Should you merge Advisors with PRT's?

[sullygoarmy]

I think both Rob and Jimbo hit on the head. In Iraq where you have such a large transition team mission focusing on so many different aspects of security (army, navy, air force, police, national police, border troops, customs, logistics, transport regiments, base support, etc), merging PRTs and TTs is not only a bridge to far, but I believe would be counter productive. The PRTs need to have the freedom of movement to continually get around to see all the various elements of their provience to build up infrastructure, and more importantly, trust. The MiTTs need to focus on not only their Iraqi counterparts, but also serving their higher master, the US BCT/Division they are attached (and therefore rated by) to. Trying to develop such a large amount of security forces really puts the two missions in two different camps. Hence Jimbo's point.

Rob, however, does bring out another good point. It should be considered and possibly resourced for a different conflict, one where we are not trying to rebuild a government, economy, and military from scratch. In a more permissive and structured environment, I suspect a joing PRT/TT would have more value and success, especially when the TT is doing more FID training with an already standing and established military. In this scenario, the TT has less of a building job and more of a coaching job. The PRT/TT would not only assist the military but integrate the civil aspects as well.



In Kosovo, our CA team had their own security and moved around all over our AO working different issues.

[TROUFION]

The origional concept I used was designed for a smaller scale contingency, say a Haiti or Sierra Leone. From the postings here it would seem that is where it should stay. In a more micro-intervention vice the macro sized operation that Iraq has become. Perhaps if it had been utilized at the begining it could have worked but not now, not as a late game fix.

That said the other portion of my question is still open. What can or should be done if we have to reduce our forces by 50% by 09. And nuke em, fuggetaboutit, throw in the towel, are not good answers, nor would I expect that from this crowd. (though you may get votes for the first option from some)

[Merciless9]

I suppose it's been a while since this thread was established, so perhaps no one cares anymore...

Just wanted to let you know the effort has begun (at least on some PRT's) to merge ANP Advisor Teams and PRT's, and though on my PRT it's still in its infancy, it definitely looks promising.

[Old Eagle]

Please keep us informed as to how this develops.

Please also introduce yourself over at the hail & farewell section or on the intro thread.

[John T. Fishel]

Would really like to hear more about how it's going and what effect, if any, the changes of command in CENTCOM and Afghanistan have on this matter.

Cheers

JohnT

[Old Eagle]

I am specifically interested in how the PTTs (or whatever they're called in Afgh) are going to function w/PRTs. Do they live on your bases? Do they venture out only as part of the PRT? How do they integrate w/ANP? Over how large an area?

[IntelTrooper]

I am specifically interested in how the PTTs (or whatever they're called in Afgh) are going to function w/PRTs. Do they live on your bases? Do they venture out only as part of the PRT? How do they integrate w/ANP? Over how large an area?

Are you referring to PMTs (Police Mentor Teams)?
In my AO, PMTs were a relatively new entity, and I believe they were living at a separate base than the PRT but their AO encompassed the entire province (which is totally unacceptable, IMO) and covered two separate agencies (ANP and ABP). They ran their own missions although occasionally cooperated with the PRT. And that is one of the huge problems with the PRT system.

The PRT, as it is set up, doesn't have to listen to anyone's advice and there is no system for mentoring teams (either PMT or ETT) to submit requests for projects. The PRT does its own thing, and everyone else does their own thing (which sort of flies in the face of that whole unity of command thing). Obviously through cultivating a good relationship with the PRT folks one could improve their prospects of getting some cooperation but there is no codified system for how these entities are supposed to work. (On second thought, there might be, but where I was nothing worked how it was supposed to.)

I have to admit that we were kind of in the third station of the Heart of Darkness cycle so there may be other provinces where the relationship between mentors and PRTs was more ideal.