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Building from the Ruins: With men of the 3rd Special Forces Group in Kabul, Afghanistan, Spring 2002. I am seated on the front left next to Jim Burnside, XO of 3rd Special Forces Group and among some of the finest soldiers I have ever had the privilege to serve with.

In December of 2001, I deployed to Kuwait to serve as the Chief of Future Operations for the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) built around the 3rd United States Army. Our future operations team was responsible for the opertional level combat planning for the Afghanistan Area of Operations. Our plans were refined by Joint Forces Special Operations Command and Joint Task Force-Mountain to become the tactical operations better known as 'Tora Bora' and 'Anaconda.' Our team also worked the strategic and operational-level plans to tie together the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) and developed the entire concept planning for the building of the Afghan National Army in support of President Bush's national policy decision announced in late January 2002. CFLCC developed a special team for this purpose which I had the privilege to also lead. Our work encompassed meetings with the Afghan Minister of Defense and his deputies, concept planning for the training of the army, participation in a UN Afghan Security Conference in Geneva, and most often, just the plain old hard soldier work of operating in a dangerous environment and establishing the training of anti-Taliban soldiers to make a better life for themselves and the future of Afghanistan. When the Afghanistan area of operation transitioned from CFLCC to XVIII Airborne Corps/JTF-180--which we also planned--I transitioned back to Kuwait and remained there until the end of July 2002 when I returned to the United States.

The US Embassy Kabul - February 2002	The men who helped build the Afghan army: CPT George Harris, MAJ Ken Swanson, Capt Gene Redding (USMC), LTC Steve Russell, and MAJ John Buck
Tea time with Northern Alliance soldiers	Having fun working a T-54 Northern Alliance tank
In the boneyard of destroyed Soviet Equipment	The first recruits for the new Afghan National Army

This page is dedicated to CW2 Stan Harriman, killed in action during Operation Anaconda, who sereved on our future operations planning team in Kuwait before rejoining his A-Team. We shall always remember him.

CW2 Stanley L. Harriman, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces - Killed 2 March 2002, near Shahi-Kot / Gardez Afghanistan