DOD PHOTOS: LEAVING AFGHANISTAN

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 
12/26/2013
U.S. Soldiers Prepare To Leave Afghanistan

U.S. Army Master Sgt. Duane Perez, foreground, carries duffel bags and leads troops to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter as they depart Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 25, 2013. Perez is assigned to the Guam Army National Guard's Company E, 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry Regiment. He also was part of Task Force Guam, which concludes its historic Operation Enduring Freedom mission. U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Eddie Siguenz.

U.S. soldiers load equipment and duffel bags onto a CH-47 Chinook helicopter on Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 25, 2013. U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Eddie Siguenza.

SENATORS OPPOSE QUICK WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN

Photo:   Sandstorm In Afghanistan.  Credit:  U.S. Navy.
FROM:  U.S. SENATOR CARL LEVIN’S WEBSITE:
Senators: Avoid 'premature' cuts of Afghan forces

Thursday, April 26, 2012
WASHINGTON – Four senior members of the Senate Armed Services Committee have written to President Obama regarding the prospect of reductions to the end-strength of the Afghan National Security Forces, urging him to reject “premature and militarily unjustified reductions” in those forces.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee’s chairman; Sen. John McCain R-Ariz., the ranking Republican; Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote the letter in response to public reports that the United States and its NATO allies are considering reductions of roughly one-third in troop levels for Afghanistan’s army and police after the planned handover of security responsibility to the Afghans in 2014.
“A key part of our Afghanistan strategy has been that, as U.S. and coalition forces draw down, increasing numbers of capable Afghan forces will be available to sustain and expand the hard-won gains that U.S., coalition, and Afghan forces have secured at great cost in blood and treasure,” the senators write. “Achieving this objective requires correctly sizing the ANSF to provide enduring security for their country, and ensuring the funding necessary to support that end-strength.”

The letter encourages the president to base Afghan force structure decisions “on a realistic assessment of the conditions they will be facing” when Afghan security forces have the security lead throughout the country and to urge the international community to provide the financial support needed to field adequate Afghan forces.

SOME SERVICE MEMBERS MAY PASS MORE QUICKLY THROUGH RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT

T

he following excerpt is from the Department of Defense American Forces Press Service website:

Program to Expedite Security for Troops at Reagan Airport

By Elaine Sanchez
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2012 - Some service members traveling out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport soon will be able to speed through security as part of a joint Defense Department and Transportation Security Administration program.

In cooperation with the Defense Department, TSA is expanding its trusted traveler program, known as Pre-Check, to include active duty service members and activated Guard and Reserve members traveling on domestic flights out of the airport, officials announced on a conference call today.

"This program is good news for our service members," Paul N. Stockton, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and Americas' security affairs, said on the call. "It recognizes their service defending our country, and ... it will enhance their travel experience by making it easier whenever possible."

In the coming weeks, eligible service members -- whether in uniform or not -- will be able to present a valid common access card, better known as a CAC, to a TSA officer in the Pre-Check lane to see if they qualify for expedited screening, TSA spokesman Kawika Riley explained on the call. If they qualify, they'll be able to pass through security without having to remove certain items, such as shoes or boots, belt, jacket or laptops.

By offering expedited screening to lower-risk travelers, TSA can allocate resources to areas of higher risk, Riley explained. "We're talking about a population we trust to defend this country, to defend this country's security," he said. "It makes sense for that reason. This is a known and a trusted population."

TSA continues to explore Pre-Check's expansion to additional groups who could benefit from expedited screening, such as military family members, he added.

TSA selected Reagan National for its high volume of military travelers, Riley said, noting that, on average, more than 400 active duty service members fly out of the airport each day.

Overall, TSA has successfully screened more 460,000 passengers through Pre-Check since its launch late last year, he said. The program is operational in nine airports, he added, with plans to expand to a total of 35 by the end of the year.

Stockton said he looks forward to the TSA-DOD program's future expansion to other airports. "The DOD is fully committed to continuing its long-standing partnership with the Homeland Security Department and TSA to strengthen aviation security," he said.

This program, he added, enables TSA not only to focus its resources on potentially higher-risk areas, but also offers the nation a tangible way to recognize troops' service and sacrifice.

"We're enormously grateful to the members of the armed forces for what they do at home and abroad for the nation," Stockton said."

CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF THINKS WE CAN GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN BY 2014

The following excerpt is from the Department of Defense American Forces Press Service Chairman Optimistic That Afghan Forces Will be Ready by 2014 By Cheryl Pellerin American Forces Press Service ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Feb. 12, 2012 - A quick trip to Afghanistan this week, and meetings with leaders and troops there, encouraged the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Afghan National Security Forces will be ready by 2014 to take the combat lead. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey spent time in Kabul with Afghan Minister of Defense Abdul Rahim Wardak, U.S. Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of International Security Assistance Force–Afghanistan and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, and the ISAF staff. The chairman also met with U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, commanding general of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan, and his staff. For NTM-A, 6,000 international trainers and advisers at 70 training sites in 21 provinces recruit and train Afghan soldiers and police. With U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Daniel B. Allyn, commander of ISAF Regional Command-East and commanding general of the Army 1st Cavalry Division, Dempsey visited forward operating base Shank in Logar province to meet Army Col. Mark H. Landes, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, and his Task Force Bulldog leadership team. "The intent was to try to knit together the campaign plan at the national level with the ANSF campaign plan, and then to see how a local commander, a colonel-level commander, is implementing it," Dempsey told American Forces Press Service. When he travels overseas, Dempsey has an office in an Airstream trailer called the Silver Bullet that's secured to the floor of a C-17 aircraft. There, on his way home from brief visits to Afghanistan and to meet with defense officials in Egypt, Dempsey writes notes to the spouses or parents of some of those he's met in Afghanistan to let them know their son or daughter or husband is doing okay. "What I learned, in a very encouraging way, is that [the campaigns and implementation are] very well knit together," he said. Each of their plans complemented the other " ... and we are achieving the goals that the alliance established in Lisbon to get us to [20]14," the chairman added.He was referring to the 2010 summit in Portugal of NATO heads of state and their agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to gradually withdraw combat forces by 2014. "One of the very pointed questions I asked [of the tactical commanders] was, How are the Afghan National Security Forces doing?" the chairman said. "I got the same answer every time," he added. "That they are doing very well. That they're not ready to stand on their own yet but [the commanders] think, with another fighting season looming and the effort to continue building their capabilities over time, the next year, the year after, kind of in a rolling conversion, [the ANSF] will be able to take the lead in combat operations." Dempsey gets a lot out of even short trips to the war zone because he likes to talk to people, and he was once in the business of building a national security force. During the summer of 2003 he took command of the 1st Armored Division and deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was the first commander of Multi-National Division–Baghdad. Then from 2005 to 2007 he was commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq. Dempsey said he has to understand the processes that make things work -- the U.S. government, NATO, the Afghan government, and any other process that affects military operations. "But you also it seems to me have to gain a feel [for things], and you can't gain a feel from Washington," he added. "The chairman -- any chairman -- has to get out, look people in the eye, walk the ground ... have a private moment with Minister Wardak," Dempsey explained, "and ... ask him how he's doing ... and in so doing gain a feel that you can then combine with your understanding and have a reasonably good chance to come to the correct conclusion." What Dempsey learned in Iraq is that building any kind of security force requires three pillars of effort. "You've got to build the basic blocking and tackling of fighting, and you've got to build an institution that can pay them, provide logistics and educate them," he said. "In the middle of that you've got to partner with them initially ... and then migrate or evolve to embedded teams [in which] they're doing the heavy lifting," Dempsey said. "That's what I learned doing this in Iraq." In Afghanistan, he said, what he learned and felt on his visit is that "where we are now with the Afghan security forces is we're beginning to build that institution that will eventually be able to support them and, in so doing, make them self reliant." The chairman addedthat " we're beginning to migrate from the partnership role to the embedded training team and that's actually quite encouraging. ... Each [pillar] is beginning to become a little clearer." The big question, he said, is will they be ready? "The answer I'm coming back with is, at least in the snapshot that I took on this trip, and I'll add other snapshots over time, ... is that they will," the chairman said."