Afghanistan — MTF‑1 hands mentoring reins to MTF-2a

A new chap­ter in Australia’s men­tor­ing mis­sion in Afghanistan has start­ed with the offi­cial Tran­si­tion of Author­i­ty between Men­tor­ing Task Force — One (MTF‑1) and Men­tor­ing Task Force — Two (MTF‑2) tak­ing place at Mul­ti Nation­al Base – Tarin Kot on the 20th of Octo­ber.

The draw­ing down of the MTF‑1 flag marked the con­clu­sion of an eight-month deploy­ment, which saw Australia’s men­tor­ing role expand to include respon­si­bil­i­ty for the entire Afghan Nation­al Army (ANA) 4th Brigade. 

MTF‑1 Com­mand­ing Offi­cer, LTCOL Mark Jen­nings, said the greater men­tor­ing role achieved by the Aus­tralian con­tin­gent is some­thing the troops can be proud of.

MTF‑1 was orig­i­nal­ly respon­si­ble for men­tor­ing two Kan­daks (bat­tal­ions) and since August the role has expand­ed to men­tor­ing the 4th Brigade’s five Kan­daks, as well as the headquarters.

“We’ve tak­en on extra tasks and expand­ed into new areas since arriv­ing in Feb­ru­ary this year,” LTCOL Jen­nings said.

“MTF‑1 sol­diers can walk away from the mis­sion with their heads held high.” 

MTF‑1 achieve­ments included: 

• Clear­ing areas in the Mirabad Val­ley region and the con­struc­tion of a new patrol base to assist the ANA 4th Brigade to estab­lish an area of oper­a­tions for a new Kan­dak to pro­vide secu­ri­ty to the local pop­u­la­tion there;
• Rais­ing a new men­tor­ing team to oper­ate in Deh Rawud and achiev­ing a men­tor­ing and part­ner­ing rela­tion­ship with the 1st Kan­dak: and 
• Pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty in part­ner­ship with the ANA 4th Brigade for the Afghan Nation­al Elec­tions across Uruz­gan province.

Much of MTF‑1’s suc­cess was also attrib­uted to the gen­uine mate­ship devel­oped between the Aus­tralian and Afghan sol­diers. MTF‑2 has now offi­cial­ly tak­en over the reins and its com­man­der LTCOL Dar­ren Hux­ley believes it is up to the challenge.

“I’ve come with a force specif­i­cal­ly designed to do the tasks we’ve been giv­en,” LTCOL Hux­ley said. 

“Our train­ing has pre­pared us exten­sive­ly for the tasks we’re going to face here.” 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

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