Subscribe
By 1st Lt. Joe Trovato
Wisconsin National Guard
KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - After deploying to Afghanistan’s Kunar province in February, the Wisconsin National Guard’s 97th Agribusiness Development Team [ADT] is only weeks away from returning to U.S. soil.
The unit, which replaced Wisconsin’s first agribusiness team — the 82nd ADT — worked as part of the Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team to establish a sustainable agricultural infrastructure that can sustain the province once U.S. forces leave the country.
Signs of the eventual American withdrawal are beginning to emerge as the U.S. military transitions more security responsibilities to their Afghan counterparts. In Kunar, the 97th ADT is being sent home months ahead of schedule, and the provincial reconstruction team it served is also entering its final days on mission, according to a post on the ADT’s Facebook page.
The deployment was an exercise in flexibility for the members of the ADT, said Capt. Bill Barthen, the officer in charge of the unit’s agricultural team.
Barthen, a native of Superior, Wis., who recently moved to La Crosse, Wis., said the mission for which they trained differed greatly from the role the ADT played once it arrived in Afghanistan. Much of the 11-member team was integrated into staff duty positions within the Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team.
Originally, the 97th ADT was sent to Afghanistan to increase the province’s agricultural productivity, improve farmer access to key services, linking farmers with markets and trade corridors, rehabilitating watersheds, improving irrigation, and improving links between local farmers and government. The ADT's efforts were ultimately focused on closing the provincial reconstruction team’s operations in Kunar, but the unit also continued the work of its Wisconsin predecessors in facilitating agricultural improvements in the province.
Specifically, the 97th focused on providing oversight and mentoring for some of the province’s district and provincial level leaders in Kunar’s Directorate of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock. The ADT played a key role in transitioning the directorate from an interim director to a permanent director, Barthen said.
He also said the team worked hard to enable district extension agents to be the most technically proficient advisors to local farmers that they could be. Specifically, the 97th worked to coordinate veterinary vaccination schedules for farmers.
“Our biggest hit was Staff Sgt. Ross Templeton’s hands-on classes with fruit-drying, beekeeping, and mini root cellars,” Barthen wrote in an e-mail from Afghanistan. Templeton constructed a fruit dryer and taught more than 50 people how to use it.
The agribusiness team will soon re-deploy to Camp Atterbury, Ind., where it will demobilize before returning to the Badger State.
Though his unit’s mission changed, Barthen was proud of the way the ADT persevered.
“I am most proud of junior noncommissioned officers leading the way and taking professional initiative with little and sometimes no guidance,” he wrote.
As the unit begins the process of returning home to civilian life, Barthen said he was looking forward to reconnecting with his wife.
“For me, I am most looking forward to seeing my wife in our recently purchased home in La Crosse,” he said. “I have several family members who've been dealing with health issues, so I will be anxious to see how each of them are doing. Also, one of my dogs dealt with cancer the entire time I've been gone, so I am hoping she makes it so I can see her again.”
The unit originally mobilized in January with 11 soldiers and airmen.
| Date Taken: | 04.26.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2013 12:44 |
| Story ID: | 105910 |
| Location: | KUNAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 102 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Wisconsin National Guard members nearing return from Afghanistan, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT