Navy Officers Head to Afghanistan to Join PRT Teams

[SWJED]

19 April Stars and Stripes - Navy Officers Head to Afghanistan to Join PRT Teams.

Afghanistan is a landlocked country. It has only a single navigable river, the Amu Darya, and its largest lake, the Hamun-i-Helmand, is slowly drying up.

In other words, there’s not much there for U.S. sailors.

But Afghanistan has captured the imagination of some in the Navy, including six officers who are on their way to take over six of the 12 Provincial Reconstruction Teams that the U.S. military has agreed to oversee in that country...

The teams were founded in 2004 and are designed to be mobile goodwill ambassadors for coalition forces, using their transportation, logistics and communications capabilities to access the most remote Afghan villages.

Once there, the specialized personnel can hold medical, dental and veterinary clinics, and help build roads, wells, schools, irrigation systems and other facilities that will improve life for Afghans who have known only war and poverty for generations...

The key to accomplishing these projects is a PRT commander’s ability to work closely with Afghanistan’s new government, as well as the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and other U.S. agencies, the United Nations, and nongovernment organizations, said Cmdr. Michael Horan, one of the six Navy officers chosen as PRT leaders...