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GARDEZ, Afghanistan (Aug. 5, 2017) — “Looking back, I see a lot of growth and big gains for the Afghan National Security Forces in their ability to maintain security in the southeast region,” said COL Matthew Van Wagenen, Task Force Southeast Commander.
Van Wagenen and advisors from 1st Cavalry Division recently completed their mission to Train, Advise and Assist the 203rd Corps of the Afghan National Army and the 303rd Police Zone Headquarters. Over the past nine months they’ve helped the Army and Police achieve countless improvements in their warfighting capability.
The mission to TAA an Army Corps and Police Zone is complex. Beyond warfighting, it includes improving organizational capabilities like human resources functions, maintenance and logistics operations, and training to improve warfighting performance.
“We assisted the 203rd Corps in completing their first ever personnel asset inventory and biometrics enrollment into the new Afghan Human Resources Information Management System,” said DOD Civilian Mr. Kuka Toleafoa, Human Resources Advisor, TF Southeast. “Almost 20,000 Soldiers were enrolled. The Corps performed superbly and completed the mission weeks ahead of schedule,” he added.
And of course, no Army or large Police organization can execute their mission without proper logistics and maintenance support. Because of this the advisors of TF Southeast have embraced the thoughts of General Robert Barrow, USMC, who stated, “Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics.”
First Lieutenant Keely Porterfield, a maintenance advisor for the 203rd Corps has applied this philosophy throughout her deployment.
“Providing logistics support to an Army Corps is tough, especially when the corps is conducting combat operations across an area the size of South Carolina,” she stated. “Over the past couple of months we’ve helped the 203rd prioritize their maintenance and logistics efforts to become more proactive in support of ongoing operations. As a result, they’ve become more capable of conducting sustained operations against enemy forces.”
In addition to increased maintenance and logistics readiness, advisors from TF Southeast have dedicated significant efforts to help the Army and Police improve their warfighting skills and capabilities. The Corps and Police headquarters have learned training and training management techniques from the TF Southeast advisors which have enabled improvements in how the Army and Police train their personnel.
“We’ve helped the Army employ better planning and resourcing techniques to ensure the provision of the best quality training. And we’ve helped them mature their collective training exercises here at the 203rd Corps,” said Major Jared Koelling, senior training advisor to the 203rd Corps.
“The end result of this improved planning and staff integration is a better-trained fighting force, capable of defeating the enemy, any place and time."
One notable example of a better trained, more capable force has been improvements in the integration of the Afghan Air Force with ground maneuver forces to destroy the enemy.
“Air to ground integration for the 203rd Corps has significantly increased in effectiveness over the past couple of months,” said Maj. Ryan Pless who serves as an aviation advisor for TF Southeast.
“The Corps has developed the capacity to conduct a variety of aerial resupply operations to deliver logistics support across the Corps area of operations. Training initiatives to improve the use and effectiveness of attack helicopters and close air support from A-29 Super Tucano jets has made a remarkable difference on the battlefield this summer,” Pless emphasized.
Advisors have also helped their Afghan counterparts improve the quality of specialized training like Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) techniques to improve the safety of personnel disarming IEDs and to allow improved evidence collection to enable the prosecution of those involved in setting IEDs.
“Evidence exploitation was not something that was routinely practiced by 303rd Zone Police when we arrived,” said Capt. Randall Davis police advisor for TF Southeast.
“We asked the police to focus on this because of our joint commitment to improving the adherence to rule of law practices. Evidence is critical for prosecutions. Through focused efforts, the police responded and we’ve seen a significant increase in evidence collection and submission,” Davis added.
With these improved capabilities the Afghan National Defense Security Forces are on a path to assuming full responsibility for all security activities in Afghanistan.
“The Afghan security forces continue to demonstrate the will and determination to improve. It was my privilege to work alongside them and watch their many successes over the past several months,” Van Wagenen stressed.
| Date Taken: | 08.05.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.07.2017 06:21 |
| Story ID: | 247283 |
| Location: | GARDEZ, AF |
| Web Views: | 295 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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