Task Force Phoenix VIII

I know that a lot of people have questions about what exactly I’ll be doing in Afghanistan.  I also know that the average person doesn’t really have a good understanding of the military or the intricacies of the wars overseas.

This page isnt going to be a conclusive document that explains it all, but I would like to give you all some information about where I’ll be going and what I’ll be doing.

I’ll keep working on this page and updating it with more sources as I find them.

As the title says, the name of my mission is “Task Force Phoenix VIII.”  To help give you a little better understanding, a “task force” is a group of units or soldiers (kind of like a committee in a corporate environment) that is given a specific mission.  My task force is comprised of MANY different units from MANY different countries.  We’ve got everyone from the British and French to the Romanian and Polish.

I bet you’re wondering what the VIII part is for, right?  I know the name of my Task Force sounds like a lame mid ’90s war movie; most likely staring Steven Seagal, but it really just means that when my unit assumes command, we will be the 8th unit to do so.  This mission has been underway for a long time and a lot of progress has been made so far.

“You mentioned a mission… what the heck are you doing there?”  Okay, so finally I’ll get to what I’ll actually be doing there.  My mission is:

TF Phoenix mentors ANA to conduct sustained, independent Counter
Insurgency operations in Afghanistan to assist the ANA to defeat
terrorism within its borders.

Basically, we are trying to teach the Afghan people to defend themselves against all threats (read: insurgents of all types).  We do this by mentoring the Afghan military leaders so that they can become self sufficient and able to operate, train, and defend themselves and their country.

Resources:

http://phnxv.taskforcephoenix.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afgahanistan