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Training Afghan Army challenges Oregon Guard

CAMP SHIR ZAI, Afghanistan — “The Afghans have the whole idea of fighting down,” Oregon National Guard Sgt. Mike Thurman of Portland said.

The soldiers of the new Afghan National Army share the legacy of their ancestors who fiercely battled Mongols, Persians, British, Russians — and each other — over the centuries.

Harnessing that fighting spirit while teaching the Afghans the less glamorous side of modern war has made for a frustrating but often fulfilling challenge for members of Task Force Phoenix, the National Guard-led mission to train the country’s fledgling army.

The Oregon National Guard took over the leadership of the mission last summer, and is in the process of handing it over to its replacement, the South Carolina Guard. The 6,000-person task force partners ETTs, or Embedded Training Teams, with Afghan counterparts to pass on lessons in everything from small-unit combat to medicine, to supply, to military law, to an army created from scratch after the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.

The Embedded Training Teams, who come from the National Guard and active-duty services as well as a dozen other countries, have puzzled over cultural oddities, and pulled their hair over the Afghans’ casual attitude toward schedules and planning, but in many cases have also developed close and lasting bonds with the men they mentor.

“It’s a pretty dynamic environment,” said task force commander Gen. Douglas Pritt. “A lot of people have added responsibilities, there’s different geography — and that doesn’t include the changes that have taken place in enemy activity.”

Pritt called the performance of the Afghan National Army “better than I anticipated,” but said his Embedded Training Teams still run into problems of getting the officers and soldiers to take responsibility for ordering supplies, handling payroll and myriad other responsibilities.

“Candidly, it’s moving at a slow rate,” he said.

Those Afghan National Army members who do come from a military background likely served in the old Communist-era army, with its rigid, Russian-style top-down command structure. Others may have fought with the various guerrilla groups, where they faced combat but learned little of the organizational side of the military. And most of the new recruits cannot read or write.

“It’s a good assignment here; I’m enjoying it very much,” said Col. Simsundareth Tan of Tigard. “Overall, this is the hardest mission, but it’s the most rewarding.”

Tan, a former active-duty Army officer who served in the first Iraq war, works with the commander of an Afghan Army National brigade at Camp Shir Zai outside Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Despite the challenges, Tan sees the new Afghan army as “genuinely concerned for the country.

“They want to do well. They work very hard,” he said. “They stand and fight with you.”

The Afghan National Army compound at Camp Shir Zai features brand-new barracks, mess hall, vehicle repair facility and a modern hospital that’s still under construction. It also has fences topped with razor-wire surrounding almost everything, even the supply of wood used in the army’s mess hall.

“They steal a lot of stuff around here,” Tan said.

A major goal of his and other Afghan National Army mentors, he said, has been countering the disturbing absentee rate among the Afghan soldiers. When he first arrived, the rate of AWOL soldiers — absent without leave — stood at 30 percent, and only about half of the brigade’s troops were present for duty at any one time. Working with the Afghan National Army command, they changed the troops’ rotation to include one month’s leave and two months of training for every six months in combat operations. With that and other measures, the brigade was able to cut the AWOL rate in half.

Most embedded trainers see varying levels of corruption in the Afghan National Army — Tan calls it “a culture of survival.” On paydays, some officers skimmed off the soldiers’ pay through “taxes” or “surcharges” until the trainers caught on and put a stop to it.

“We told them, ‘The soldiers get paid first, then the NCOs, then the officers,”’ Tan said. “We’re trying to instill discipline in the officers.

“We ask [the Afghan commanders] why they run away, and they say it’s because of pay,” he said. “I don’t believe that — they run away because of leadership. Before you put a soldier in harm’s way, you need to go out and see them and spend time with them. A soldier will fight for you if you lead.”

Tan said he works closely with his Afghan counterpart, the brigade commander.

“The ANA bases everything on trust and friendship. It took me 1 ½ months to earn the trust of the commander,” he said. “He will test you, but once you earn his trust, you cannot have a better friendship.”

One of the Afghan National Army’s top commanders, Gen. Mohammed Mangal, said the country is grateful to the embedded trainers.

“The people of Afghanistan will never forget the American officers, NCOs and soldiers,” he said through an interpreter.

Mangal, who commanded an Afghan National Army corps in Kabul, was recently promoted and put in charge of the 60,000-man national police force. Mangal said he’s asked that the one-year deployments for embedded trainers be extended, although he’s well aware what kind of burden that places on the trainers and their families back home.

“In the beginning of the first or second months it’s difficult to get familiarized with each other,” he said. “If the time gets extended, that would be, I think, good.”

The large majority of Afghans are Sunni Muslim, and the country has seen little of the Sunni-Shiite divide ripping apart Iraq. But its people still strongly identify with their own particular ethnic groups — Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara and so on, and even with local tribes within those groups.

But Gen. Aminulla Patiayany, commander of an Afghan National Army brigade in Kabul, stressed that the Afghan National Army is dedicated to raising a military that transcends those age-old ethnic divisions by recruiting from all areas of the country. He pointed to members of his own staff, noting that they represent a variety of ethnic groups.

“The ANA is for all the people of Afghanistan,” he said.

Aminulla acknowledged that the country’s desperate economic condition is a major factor in drawing many recruits, who have few other options for supporting their families. At least, however, it spares families the burden of sending their children abroad for work, he said. Despite the language barrier, cultural differences and other hurdles, National Guard members who work with the Afghan National Army say they enjoy their work.

Capt. Doug Bragg of Troutdale said he first viewed Afghans through his negative impression of Islam.

“You have to look past the turbans and burkhas and just see the people,” he said. “The average Afghan is a warm and friendly person, and they want to know all about us.”

Bragg has mentored small units of the Afghan National Army and saw frequent combat.

The Afghan soldiers “fight like lions,” he said. “You almost have to put a leash on them on; they will run out without a radio, and not tell you where they are,” he said.

Astoria native Ron Smith of Portland, a physician’s assistant and National Guard major, said part of the challenge is saying no when the Afghans repeatedly ask their American mentors to take care of duties for them.

“You want to help, but your role is to say ‘No, you have to solve this.’ ”