Col. John D. Waghelstein Head Of U.S. Military Trainers
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United States Army Colonel John D. Waghelstein listens to an artillery instruction class given by one of the 55 U.S. military trainers to Salvadoran army soldiers stationed in San Juan Opico, El Salvador, March 1, 1983. Waghelstein served as commander of the U.S. trainers and was one of the army's leading experts on counterinsurgency warfare. Referred to as "trainers" to discourage comparisons with U.S. advisors during the Vietnam War, the trainers in El Salvador worked to strengthen the military capacity of the Salvadoran Armed Forces as well as enforce the preferred military strategy of the war's largest funder, the United States government.