Smaller JIEDDO will maintain important mission

Photo By Ed Drohan | Combined Joint Task Force Paladin counterimprovised explosive device trainer Joe Sanford demonstrates equipment used to counter radio-controlled IEDs to Maj. Gen. Patrick Higgins, Lt. Gen. John Johnson and Col. Joseph Davidson, the Department of Defense’s Joint IED Defeat Organization deputy director, director and director’s staff group chief, during their visit to Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, Sept. 15. CJTF Paladin is responsible for the majority of the explosive ordnance disposal and counter-IED mission in Afghanistan. (Photo by Ed Drohan, CJTF Paladin Public Affairs)  

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AFGHANISTAN

09.15.2013

Story by Ed Drohan 

Combined Joint Task Force Paladin

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – The Department of Defense organization charged with countering the threat of improvised explosive devices will be smaller in the future, but should maintain some of its most important capabilities.

That’s the message the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) leadership team left with members of Combined Joint Task Force Paladin during a visit with the unit here Sept. 15. CJTF Paladin is responsible for the majority of the counter-IED and explosive ordnance disposal mission in Afghanistan.

The visit by JIEDDO director Lt. Gen. John Johnson, deputy director Maj. Gen. Patrick Higgins and senior enlisted leader Command Sgt. Maj. William High offered them a firsthand view of the organization on the front lines of the IED fight in Afghanistan. The journey also provided the leadership an opportunity to discuss the future of the organization, which was established in 2006 to leverage the experience and expertise of warfighters across the services to help them fight what has become the weapon of choice of insurgent and criminal groups around world.

“The networks that are out there that use IEDs are looking around the battlefield. We see what’s happening in Iraq right now,” Johnson said. “We see it in South America with criminal organizations like the FARC. We see it in Mexico. We see it in the Far East in Thailand and the Philippines. We’ve got it at home.”

In the last 12 months there were 13,000 IED events around the world outside of Afghanistan with 32,000 casualties, Johnson explained. “That’s about 1,100 a month. So just about anywhere you go in the world you’re going to come in contact with this threat.”

In light of the decreasing U.S. combat presence in Afghanistan and the budget constraints facing the country, JIEDDO will by necessity become smaller, Johnson said, but must retain some of the capabilities that have come about through the hard fought experience gained on the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“JIEDDO’s future – to be determined,” Johnson said. “What is the capacity and the capability that the nation needs in the future? How big can we afford it to be? What are the characteristics it has to have?”

Johnson asked during his dinner meeting with CJTF Paladin staff members. “There are some outstanding capabilities out there now. So how do you structure this thing so it’s very rapid to stand up to support it the way we are now?”

Some aspects, such as counter-IED training, can be stood up fairly quickly when the need arises as long as the core training mission is maintained, Johnson said. But other aspects of JIEDDO’s mission – data collection, research and development and academia work for example – should continue to ensure the results are available to the warfighters whenever it is needed.

The deputy director echoed that sentiment and called members of CJTF Paladin a “…strategic theater asset,” whose work influences national strategic decision making.

“And that’s not hyperbole,” Higgins said. “If you look at the mission statement for JIEDDO, it’s to defeat the IED as a weapon of strategic influence. Now I’m not ready to come out yet and say ‘mission accomplished,’ but if you look at the work over the last decade of war, what we have done in Iraq and what we are in the process of doing here, that is demonstratively proven.”

Saying that CJTF Paladin members are at the “Ph.D. level” of the counter-IED fight, Higgins explained that one of the most important things the unit can do is to capture the work that has been done since the task force stood up in 2006 so it can be used in future engagements.

“It’s not just an [after action report] that goes on a shelf and somebody in the future wants to dust it off. There’s no place anywhere in the world that exceeds your capability for what you do,” Higgins said. “We need to retain what you guys – with your blood, sweat and tears over all this time – have collectively produced. That’s going to be tremendously important because, as the boss pointed out, this threat environment is a global threat that is not going to go away.”

Training the Afghan National Security forces to counter the IED threat is an important part of CJTF Paladin’s mission, and Higgins asked that unit members continue that mission and help increase those capabilities. He also asked that each person consider what those capabilities should be once U.S combat forces leave Afghanistan.

“Trust me on this, nobody knows better than you what that should be, so it’s not something we should be waiting to be told. It’s something we should try to shape ourselves,” Higgins said. “Whether or not it ends up happening the way we think it should, whether or not it’s at the level we would like to see it be, we should still make that attempt.”

Johnson ended by complimenting CJTF Paladin for the hard work they do with coalition and Afghan forces.

“You guys here are on the very point of the spear and you’re making a big difference. As we’ve been out talking to units, in reality they’re talking about you and what you provide to them to enable them to protect the force and prepare the ANSF to take on more of the mission all of the time. So keep it up.”

• Date Taken: 09.15.2013
• Date Posted: 09.20.2013 01:40
• Story ID: 113952
• Location: BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF