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March 16, 2005
[Have an opinion about the issues discussed in this article?
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By
Scott Schonauer
Stars and Stripes, European
Edition
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan - The lightning bolt has given way to the lion.
The Southern European Task Force (Airborne) took over authority of Combined/Joint Task Force-76 from the 25th Infantry Division in a ceremony Tuesday.
SETAF, whose patches feature St. Mark's lion, becomes the first nondivision size element to run the mission in Afghanistan since the United States forced out the ruling Taliban government following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“This is the most well-prepared group of soldiers that I have ever handed a mission over to in my 32 years in the United States Army,” said Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, the 25th ID commander. He and his headquarters staff boarded a military transport plane shortly after the ceremony and headed back to Hawaii.
Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, the SETAF commander, will lead a force of about 18,000 troops — anchored by thousands of airborne soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade and the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division. But a host of other active and reserve elements from the Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy and coalition partners will fall under the command.
It's not the first time SETAF has led a joint task force in a peacekeeping operation in a country torn by years of fighting. In 2003, it headed a joint operation about a third of the size of the force in Afghanistan force to help bring peace to Liberia.
Kamiya said his troops are prepared to carry on the tasks the 25th ID and those before them began.
“We are well-trained, well-resourced and are ready for the challenges ahead,” he said.
Many elements of the 25th's task force still are in country and will remain until they've shown their replacements the ropes. The 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment, a part of the SETAF force in Vicenza, Italy, already is on the ground and conducting operations. But many other elements won't arrive for weeks.
Several hundred soldiers and Marines, some leaving and some newly arrived, watched the ceremony in the base's medevac hangar. Also in attendance: representatives from about a dozen coalition countries, ambassadors from the United States and Canada, Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey, Afghan government officials and Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top American commander in country.
Barno praised the efforts of Olson and the 25th during their year of operations.
Among the highlights he listed: “a stunningly successful Afghan election” that produced President Hamid Karzai, the capture or death of dozens of Taliban leaders and the expansion of provincial reconstruction teams from four to 19 across the country.
Olson asked for a moment of silence for the more than 20 troops in the task force killed in the last year. He said he considered the mission the most important in his career.
An Air Force B-1 bomber capped the ceremony, flying by well under the clouds that doused the base with rain. The country's seven-year drought appears to be over. But the mission has just begun for SETAF.
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