Translational Research at the USMC Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning: A Strategy for Improving Military Partnerships

Abstract

Increasingly the Marine battalions deploying to Afghanistan are focusing on their role as mentors and advisors for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). In the context of the planned decrease in troop levels that politicians say will begin in 2014, ANSFs self-sufficiency is key. Ideally, by then, ANSF will be equipped and ready to take complete control of security throughout the country. But how can this be achieved? The challenges that Afghans and their Marine partners face are manifold, including widespread poverty and illiteracy; language barriers (between Afghans and Marines, and between Pashtu and Dari-speaking Afghans); a lack of resources; a tradition of nepotism; limited recruiting options, especially among Pashtuns; drug use; and poorly trained leadership. These are not simple problems; overcoming them requires a mixture of time, training, and enormous resources. One battalion saw training as a way to rectify some of the issues that they encountered shortly after joining up with their Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) partners. Under the leadership of LtCol Brian Christmas, in March 2010, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines created a two day reset training, which included a combination of individual drug tests for every person (leaders and subordinates alike) and classes covering topics such as ethics, Marine culture, and even Afghan culture. At the time, this reset training was seen as an innovative solution to the problems at hand. Despite progress in partnering efforts, this training is just as necessary today. Any Afghan unit, no matter how well-trained, will arrive in its area of operations in need of additional support in security operations and in areas such as understanding its partner(s), their activities and their operating environment. The reset training did just that. This issue of Dispatches describes the training from two perspectives.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2011
Accession Number
AD1062249

Entities

People

  • Brian Christmas
  • Kristin Post

Organizations

  • Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Center Of Gravity
  • Civil Affairs
  • Detection
  • Ied Detection
  • Images
  • Instructors
  • Joint Military Activities
  • Language
  • Law Enforcement
  • Leadership
  • Learning
  • Lessons Learned
  • Manpower
  • Marine Corps
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Photographs
  • Security
  • Training

Readers

  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.