General Officer Assignments for Afghanistan

The DoD has announced several general officer assignments. A couple of them affect billets in Afghanistan.

MG Richard Longo, currently the director of Task Force 2010 and Commander of the Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force - Afghanistan, will be heading to U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army. MG Longo's bio can be read here on the ISAF website. Task Force 2010 and CJIATF-A have attempted to curb the rampart corruption that takes place in almost all aspects of Afghan life; to include the persistent covering up of corruption within the government by President Karzai. A thankless endeavor to be sure as little progress has been made on that front.

COL James Kraft has been selected for BG and will be assigned as Deputy Commander of Special Operations Joint Task Force - Afghanistan (SOJTF-A). The SOJTF-A was formed up in 2012 and is headed by a two-star general officer. You can read more about SOJTF-A in a news article published August 19, 2012 in USA Today entitled "U.S., Afghan elite forces merge".  SOJTF-A oversees many different types of special operations to include the Village Stability Operations (VSO), Afghan Local Police (ALP), training of Afghan Commandos and Afghan Special Forces, conduct of kinetic operations, and advising many of the Afghan National Police Provincial Response Companys (PRC) and special police units.

You can view the press release here.
www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15813