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IG: Sailors in Afghanistan need yearlong tours

The Pentagon’s inspector general has criticized the Navy’s ability to train and mentor Afghan security forces in that country, saying sailors are either not allowed to — or are unable to — perform basic tasks required for operations. The IG also said trainers should serve longer tours in the zone.

The findings were included in an IG report, dated Sept. 30, which looked at all the services’ contributions to the training effort and directly questioned sailors’ ability to train Afghans.

“Specific examples included the inability to assign [sailors] to perform guard/watch duty, convoy security, or to serve on crew-served weapons teams,” according to findings of the 224-page report based on complaints from local commanders.

The report recommended that the Navy, under direction from the chief of naval operations, take corrective action and “ensure that personnel assigned to mentor/trainer positions are sufficiently trained in general military duties and eliminate caveats precluding assignment to duties such as guard, watch or convoy security.”

Navy officials were not able to respond to the criticism because the findings are still being assessed, according to a spokesman.

“The Navy is in the process of reviewing the Inspector General’s report. It would be inappropriate to comment at this time,” said Lt. Myers Vasquez, a Navy spokesman at the Pentagon.

The report also implies that sailors serving in the embedded training teams go to Afghanistan with incorrect notions of what to expect while they’re there. The report does not provide specific examples of sailors who found themselves surprised or reluctant to be working outside their rating — or, as the report states, “outside their core competencies.”

“Any perceptions that personnel have regarding what duties they may or may not be authorized to perform should be clarified by [the Navy] before deployment to Afghanistan for [embedded training team] or [police monitoring team] duty,” the report states.

As for deployment lengths, the IG said sailors serving with ETTs are only “boots on ground” for four to six months, not long enough to make real progress.

It recommended that tours be lengthened to one year, which is how long the Army sends its trainers on the ETT mission.

“Establishing relationships of confidence with [Afghan forces] is a process that takes time and becomes fruitful over an extended period,” the report said. “The varying tour lengths of different U.S. military services ... has caused disruptions in continuity and impeded the establishment of effective mentor relationships with [Afghan] counterparts.”

The report recommended increasing tour lengths for airmen and Marines as well.

According to Fleet Forces Command, there are 1,814 sailors serving as individual augmentees in Afghanistan. Many of those sailors serve in ETTs, which are the subject of the IG report.

The report comes as top military leadership, including CNO Adm. Gary Roughead, has been holding a series of meetings to review a request for increased forces in Afghanistan.

Fleet Forces Command, which oversees global assignment of sailors, could not provide any “amplifying” information about what a Navy component to the expected troop surge may look like in terms of size and mission.