TAN-TAN, Morocco – U.S. Army Spc. Reginald Aikins is a medic with the Georgia Army National Guard's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. He also was born in Ghana and immigrated to the U.S.
Now, Aikins has returned to the African continent as a participant in exercise African Lion 21.
African Lion 2021 is U.S. Africa Command's largest premier joint annual exercise hosted by Morocco, Tunisia, and Senegal June 7-18. More than 7,000 participants from nine nations and NATO train together to enhance readiness.
"It's great," said Aikins. "Getting back to your roots, getting back to the people you lived with, it's a pretty great feeling."
Aikins' father frequently traveled to the U.S. for work. His father's connections eventually brought Aikins and his family to the United States as immigrants in 2013.
"I was about 17 or 18 years old," said Aikins.
Aikins enlisted in the Georgia Army National Guard as a medic in January 2017, attracted by the education benefits. He is a student at the University of Miami.
Aikins aspires to be a neurosurgeon and believes becoming a medic will help him get a head start in his career field.
Though Aikins has worked in the field plenty throughout his career, African Lion 21 is his first overseas deployment training mission. The Georgia Army National Guard has deployed 640 people and 200 vehicles, including nine M109A6 Paladin howitzers.
"So far, it has been a great experience," said Aikins. "We've had to deal with adversity out here that we really never deal with on a day-to-day basis."
Strengthening partnerships is another key focus of exercise African Lion 21. Georgia Army National Guard Soldiers live, train and interact with soldiers from Morocco and Senegal.
"I've gotten a chance to interact with a little bit with Senegalese. My French is a little bit limited, so we use hand signals," said Aikins. "It's fun; it's interesting because we have a lot in common despite the speech barrier."
Aikins said he's thrilled to return to his home continent to train alongside multinational partners and do the job he enlisted in the Army to do.
One benefit of multinational exercises like African Lion 21 is the opportunity to travel the world. But for some, exercises almost become a homecoming.
"I had to lose my citizenship when I immigrated to the United States, but I'll always be a citizen of Ghana in my heart," Aikins said.