Capt. William Cornachio (center), Security Force Assistance Advisor Team fires advisor assigned to 4th Brigade, Afghan National Army 215th Corps, helps train Afghan instructors, who go on to conduct regular training with ANA Soldiers in Helmand province, Afghanistan. (Photo by U.S. Marine photo by Cpl. Paul Peterson)
FOB DELARAM, Afghanistan — The mission for American military advisers is in a period of transition across Afghanistan.
Afghan forces have taken responsibility for their own security and that mission is a daily balancing act for the Security Forces Assistance Advisor Team attached to the Afghan National Army’s 4th Brigade, 215th Corps, located here.
Now, the 37 advisors at FOB Delaram II know their mission has a fast approaching end state that does not involve them.
“We’re trying to give the Afghans all we can as we make this last push to make them independent,” said Capt. William Cornachio, the SFAAT fires advisor. “That’s essentially the goal out here, to make them as independent as they can be.”
Cornachio and his peers recently spent several months fostering relationships with their Afghan counterparts and strengthening the brigade’s core capabilities. They helped create and improve training programs, monitored the development of local police forces, trained Afghan medical personnel, and built upon the unit’s combat capabilities.
Fourth Brigade is the newest addition to the 215th Corps, founded on personnel pulled from the corps’ other brigades in 2012. Cornachio and his fellow service members are only the second adviser team to work with the unit in Delaram.
Every day they strive to do more by simply doing less.
“Everybody is kind of having their end of mission, whenever that may be,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Jared Aguon, a medical advisor with the team. “[You] want to jump in, but if you jump in all the time, especially when they have the situation under control, you kind of take a step backward in the mentorship mission.”
Delaram serves as a desert crossing, a heavily trafficked intersection linking Afghanistan with both Iran and Pakistan. Sitting alongside both Highway 1 and Route 606, the city bears the unhappy distinction as the crossroads of the opium trade.
With menacing landmark names such as the Devil’s elbow, small battles with extremists at security force checkpoints are fairly common. Protecting the trade routes keeps ANSF and medical crews at Delaram busy. It also generates a sense of urgency among many of the mentor team’s counterparts.
“They’re more keen on learning these skills,” said Aguon. “If you see trauma coming in every day like these guys, you know that if [medical advisors] are teaching you some skills that apply to patients you know you’re going to get, you pay more attention.
“A lot of times they don’t even want us to touch the patients,” continued Aguon. “They just want to do it themselves.”
Cornachio has seen similar developments with his counterparts. He helped build a cadre of strictly Afghan instructors to continue training the brigade’s mortar teams after his mission is over. Several classes have already completed the program.
“They have a core of instructors who are pretty well versed after going through the course with the advisors,” said Cornachio. “I’d say that’s the biggest improvement I’ve seen.”
Cornachio occasionally observes the instructors as they train Afghan Soldiers. He answers questions or provides further guidance. However, the real weight of instruction is on the ANA.
By reinforcing training, instead of just doing it themselves, the advisors hope to create a self-perpetuating mentoring system within the brigade. The team will eventually leave the country, but they hope their legacy at 4th Brigade will speak for them in their absence.