The NEW job...

Well, I've been putting this off now for several days. Mostly cuz I only have a partial understanding of what it is that I'm supposed to be doing here. Let me see if I can "push the garnish aside" and really get down to the Meat and Potatoes...

Quick background of the situation: There has been a pretty significant shift in focus from the ANA (Afghan National Army) to the ANP (Police) and the ANSF (Nat'l Security Force) which essentially is the two working in conjunction. I guess the theory being that initially we were working with the ANA to establish a National force for security, but now the Taliban and al Queda, as well as the druglords and other criminal elements, have been forced into smaller pockets throughout the country; thus, we have begun working more on a local level to locate/erradicate these groups.

For example, we recently had several of our teams involved in a raid. There were 7 targets of opportunity in this particular village. The teams were supposed to strike simultaneously, so three teams departed first, the ones that had to travel the furthest, then the next two, and the last two left about 15 minutes prior to "attack."

The teams consisted of 9 ANP, 1 CID, another 10 ANA for "back-up" or perimeter watch and a single truck of 3 or 4 US members and thier TERP. Then there was a 30 man QRF (quick reaction force) in reserve at the main base in case of escape or resistance.

Two of the target houses were unidentifiable, but there was one HVT (high value target) and 3 or 4 other suspects taken as a result of the raids. I have not seen the final report and/or the AAR (after action report) - sort of a "lessons learned" for everyone to talk about what went right, what went wrong, ways to improve, etc.

So, that being said, MY new job is that of the Battle Captain for the RPAC (Regional Police Assistance Command). Sounds a HELL of a lot more sexy than it really is... Really I'm more of a REMF (Rear eschelon Mother F... I think you can figure the rest out...) that handles distribution of assignments, collects/consolidates/proofs and forwards reports to "higher."

We have about 15 or 16 PMTs (Police Mentor Teams) which cover 8 provinces. Most provinces have a Provincial Team and a District Team, although two provinces don't have DT, and one province has an additional DT because of it's geographic size. Confused? Me too. The Provincial Teams work with the Province Head Quarters that handle much of the administrative responsibilities, while the District Teams work at a distict level and focus primarily on actual law enforcement.

The teams work directly with the local Police stations or Head Quarters (HQs) to mentor them in all facets from Pay/Finance, Logistics, Personnel, Training, and Recruiting - to name a few. Now let me just talk about Personnel for a minute (or twelve...); Recently the MOI (Minister of Interior) put out a directive which describes the acceptable manpower for each location. For example, one of the Provincial Head Quarters is supposed to have 198 officers. Anyone wanna take a guess how many they reported on the books???

Well according to our original head count, they claimed 803... Yup, there were almost 600 additional officers on their books. Then there were locations that were REPORTING that they had 40 or 50 people, but when we did a head count they could only produce 35. Not such a big deal until you consider that they were receiving PAYROLL for 40-50... Amazingly enough, there was never money left over?!?! Have I mentioned that graft and corruption run rampant throughout Afghanistan???

Anyway, our teams are trying to "assist" the local offices to get an accurate head count, restructure as necessary to meet the MOI manpower document, audit payroll and financial schedules, etc. This is a current focus and we are heavily involved in Rank and Financial reform.

Part of my job is to take weekly updates from the teams on the progress their stations are making and consolidate the reports into a format or presentation to be passed up the chain. Unfortunately, this is still a work in progress. I also take orders/directives from the Commander of the RPAC and disseminate them out to the teams on a weekly basis.

Are you enjoying all the acronyms as much as I am?? In case you haven't noticed, the Army likes to make every possible title or group of words into an acronym. I thought the Navy had a lot of acronyms, but the Army has taken this to a new level.

Here's a brief sample:
ACF -> Anti-Coalition Forces
TIC -> Troops In Contact
POC -> Point Of Contact
CAS -> Close Air Support
IAW -> In Accordance With
IOT -> In Order To
ABP -> Afghan Border Police
APB -> Armor Piercing Bullet
NLT -> No Later Than
POO -> Point Of Origin
POI -> Point Of Interest
TOI -> Target of Interest

I don't even think I've scratched the surface here, but you'll have to commit these to memory, as I will be usuing them from now on in all of my future BLOGs. I guess I haven't done a very good job explaining my new position, but... I guess I haven't exactly "got my arms around it" just yet. I recently put out a FRAGO which I think means "fragmented order" which is a change or update to a previous OPORD (operational order). I'm supposed to send out a FRAGO weekly to update the teams on what exactly it is that they are supposed to be doing within the scope of the original OPORD which was put out. OPORDs are only put out occassionally when there is a significant shift in the mission.

Most of you will be happy to know that my new job, much like the last one, keeps me "inside the wire," stuck on a base, sitting at a desk, staring at a computer. The only Purple Heart I'm likely to receive is for stabbing my eyes out with a pencil after staring at spreadsheets for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. But, rest assured, they've locked up all the pencils in the office... Guns and ammo everywhere, but try to get your hands on a pencil - you're out of luck, mister.

That's all for now.

MickMurphy, OUT.