United States Staff Sergeant Clark Hjelseth, attached to the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, right, shows a Salvadoran soldier a grouping of bullets during target practice training with Salvadoran army soldiers in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 1, 1984. With the escalation of U.S. military aid in 1981, 55 military advisors, or the Mobile Training Team, MTT, arrived in El Salvador and were stationed at bases around the country. Regulations on the capacities and number of advisors stationed were largely ignored or circumvented by the Reagan administration. Special training camps were created in neighboring Honduras for Salvadoran military units to avoid restrictions on the country’s advisors limit. Additional advisors were deployed and covertly financed through the CIA under the guise of “intelligence operations”.
United States Staff Sergeant Clark Hjelseth, attached to the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, left, shows a Salvadoran soldier a grouping of bullets during target practice training with Salvadoran army soldiers in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 1, 1984. With the escalation of U.S. military aid in 1981, 55 military advisors, or the Mobile Training Team, MTT, arrived in El Salvador and were stationed at bases around the country. Regulations on the capacities and number of advisors stationed were largely ignored or circumvented by the Reagan administration. Special training camps were created in neighboring Honduras for Salvadoran military units to avoid restrictions on the country’s advisors limit. Additional advisors were deployed and covertly financed through the CIA under the guise of “intelligence operations”.
United States Staff Sergeant Clark Hjelseth, attached to the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, center left, conducts target practice training to his Salvadoran charges in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 1, 1984. With the escalation of U.S. military aid in 1981, 55 military advisors, or the Mobile Training Team, MTT, arrived in El Salvador and were stationed at bases around the country. The advisors were prohibited from engaging in combat missions with Salvadoran troops and from carrying weapons other than a sidearm. However, regulations on the capacities and number of advisors stationed were largely ignored or circumvented by the Reagan administration.
United States Staff Sergeant Clark Hjelseth, attached to the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, right, conducts target practice training to his Salvadoran charges in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 1, 1984. With the escalation of U.S. military aid in 1981, 55 military advisors, or the Mobile Training Team, MTT, arrived in El Salvador and were stationed at bases around the country. The advisors were prohibited from engaging in combat missions with Salvadoran troops and from carrying weapons other than a sidearm. However, regulations on the capacities and number of advisors stationed were largely ignored or circumvented by the Reagan administration.
United States Staff Sergeant Clark Hjelseth, attached to the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, center, conducts target practice training to his Salvadoran charges in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 1, 1984. With the escalation of U.S. military aid in 1981, 55 military advisors, or the Mobile Training Team, MTT, arrived in El Salvador and were stationed at bases around the country. Regulations on the capacities and number of advisors stationed were largely ignored or circumvented by the Reagan administration. Special training camps were created in neighboring Honduras for Salvadoran military units to avoid restrictions on the country’s advisors limit. Additional advisors were deployed and covertly financed through the CIA under the guise of “intelligence operations”.
United States Staff Sergeant Clark Hjelseth, attached to the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, prepares to fire a recoilless rifle during target practice with Salvadoran army soldiers in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 1, 1984. As early as 1950, the United States provided extensive support in the establishment of a counterintelligence apparatus for the Salvadoran military and police forces, in addition to direct military funding and assistance. Over the course of the civil war from 1980-1992, the United States sent more than $6 billion to the Salvadoran government in economic and military aid.
United States Staff Sergeant Clark Hjelseth, attached to the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, right, observes a Salvadoran army soldier fire a recoilless rifle during target practice in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 1, 1984. With the escalation of U.S. military aid in 1981, 55 military advisors, or the Mobile Training Team, MTT, arrived in El Salvador and were stationed at bases around the country. Regulations on the capacities and number of advisors stationed were largely ignored or circumvented by the Reagan administration. Special training camps were created in neighboring Honduras for Salvadoran military units to avoid restrictions on the country’s advisors limit. Additional advisors were deployed and covertly financed through the CIA under the guise of “intelligence operations”.
United States Staff Sergeant Clark Hjelseth, attached to the U.S. Military Group in El Salvador, lower center, checks the condition of a recoilless rifle during target practice with Salvadoran army soldiers in San Miguel department, El Salvador, August 1, 1984. With the escalation of U.S. military aid in 1981, 55 military advisors, or the Mobile Training Team, MTT, arrived in El Salvador and were stationed at bases around the country. 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.