Afghanist A Challenging Deployment For The 5th Abct Essay

Trust defines the ability to create a cohesive team in the first principle of mission command. Lack of trust between commanders, subordinates and peers develops a lack of confidence in everyone’s ability to accomplish

The purpose of this paper is to identify the uses and application of mission command within Operation Anaconda. Operation Anaconda took place in the Shahikot Valley of eastern Afghanistan in early March of 2002. The ground commander selected to lead the operation was Major General (MG) Hagenbeck of the 10th Mountain Division, and for the purpose of this operation, Coalition and Joint Task Force (CJTF) Mountain. Due to the limited number of troops under his command currently available in Afghanistan, MG Hagenbeck was given command in addition to one of his own organic battalions, the 3rd Brigade, 101st Air Assault Division, some Special Operations Force (SOF) units, and Coalition Forces. This paper will identify MG Hagenbeck’s, his staff’s, and higher command’s use of the mission command principles during this operation. The principles of mission command are accept prudent risk, use mission orders, exercise disciplined initiative, provide a clear commander’s intent, create shared understanding, and lastly, build cohesive teams through mutual trust (Mission Command, 2014).

The book Black Hearts opened my eyes to how leadership from a single Officer can have a grappling effect on such a wide range of soldiers from the lowest of ranks. One of the best takeaways from Black Hearts is to never do anything: illegal, unethical, or immoral. Although this is a easy statement to repeat, Black Hearts demonstrates the difficulties that lie behind these words. It has also painted a picture of how leadership can topple extremely quickly from a top down view. The Army is portrayed in a bad light throughout the book relentlessly. This is due to the concentration of poor leadership of the 1-502nd Regiment (Referred to as “First Strike”), a battalion of the 101st Airborne Division.

During arduous combat operations coinciding with a high OPTEMPO unit cohesion may flux toward a detriment of mission success. This report will focus on the 56TH Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) in order to address the critical leadership problem. In addition, focus will center on relevant facts and assumptions that led to the critical leadership problem and rectify the issues. Furthermore, a new ABCT vision will be published in order to restructure the organizational culture toward a unified purpose and an increase in esprit de corps. (Verify with lesson for correct purpose)

The critical leadership problem the 4th ABCT faces are consequences of the continued past brigade change of command without an organizational vision to address it, and different Commanders leadership styles that have affected the effectiveness, organizational culture, and climate within the 4th ABCT. This case study paper analyzes the critical leadership problems on the 4th ABCT. The aim of this essay is to explain how the Army leadership attributes; direction, guidance, and organizational vision; and a positive environment are factors that enable

The 4th ABCT has numerous issues preventing the BCT from regaining past title as one of the best BCT in the division. However, I quickly realized in my assessment prior to taking command that this is directly linked to the previous command team. The climate has become extremely toxic to the point that primary staff officers are ready and willing to quit or resign their positions. The BCT is over worked, overloaded, and poorly led by its leaders causing an increase in DUIs, domestic abuse, and multiple divorces. Furthermore, there is a lack of commitment to the men and women within the BCT from their leaders, which stems from the poor ideals portrayed, threw the previous BDE CDR and CSM. Moreover, hazing, favoritism, and sexual misconduct have driven a deep divide within the BDE. One of the key components that I noticed was a lack of commitment to the Soldiers and leaders at all levels

“Fire, bullets, death” that’s everything I saw when I was in Afghanistan. I open my eyes, i’m at work again, but, everytime I close my eyes I see all the tragedies that happen over there. Before war everyone use to tell me, “Jeff don’t be too shy” or if not “Jeff you are so loveable and friendly with everyone.” Brandon Wallace was my best friend since childhood, he even went to war with me. Then there's, my lovely wife, Nicole Sebastian, she is the most beautiful woman I have ever met. I was in my senior year in high school when army men came to my school and ask for recruiters for war. At that moment I asked myself, “what am I going to do after high school? Am I going to survive in war? Should I enter myself in this situation?” After all, I out my name down, my heart was pounding, my breath was hard, I knew there wasn’t no turning back. When I got home

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the real world consequences of when Army leaders become complacent dealing with foreign national soldiers, and the day to day operations while in a combat theatre. To gather lessons learned from the example discussed in order to lower the probability of a reoccurrence among the force. Through the example demonstrate the need for Army leaders to constantly fight against complacency, and the extreme importance that leaders know their soldiers, and place their soldiers’ needs before their own. The scenario discussed was a real incident that took place in Iraq in 2009, at a Coalition Outpost (COP) approximately 30 kilometers south of Mosul, in a city called Hammam al-Alil.

There is a multitude of issues preventing the 4th ABCT from becoming one of the best BCTs in the division. However, I quickly realized in my assessment that this is directly linked to the previous command team. Therefore, the climate has become extremely toxic to the point where primary staff officers are ready and willing to resign their positions. The BCT is over worked, overloaded, and poorly led by its leaders causing an increase in DUIs, domestic abuse, and multiple divorces. Furthermore, there is a lack of commitment to the men and women within the BCT from their leaders, which stems from the poor ideals portrayed, threw the previous BDE CDR and CSM. Moreover, hazing, favoritism, and sexual misconduct have driven a deep divide within the BDE. One of the key components

In early January 2002, American intelligence received evidence of a large volume of enemy forces assembling in the Shahi Kot Valley in Eastern Afghanistan. Central Command (CENTCOM), led by General Tommy R. Franks, was directing combat operations in Afghanistan through the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) and Coalition Forces Air Component Command (CFACC). As the interest in assaulting the Shahi Kot Valley amplified, General Franks reached a conclusion that a U.S. tactical commander was a need in Afghanistan. The decision was to assign the 10th Mountain Division Commander, Major General (MG) Franklin Hagenbeck, as the tactical commander. In an effort to strengthen MG Hagenbeck’s command authority, CENTCOM named his headquarters Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) Mountain and gave it command and control authority over Operation Anaconda. By having command and control authority, MG Hagenbeck would encounter challenges with the command structure. The challenges of command structure were due to CJTF Mountain not having tactical control (TACON) of multiple Special Operation Forces, the Joint Special Operations Air Component (JSOAC), and friendly Afghanistan forces. These misunderstandings were resolved during the execution phase, but rectifying the command relationships prior would have avoided lost time and resources needed on enemy forces and positions. In this paper, I will identify the challenges of command structure during Operation Anaconda.

Deceased philosopher Bertrand Russell once said, “War does not determine who is right- only who is left”. Those left are the soldiers of the 1-502nd, specifically Bravo Company 1st plt, and the Janabi family and to a greater extent, the ever-changing global world we all live in today. The tragic events that conspired in a small Iraqi village became a microcosm of how leadership failures at every level shaped the actions of a few soldiers who committed atrocious acts. One can also see how a high operational tempo, along with prolonged violence and death, has on a person’s psyche. It is the ugly side of war that the average American citizen may not want to hear or talk about. For a soldier, it is inevitably what they train their

To understand how some of the soon to be discussed failures arose, all of the key commanders need to be identified. When Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) began General Tommy Franks was the CENTCOM Combatant Commander in Tampa, Florida. Events on 9/11 lead to us having forces in Afghanistan soon after. From the beginning of the war Special Forces (SOF) were the primary assets utilized. As time went on conventional units were joining the forces in theatre. This caused the need for the Command and Control (C2) structure to adapt to the

In this book, Schroen gives his straightforward perspective on his role leading the Northern Afghanistan Liaison Team (NALT) from mid-September to the end of October 2001. Schroen gives a detailed account of the CIA’s infiltration into northeast Afghanistan to support the Northern Alliance (NA) campaign against the Taliban and foreign Arab forces around Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. Having worked with Afghan rebels during the Soviet occupation, Schroen was well familiar with the terrain and geography, and also with several of the NA functionaries with whom he would work.

9-32 The group was going to fracture because of the changing of roles within the group. The group came in with role expectations based on the different skills each soldier brought to the team. Per our text, these role expectations exist as a psychological contract, or ‘”an unwritten agreement that exist between employees and employers” (Robbins and Judge, 2017) In this case, there was unwritten agreement that certain soldiers would lead and others follows. Once this trust was broken it becomes hard to repair.

At age 15 I did what most people in this country haven’t, I went to the Middle East with my family. I was a young kid hearing very scary stories from the Middle East but my parents forced me to come to place that is one of the scariest places in the world as an American. My parents both born in Kabul, Afghanistan wanting to go back to their homeland, they both missed their families and wanted to see them after being away with them for over 30 years. As a kid, I watched the news a lot and I would always hear the news coming out of the Middle East this made me very worried, but my parents assured me that we will be staying in a safe area I arrived in a new country where all my ancestors came from but to me it was a hostile situation. I finally arrived in Kabul on June 23 2014 and it was a very magical experience. The people there were extremely friendly and even though there was a language barrier they always made sure I was full and happy. As I was always full I kept eating because the food felt so fresh and