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deployed DA civilians who support them aren’t much easier. Unlike a typical job stateside where a bad day is still going to end in the late afternoon or early evening, and “deployment” might mean going to the satellite office for a few days to help straighten out the books, an average day for a Sol- dier or DA civilian at the tip of the spear involves 24/7 operations, living in potentially hostile hot spots where you might encounter the odd impro- vised explosive device, a terrorist with a suicide vest or, for Soldiers, plain old combat. A bad day could be a whole lot worse, and a bad day at the office just doesn’t compare to a bad day in combat.
W
What goes a long way to make that bad military day (mostly) survivable, if not tolerable, is sus- tainment, the theme of this issue.
Unlike in the other side of the magazine, where sustainment is baked into the processes, products and procedures in an environment controlled by the Army Acquisition Workforce, think of the most austere circumstances you can imagine: Afghanistan. Even with the transition of NATO support from a combat role there to a “peaceful” train, advise and assist mission, the circumstances for Soldiers and their civilian counterparts are not exactly ideal. Afghanistan, after all, is a country that has known nothing but war for several decades, has a hodgepodge of aging military equipment from all over the world, is known for a history of rampant corrup- tion, has a fractional literacy rate, operates on a solar calendar and starts a “new” war with the beginning of each “fighting season.” Tere’s no 7-Eleven down the street, no auto repair shop, no ATM and no Walmart to pick up whatever you need. It’s usually BYO everything! So, what else is there to do but work?
elcome to this Army AL&T special report on Army acqui- sition in Afghanistan. Being a Soldier is hard, and the jobs of
And work they do, because the job of the Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan is basically: Fix it.
Tere they are, deployed with few, if any, mod- ern conveniences, spotty electricity, few roads, ungoverned territories, little fuel and merciless terrain, not to mention the Taliban and other hostile groups. And, astonishingly, incremen- tally, they’re accomplishing the mission in a wide variety of ways, as the following articles demonstrate.
How are they doing it? See the challenges faced by our advisers in Afghanistan and how they overcome them in “Train, Advise, Assist” (Page 6). Contracting, never easy anywhere, takes on a whole new level of difficulty in Afghanistan, and our cadre of experts has built a wide array of skills necessary to make contracting work there. Learn how contracting experts become more resilient to complete the mission in “Expanding Horizon” (Page 44). Finally, one country’s wish list is another’s “must have.” Discover how expert teams on the ground are working to acquire what the young Afghan democracy needs to grow and mature while sustaining its security and enabling the government to govern, in “A Wish List for Afghanistan” (Page 30).
Hats off to MG Gordon B. “Skip” Davis Jr., commander, Combined Security Transition Command – Afghanistan and deputy chief of staff for
security assistance for Headquarters,
Resolute Support, his deputy commanding gen- eral for support, MG Daniel P. Hughes, and their entire team for their tireless efforts toward achieving their mission to “enable Afghanistan and its security forces to sustain their efforts and guide Afghanistan into a brighter future.”
Nelson McCouch III Editor-in-Chief
ii Army AL&T Magazine April-June 2016
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