Showing posts with label AARs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AARs. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Report - SFAAT AAR and Lessons Learned

Two Captains who recently completed a tour of duty in Regional Command East have wrote a paper about their time on their respective Security Force Assistance Advisory Team (SFAAT). Their report provides some lessons learned that future advisors to Afghanistan could find helpful. First Brigade of the 101st Airborne deployed to Kunar and Nangarhar provinces in late 2012 on a nine-month long deployment for the Security Force Assistance (SFA) mission. The SFA mission involved a transition from fighting and winning the counterinsurgency to a train, advise, and assist role. This caused the 1st Brigade to transform itself from a combat brigade to an advisory brigade. One of the SFAATs advised an ANA infantry kandak (battalion) and the other SFAAT advised an ANA Combat Support Kandak (CSK). The paper highlights some of the operational mechanics involved in the SFAAT mission and also provides key lessons. Read the report online or download at "Passing it On: Two SFAAT Teams in Afghanistan and Lessons Learned for Future Advisors", by Thomas McShea and Kyle Harnitchek, Small Wars Journal, October 27, 2014.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Article - "Why We Lost in Iraq and Afghanistan"

LTG (Ret) Daniel Bolger, an infantry officer, has penned an article that provides an account of the U.S. military's mistakes in the Afghan and Iraq wars. Bolger commanded the NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan (NTM-A) in 2011-2013. The article is entitled "Why We Lost in Iraq and Afghanistan", Harper's Magazine, September 2014.  A bio of Bolger is available on Wikipedia and an article published in Time Magazine (May 2014) provides more information about his observations on the war. Although he left ISAF in 2013 his biography is still posted at this link on the ISAF website. He had two tours of  duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He has a Master's Degree and a PhD in History form the University of Chicago and also taught at West Point. He has also authored several books. Now that he is retired he is teaching at a college in southeastern United States. He will soon have a book out (Nov 14) that he considers "the first AAR" on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Monday, February 17, 2014

4/3 ID Looks Back on Logar / Wardak Province Deployment in 2013

The 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (BCT) of the 3rd Infantry Division spent nine months in 2013 deployed to two of the most kinetic provinces in Afghanistan. Logar and Wardak provinces are located to the south of Kabul in Regional Command East. Logar province is a staging area and facilitation route into the soft underbelly of Kabul and Wardak province has the strategic Highway 1 that connects Kabul with Kandahar. The Afghan National Security Forces in both provinces were lagging a bit behind in their capability when compared with units in the rest of Afghanistan. Read more about 4/3 ID's deployment in 2013 in "A rough deployment: 4th Brigade overcomes challenges to enable Afghans", Savannah Morning News, February 15, 2014. In the photo at left, CPT Jason Imboden, an SFAAT advisor in Logar province instructs members of the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) in Counter IED techniques. (Photo by SGT Julieanne Morse - May 2013).