger School and the Brazilian\njungle training, is that the jungle is multiple times denser than the woods and\nFlorida swamps Rangers train in, Carpenter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the six weeks, Carpenter and the other\ninternational students, which included one other American, were presented with\ntheir Jaguar Badge-the official symbol of a Brazilian jungle warrior-and a\nmachete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The machete is presented during a special ceremony in which\na Soldier who has already completed the course presents it to the new graduate.\nThe blade is then christened by waving it through the smoke from a fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Brazil founded its jungle warfare school in 1964, over\n6,300 soldiers have made it through the course. This includes 530 graduates of\nthe international course the Brazilian army runs once a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His goal now, Carpenter said, is to bring the skills he\nlearned back to his unit and other New York Army National Guard formations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m not a good NCO unless I train soldiers and make\nthem better than me,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Carpenter,\nsecond from right, and other Soldiers who graduated from the Jungle Operations\nInternational Course conducted by the Brazilian Army Jungle Warfare Training\nCenter, brandish their machetes following a graduation ceremony Nov. 30, 2019,\nin Manaus, Brazil. Carpenter was the 30th American soldier to graduate from the\ntough, demanding course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Carpenter,\nright, stands with two other Soldiers recognized as honor graduates from the\nJungle Operations International Course conducted by the Brazilian Army Jungle\nWarfare Training Center, brandish their machetes following a graduation\nceremony in Manaus, Brazil. Carpenter was the 30th American Soldier to graduate\nfrom the tough, demanding course, and finished third in the class. (Courtesy\nphoto)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Thomas Carpenter, a Prospect resident, has successfully passed the six-week long International Jungle Operations Course run by the Brazilian army at its Center for Jungle Warfare Instruction in Manaus, Brazil. Carpenter, a full-time non-commissioned officer in the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry, was the number three graduate in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,21571],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-story","category-veterans"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191130-Z-A3538-1001.jpg?fit=402%2C446&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-sDB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/110088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=110087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=110087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}