Photo By Sgt. 1st Class David Bruce | Petty Officer 2nd Class Jody Jones, of Springhill, Fla., and Tech. Sgt. Christopher...... read more read more
EDINBURGH, Ind. - Provincial Reconstruction Teams are currently receiving their mobilization training at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Edinburgh, Ind. A PRT is a joint service unit drawn from the Air Force, Army (active and reserve components), Navy and National Guard. Each PRT is assigned to a particular province in Afghanistan. Paktya province is one of the 12 provinces that receive an American PRT. The mission is to function as a bridge between the Afghan government and the people.
Paktya is a small province in eastern Afghanistan. It sits on the ill-defined border with Pakistani-ruled North Waziristan and Kurram in the Federally Administered Tribal Area, a semi-autonomous region of the country.
It is a mountainous land with its capital city, Gardez, sitting at 7,526 feet above sea level. The province has an estimated population of 415,000 people, 91 percent ethnic Pashtun and the remaining 9 percent Tajik.
"Historically, this is where it all began," said Air Force Capt.
Bryan Bouchard, of Medford, Ore., public affairs officer for PRT Paktya.
"Paktya was where Operation: Anaconda took place in 2002, which was the first large scale battle of American forces against the Taliban, and the first PRT was sent to Gardez [the provincial capital] in 2003."
According to Bouchard, a PRT deployment is less about kinetic effects, which is to say combat operations.
"It's a different sort of deployment," said Bouchard. "A typical deployment for me would be to support the warfighter in fulfilling military objectives. This mission has that, but also takes on aspects of a humanitarian mission despite being in a war zone."
"It is the job of the PRT to work with the local municipalities to improve the lives of the people of Afghanistan," said Bouchard. "We also work with [Agribusiness Development Teams], U.S. Agency for International Development and other non-governmental organizations. The military and [International Security Assistance Force] are not the only providers."
One of the primary concerns for the PRT is the 2014 timeline for the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, said Air Force Lt. Col. R. John Morse, Tucson, Ariz., commander of PRT Paktya.
Morse recently returned from Paktya province, where he met with the provincial governor, tribal elders and the PRT currently on ground there.
"It's was essential to go there and meet these people so we can maintain a continuity of effort," he said. "With the withdrawal, we need that continuity to see current projects to completion."
Morse said the tribal elders are key to the reconstruction efforts in the province.
"The elders are the ones who lead the tribes in daily life," he said.
"They are families. And these extended families are big. American families have smaller nuclei; they [Afghans] tend to be grouped with cousins, second cousins and third cousins. Then you have a tribe of a couple thousand people.
The elder is father-figure for the tribe. He's a very important link; he dictates the direction of where that tribe is going."
Another challenging aspect to Paktya, and too much of Afghanistan, is the porous border with Pakistan. The border was defined between Afghanistan and then British Inda. It had a side effect of dividing traditional Pashtun lands, which comprise 90 percent of the population of Paktya. The result is a border that has been described as a line drawn on water.
"You can really characterize it as not a border because the tribes in that area use the markets and resources and have members on both sides of the border," said Morse. "It's daily life for folks from Gardez to travel to markets across the border."
The PRT is about supporting the government of Afghanistan in the provinces, getting the tribes and the government to work together.
"We partner with the government in a way that lends legitimacy," said Bouchard. "We want them to rely on their own government and help a government that provides services for its people. At this stage of the game, we're stepping back and our presence should decrease since they have government, which is something they haven't had for over a decade."
To do this, the PRT works with the district leaders to identify legitimate needs, and in an ideal situation, the Afghan government will sponsor the project, said Morse. The contract will go to a local Afghan company who will in turn hire local people to complete the project.
"Once you get to that point, you're really talking about transition,"
said Morse. "We want to show the Afghans how to do these projects using their own recourses."
To complete this mission, Morse's team is made up of individuals with specialties in engineering, civil affairs, media and security.
"We have plenty of expertise to be advisers to the Afghan people in numerous areas," said Morse. "The training here at Camp Atterbury has been tremendous. It is very realistic and efficiently run. We have taken a lot of good lessons from it. Our team is only a month old and we've learned to grow and come together."
The training for the PRT coincides with both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, according to Morse has been a positive factor.
"It allows us to charge real hard, hit all these events in short order almost to the point of exhaustion, and take lessons from them. Then we get a break, come back, reset and hit it again," said Morse.
PRT Paktya will return from Christmas break for a month and a half more training prior to arriving in Afghanistan late February.
| Date Taken: | 12.08.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 12.16.2011 18:55 |
| Story ID: | 81517 |
| Location: | EDINBURGH, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 171 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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