48th IBCT leadership takes lead in talks with Afghanistan coalition partners

Story and Photo by Sgt. Tracy J. Smith
48th IBCT (L) PAO 

FT. BENNING, Columbus, Ga. – Georgia’s 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team Volunteers joined their coalition partners in a first-of-its-kind proactive planning conference at the Ft. Benning National Guard Warrior Training Center recently to formally and informally network, establish acquaintances and benefit from lessons learned in preparation for their upcoming deployment.  The two-day discussion with French, Italian, German and Canadian force LNOs, (liaison officers), put Volunteer senior leadership face-to-face with those they will be working with throughout Afghanistan. 

The end state was familiarization and facilitating success for the Afghan forces they will be training.  Colonel Lee K. Durham, commander, 48th IBCT, stressed battlefield cohesiveness in the Global War on Terror.  “The purpose is to be proactive,” Durham, told the impressive gathering of American and NATO battalion and staff leaders. “We want to prevent (our Soldiers) from being caught flat-footed as we support the training of Afghan security forces.”  

With an increase in forces deploying to Afghanistan projected during the next 18 months, Durham said he felt it important for his staff to be familiar with the complexities, military and cultural, in managing the country’s regional diversity. As importantly, said Durham, it was time to  begin “growing” the junior Soldier or Officer who “will be the face” working to guide Afghani forces to become self-sufficient.

“We need to make them (our Soldiers) understand that they are not to impose on the moral standards (the Afghan nation) developed over thousands of years.  When we send our strategic Corporals and Lieutenants out and they are doing a unilateral action, or the patrol is engaged by the enemy, they must allow those forces to lead the fight,” Durham concluded.

Lieutenant Col. Walter Schleef, a 27-year veteran of the German Armed Forces and foreign forces LNO based at Ft. Benning, highlighted the security sector reforms mandated at July’s G-8 summit in Tokyo as punctuating the need for these exchanges.

“We are consistently in transition as we work to progress the (Afghani security forces),” Schleff said. “Because we have the common mission of empowering the Afghan government to run the democracy without support of the NATO troops, we help each other in making this mission successful.” 

Lieutenant Col. Ricky Wallace, 48th IBCT projects officer, agreed with what was a common theme of the conference -- empowerment.  Wallace, deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in May 2007, said that some of the challenges he faced then could have been avoided if he, and his staff, had been able to participate in similar discussions prior to his deployment. 

“This is a significant model for future pre-deployment preparation and planning,” Wallace, a Mercer University professor, stated.  “Significant in terms of the country’s political strategy and the brigade’s involvement in influencing any outcomes in Afghanistan that will help the people there establish itself as a credible government.”