General Doug Pritt: Mission Summary

The following update is intended to give you a brief summary of our Mission in Afghanistan, some of the adjustments we have made and working relationships we have developed in our first five months.

Some background information on Afghanistan might be helpful so here are some key points. Afghanistan is about the size of Texas with a population of nearly 24 million people. There are four major ethnic groups and two official languages .  Seventy percent of the people are illiterate and 65% live in a rural environment. Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world with up to 90% of the production coming from this war torn country. The Narcotics trade is important because it provides significant resources to the many enemies of this fledgling nation. The Afghans are amazing people who are attempting to live in a harsh environment with limited natural resources and survive on an average annual income of just over $ 300. There are no taxes, but there are tariffs on goods arriving and departing the country. Poverty is everywhere and when the Taliban offers someone $ 1,000 to set off a rocket, aimed at a target several miles away, the temptation is very strong. When they add in the threat that they will kill your family if you don’t cooperate it is easier to understand why people appear to be supportive of the Taliban.

Our Task Force Mission is to Train, Teach, Coach and Mentor the Afghan National Army. In reality many of our Soldiers and Marines are Combat Advisors with some of them going out on combat missions everyday. Our goal is to make the ANA a professional army capable of providing a safe and secure environment and defeating terrorism within the borders of Afghanistan. That mission has recently been expanded to include training and supporting selected elements of the Afghan Police organizations in certain areas of the country. Our Army mission includes everything from supervising the training of new Soldiers to coordinating the operation of the newly established (28 October 2006) Afghan National War College. From front line combat forces to the Presidential Band we are the mentors for the entire force. We are located in 104 different sites throughout Afghanistan and this does not include the locations where we are training and supporting the Police. During the winter months we will consolidate, with the ANA, down to 61 sites. Last year Task Force Phoenix was in 28 locations during winter operations so as you would expect , as the Army grows, so does our team. We also provide a few mentors to the Afghan Air Corps and the Logistics Command. The War College and Logistical Command include the Afghan Police Agencies so our missions touch almost every aspect of security in Afghanistan.

We have National Guard Soldiers from 49 States, Washington DC, Guam, and Puerto Rico assigned to the team. We have one Air National Guard member from Maine and we have both active duty and reserve personnel from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines serving with us. North Dakota is the only state without someone from the National Guard assigned to the Task Force. I recently met The Adjutant General from ND and he said he would get someone from his state over here soon so he won’t be the only Adjutant General without a Soldier serving with the Phoenix V team. We also have Soldiers from 13 other countries serving in a wide variety of assignments throughout Afghanistan. Many serve as Operational Mentor Liaison Team members and serve the same function as our embedded trainers. Our total Task Force strength is currently 4,535 and includes 1,223 civilians. We are the largest employer of interpreters in Afghanistan. We will continue to grow and we expect our strength to exceed 5,200 by April 07.

Photos from Afghanistan Courtesy of General Doug Pritt

The decentralized nature of the mission and geographical separation makes it difficult to get to all 104 locations on any sort of a regular basis. Those realities made the selection of the Regional Corps Advisory Group Commanders (RCAGs) and personnel for the other key leadership positions the most critical personnel decisions I made.  I am happy to report our RCAG Commanders have made a very positive impact on the ANA Corps Commanders they mentor and everyone else they come in contact with.  Their ability to quickly establish an effective relationship has set the stage for our long term success.  In every case the personality of the RCAG Commander is a good fit with their assigned ANA Corps Commander. The RCAG Commanders are all Colonels and the ANA Corps Commanders are 2 star generals.  When we arrived, the RCAGs were not designated as command assignments, so I requested the positions be designated as Provisional Brigade Level Commands. I am happy to report the request was approved, which is a big plus for the officers in command of these very diverse organizations. We started with all US Commanders but now I have an Italian, a German, a US Marine and two US Colonels in the RCAG command positions.

Every visitor we have hosted has commented on the exceptional quality of our staff and commanders. From the Assistant Secretary of Defense to the Secretary of the Army and many others, they have all been impressed with the professionalism of our team members. Two of our most senior visitors sought out the Chief of the National Guard Bureau in Washington DC and told him how impressed they were with the Phoenix V team. The Chief visited us recently and presented over 200 Commanders Coins to members of the Task Force. I am sure the Chief came with a positive feeling about our team for three reasons. First, he was impressed with our performance last year in Louisiana in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Second, the positive and unsolicited feedback from the senior leaders I mentioned. Third, his son is a member of our task force and the Chief was able to promote him to Major during his visit here. 

When I recently attended a meeting with the Elders from the village adjacent to Camp Phoenix, they said our warriors were the most culturally aware and sensitive US personnel they have worked with since the fall of the Taliban. We did extensive cultural awareness training in the two years prior to our deployment and it appears it was a good investment of our time. The training, conducted by the Navy Post Graduate School, was world class and has helped us build strong relationships with, not only the Afghans but, all our Coalition partners.

Our staff is working well with every other major military headquarters in Afghanistan. We have assigned some of our very best people, two Colonels and two Lieutenant Colonels, to be Liaison Officers (LNOs) to the organizations we work with most closely and that move has paid big dividends for us. One key assignment was our LNO at International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Headquarters. I assigned LTC Leah Sundquist, our Logistical Task Force Commander to the position. Leah had been in command for over four years and had built a very talented and capable team as a part of her legacy at that unit. She has great people skills and previous exposure to the International community so she was the perfect choice for the position. She is doing terrific work, in a critical position, and our relationship with ISAF has flourished since we selected her for the assignment. One of the Generals at ISAF told me she was the best thing to happen to ISAF Headquarters in the 7 months he has been there. Every week someone from the ISAF Staff tells me what great work she is doing. We are the first Phoenix team to be allowed to have an LNO at ISAF and several key US leaders were amazed we broke the code and were authorized to put a person there. I believe our request was approved because we went out of our way to meet and develop a relationship with the Commander of ISAF and some of his subordinate Staff Officers. Leah has opened many doors for our team and as a result we have been able to get things accomplished when others were not so fortunate. ISAF is now responsible for planning and conducting all battle space operations for the entire country, so Leah is a critical link for us.

I think we have a great team and I have told the people that preceded us part of their legacy is our success. If we are doing this mission correctly, we should be better than the team we replace and the team that replaces us should be better than we are. We believe there are four critical characteristics of a great team. We work on these four areas every day and focus on them each week during our Sunday Staff coordination and team building events.

Photos from Afghanistan Courtesy of General Doug Pritt

First Communication:

We conduct command and staff conferences about every 30 days that include our higher headquarters, guest speakers from ISAF, the Police Reform Directorate and the Counter Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Task Force. The event affords everyone the opportunity to bond and meet new team members.  This meeting has turned out to be huge success. Commanders look forward to the meetings as they have a great opportunity to network with fellow commanders and share ideas that are working in other parts of the country.

We also have opportunities to meet with the commanders during the ANA Corps Commander’s Conferences conducted each quarter. In addition, one of the senior US Defense Contractors here conducts a quarterly Senior Leaders Seminar that includes the Corps Commanders and our RCAG Commanders.

We conduct a Battle Update Brief (BUB) three nights a week through a video conferencing system where the commanders provide an update on the significant events in their area. We also have the Intelligence Specialists at each RCAG give a weekly update focused on their predictive analysis of what they expect the enemy will do in the upcoming week. We track their predictions and provide a monthly report on how they do with their forecasts. Some of the best at making the most accurate predictions are the most junior people in the organization and over half are females. The females are having no difficulties working with the almost exclusively male Afghan National Security Forces. One Sergeant predicted the time and location of Taliban teams firing rockets at one of the bases with such accuracy the ANA were able to capture the teams in the act of emplacing the rockets. I am sure she saved many lives by her actions.

Second Cooperation:

The cooperation between the RCAG Commanders, Logistical Task Force, Security Forces, Navy, Marine and Air Force Commanders is exceptional.  I believe the initial team building exercise (Survivor Phoenix) we underwent and all the Sunday night dinner meetings we conducted at Camp Shelby helped build the relationships that will last through our deployment and beyond.

Commanders have volunteered to shift team members between RCAGs to meet the changing mission requirements. Commanders are quick to support the overall mission of training selected Police personnel by sending their people with Law Enforcement experience to other commands. The Task Force Headquarters Staff is proactive in getting out to the FOBs to assist with support for all our warriors.  Every Command, principal and special staff section has shared their goals with the entire team so everyone has situational awareness of each others goals and how they can assist/support. We have Navy and Air Force personnel in every staff section in the TF Phoenix Headquarters and Logistical Task Force. The Navy Commander is a reservist from Spokane Washington and a Vietnam Veteran who is fully engaged in every way to make the overall team as successful as possible.

Third and Fourth Trust and Fun:

To maintain our cohesion we are conducting weekly teambuilding events every Sunday night for TF Headquarters Principal Staff and Subordinate Commanders who reside at Camp Phoenix.  Our format is to conduct a staff meeting focused on our working issues followed by a team event selected and led by one of our team members on a rotating basis. Many of the activities are sports related, but all involve team building.

Every other Monday night we conduct Officer Professional Development for all officers.  CSM Conley conducts Non Commissioned Officer Professional Development events on the alternate Mondays. 

During one of our Commander’s conferences we had a dinner at a German Restaurant at the Kabul Multi National Brigade (ISAF) military compound, located about 4 miles from Cp Phoenix.  It was a delightful event that afforded our team an opportunity to relax and get to know some of our Coalition partners.  Our Operational Mentor Liaison Team (OMLT) commanders from Germany and Italy have attended all our meetings and events and we invited a British BG from ISAF to the dinner at the German Restaurant as well.

We have also taken the TF Headquarters Staff to the German Restaurant to recognize them and express our appreciation for the great work they have done in conjunction with the mission expansion/transition, conducting the commander’s conferences and building relationships with CSTC-A, RCAGs, ANA, NGOs, ANP, MOD, MOI, PRTs, CJTF 76, etc, etc.  The staff cooperation and communication is the best I have seen at the Brigade level.

We recently went to a Steak House for dinner in conjunction with one of our Commander’s Conferences. The company has asked to build a steak house here at Camp Phoenix so we wanted to check out their existing restaurant. It was Jeff Petrucci’s 60^th Birthday so we wanted to have a unique celebration in his honor.  It was a great event and we created some special memories.

The transition to NATO ISAF has added a new level of complexity to our mission as our ANA units work directly with partner units from five different countries and that list will grow in the coming months.  Each country has their own style, culture, procedures and rules.  Our folks have adapted very well and again they have established very good working relationships with our international friends. 

Three years ago, when we started planning for our deployment we decided this mission was all about building relationships so we developed a handy reminder for everyone of what we think it takes to build an effective relationship. We use this so our warriors can focus their efforts on what we consider the essential skills, talents and behaviors necessary to make our team the most successful Task Force Phoenix ever. The image below is the basic shell and we have a description of each pillar, our mission and desired end state on the 3 X 5 card we give each member of the Task Force.

This is a great mission and critical to the future of Afghanistan. It is also the one mission essential to setting the stage for the majority of US forces to leave Afghanistan. The sooner we succeed the sooner our service members can go home. 

I hope this helps explain what we are doing and gives you an appreciation for the dynamics of the environment.

Take Care.

Love Doug