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LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – “There are a lot of difficulties and certainly challenges ahead,” said Afghan National Army Col. Abdul Rahman Ghoori, acquisition officer, Afghan Ministry of Defense, as he stood and addressed his collegues in the Shura center on Forward Operating Base Gamberi, Sept.18. “We’re going to be doing everything on our own. The Coalition will be in a supporting role. We are going to do our best and we’re going to strive to be of service to …. the soldiers of the army of Afghanistan to make sure the people of Afghanistan have peace and stability.”
Ghoori and his collegues are logistians. The difficulities and challenges that they gathered to address are the same ones that militaries have faced throughout the centuries; how to keep a military supplied.
Ghoori was joined by several Afghan Ministry of Defense logisitic general officers, senior commanders from the ANA’s 201st and 203rd Corps as well as both corps’ Regional Logistical Support Command-East, commanders and their Coalition advisors.
This was the first time this year they met as a group. Their goal was simple: update each other on their operational status, discuss any issues and try to find possible solutions.
The meeting took over three hours as many of the speakers took questions from their colleagues. At times, discussions turned spirited as some briefers tried to impress upon their colleagues the new ways of doing business; they can no longer ask their Coalition partners for needed equipment or supplies as a primary means. They need to use the Afghan supply system.
Throughout the meeting, the Coalition advisors sat and listened, but they did not address the attendees.
This is actually a sign of progress.
Until recently, the majority of supplies the ANA have been receiving were provided by the Coalition while the ANA supply system was being developed. A few months ago the ANA took over the mission of supplying themselves. Their responsibility begins with a unit requesting an item from their supply depot, solicitating bids (in some instances from international suppliers), funding and writing the contract, receiving the items and distributing them to the unit.
This meeting was to work out the bugs in the system.
The issues varied over the logistical spectrum; take for example vehicle repair. In some cases units had their authorized number of mechanics but were lacking enough tools while other units had enough tools and were awaiting their new mechanics; others had both tools and mechanics but were lacking the correct parts.
This is not the case for all units.
“The vehicles of the 201st Corps are (having) preventive maintenance checks and services and (are being) repaired,” said ANA Col. Gull Rahman, commander, Regional Logistical Support Command-East, 201st Corps. “We are even sending mobile teams to Kunar to repair the vehicles.”
This does not mean that the 201st Corps RLSC-E has not faced some of the challenges that other units have; they have. Yet they have been able to solve some of the problems.
“Of course we’ve had challenges,” said Rahman. “Most of our challenges were solved with coordination with the 201st Corps (logistic section).”
One unit is working with it’s higher headquarters to solve a challenge. While it sounds simple, this simple solution, if overlooked, can actually cause challenges.
“Most of the battalions … come and actually ask us for resupply,” said ANA Brig. Gen. Abdul Basir, commander, Logistics Command, Afghan Ministry of Defense. “We have to send (an order) to your brigades, from your brigades to your battalions … that if there are any logistical challenges the battalions are facing; they have to go through their chain of command. Go to the brigade, (then the brigade) goes to the corps, (then the) corps goes to MoD. If everyone (acts) independently … [this will cause] a big problem and we won’t be able to solve the problems out there.”
This will allow all levels in the organization to be able to see the challenges that their units are facing and either solve the issue at a lower level or consolidate similar requests into one larger order. For the U.S. Army, this is standard operating procedure, but for the Afghan logistical system, this is still a new way of doing business.
While there have been other issues, there have also been successes. For example, if a unit has an excess amount of a certain item, to include a reasonable buffer of the item, the MoD stated that they will transfer it to a unit that needs it. This is a relatively new and major step for the ANA. For many of these officers, the last time they were solely responsible for their own supply was during the 1992-2001 Afghan Civil War. Then, the supply system was irregular, causing commanders to hold on to items they did not immediately need, but may need in the future.
Other successes include pre-planning to ensure the many outposts that are hard to supply during the winter months have been provided with enough supplies to last until spring. For some bases and outposts, this has been done. The rest of the bases will be fully equipped before winter sets in.
When the meeting ended, issues had been identified, some solutions had been offered and more importantly the ANA had targeted areas that need to be improved upon.
“Today’s meeting was very good. Every section briefed … their challenges and their issues. I briefed my challenges as well and hopefully in the future these issues get solved,” said ANA Col. Dur Mohammad Deldarbig, commander, RLSC-E, 203rd Corps. “During the briefing there were some questions brought up, it has to be in the meetings from now on.”
For Rahman, these type of growing pains are normal and expected.
“This is progress and we are going forward,” said Rahman, “If … there is a war, there are some mistakes … there are some shortages. If we go forward these problems will be solved and there will be another problem. This is the life of (the) army. We will continue going forward and we will continue solving issues.”
| Date Taken: | 09.18.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2013 11:48 |
| Story ID: | 114238 |
| Location: | FORWARD OPERATING BASE GAMBERI, AF |
| Web Views: | 345 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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