Photo By 1st Lt. Douglas Magill | Col. Matthew Redding, RSC-SW's new commander, says that he's excited to lead the...... read more read more
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CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – John Elway, Joe Theismann – and now – Michael Borg.
The latter now shares the distinction – with his professional football counterparts – of being a leader who has left a lasting legacy on a successful organization, as team member No. 7.
Command duties of the Regional Support Command-Southwest were officially transferred to Col. Matthew Redding, from Col. Borg, in a change of command ceremony at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, July 10.
“Every team needs a quarterback,” Brig. Gen. Tom Cosentino, deputy commander for Regional Support, NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, said during an award ceremony that morning. “A team without a quarterback cannot win and that’s what his role was here. There are a lot of people here that have done a lot of work, but there had to be someone that could lead the organization and make sure that it’s moving in the right direction.”
When Borg first arrived at Camp Leatherneck, he was the seventh member of, what was then, a seven-member Regional Support Command. At the time, the RSC operated out of a tent, the runway at Camp Leatherneck as well as the sites for what would be the Regional Military Training Center at Camp Shorab and the Regional Training Center in Lashkar Gah was little more than flat, unpaved dirt.
In the year of Borg’s command, RSC-Southwest moved into its own permanent facility. He also led the command in establishing permanent training facilities for the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. In total, RSC-SW provided management to 262 facilities totaling $94 million.
“I watched him on a Friday, when no one else was working, with his field-grade officers digging a ditch,” Cosentino said. “That was his dedication. Now, every one of those facilities is a dagger in the heart of the enemy.”
Prior to that ceremony, Jayme Sutton, the Regional Support Command-Southwest deputy commander, was awarded the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO Non-Article 5 medal, Bronze Star Medal and was promoted to the rank of colonel.
Borg was awarded the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO Non-Article 5 medal and the Legion of Merit, immediately following Sutton’s ceremony.
Several of the Afghan National Army officers from the Regional Military Training Center attended the change of command ceremony, including Col. Shah Wali Zazai. Maj. Gen. James Mallory III, deputy commanding general, NTM-A/CSTC-A, was the first speaker at the ceremony.
“When Col. Borg first got here, it was him and six other teammates in a tent,” Mallory said. “Now, he’s turned this into something that will be used as a template for all other regional commands, at a great savings to the taxpayer.”
Even though the RSC-SW started in a tent with seven team members and advancing to a permanent building with 100-plus members, arguably greater advancements came at the RMTC and RTC.
Under Borg’s tenure as commander of the RSC-SW, the RMTC and the RTC went from blueprints and imagination on a flat piece of land, to fully operational training facilities initially operating in tents, to the permanent buildings which are currently under construction. The Regional Military Training Center graduated its first Regional Basic Warrior Training class of 850 recruits on June 2. The facility is currently training its second wave – a group of 1,350 recruits.
The RSC-SW has also provided training oversight and development of the Afghan Uniform Police at the RTC and the Joint Sustainment Academy Southwest in Camp Leatherneck. The RSC-SW also oversaw the development of Afghan National Army non-commissioned officers at JSAS.
“They started out as six troopers living and working in tents,” Cosentino said prior to Borg’s arrival. “And in a year, they’ve turned it into several hundred permanent buildings and thousands and thousands of trained soldiers and police.”
However, what may prove to be even more important than what the RSC-SW has done in the past year under Borg, is the way ahead under Redding in the next year. After announcements made by President Barrack Obama to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a much greater emphasis will go towards building, training and sustaining the force rather than facilities.
The objective for the Afghan national security forces is to build its legitimacy amongst the people of Nimruz and Helmand provinces. These were two provinces that were once notorious for being insurgent strongholds.
“What we’ve done here in the last year is created the foundation that the Southwest needed so that it will never, ever, go back to what it was before,” Borg said. “Brighter days are coming for Afghanistan. Sir, this is Michael Borg, signing off the net.”
| Date Taken: | 07.10.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 07.17.2011 13:10 |
| Story ID: | 73868 |
| Location: | CAMP LEATHERNECK, AF |
| Web Views: | 215 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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