• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Transatlantic Division reshapes as priorities shift in Middle East

August 2, 2011

By Paul Giblin

KABUL -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers realigned its overseas operations this summer to reflect the shifting workloads in Afghanistan, Iraq and throughout the Middle East and central Asia.

An important feature of the new configuration is that it will provide Corps of Engineers commanders in Afghanistan a more direct chain of communication to Corps of Engineers leaders in Washington, D.C., said Maj. Gen. Kendall Cox, a key figure in the reorganization.

According to the new plan, the Transatlantic Division, which is based in Winchester, Va., will serve as the umbrella organization for three districts that oversee operations in the region.

The trio of districts are the Afghanistan Engineer District-North, which is based in Kabul; the Afghanistan Engineer District-South, which is based in Kandahar; and the Middle East District, which is based in Winchester.

Meanwhile, the once bustling Gulf Region District in Iraq has been downsized to an area office and will report through the Middle East District, which has oversight of area offices in 20 countries across the Middle East and central Asia.

The Transatlantic Division reports directly to Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington, D.C. Cox, who previously served 16 months in Iraq, serves as commander of the division.

The new arrangement is designed to bolster the Corps of Engineers’ mission to help Afghanistan rebuild its infrastructure, which has been devastated by three decades of war, Cox said. The Corps of Engineers is the primary organization building military bases, police stations, roads, airstrips and other infrastructure projects in Afghanistan to increase the country’s stability and economy.

Previously, the two Corps of Engineers districts in Afghanistan had an indirect reporting method that failed to keep pace with the increasing scope of work, Cox said.

“The actual programmatic management and oversight " the traditional division mission " is not really being done by anyone in theater. Hence, the two districts are having to do a lot of that by themselves by calling back to the United States,” he said.

Col. Christopher Martin, the commander of Afghanistan Engineer District-North, said he welcomed the new structure because it will ensure consistency among the two quickly expanding districts. Until 2009, there was just one district in the country, but it split in 2009.

“We need a headquarters to help us get through this difficult period. It’s going to be good for us. Ultimately, it’s going to help us with execution, which is the bottom line,” Martin said.

“When it was a single district, there was one set of rules. Now, just in order to regionalize and make sure we have the same combined effect and that we’re delivering the same products to our customers, we need more oversight,” he said.

The vastly different time difference between Afghanistan and the United States frustrated even the best efforts by personnel on different sides of the globe to communicate effectively, Cox said. To strengthen the ties between the districts in Afghanistan and the division in the United States, part of the division’s operation will be based in Afghanistan, the general said.

That portion will be comprised of about 20 personnel and will be called Transatlantic Division Afghanistan. It opened in temporary quarters at Camp Integrity near Kabul International Airport in mid-July. It is scheduled to move into more permanent quarters called Unity Complex near the U.S. Embassy in December of this year or January 2012.

Division personnel will focus on tasks such as hiring, contracting and procuring technical assistance from professionals in the United States for projects in Afghanistan, which will allow district employees in theater to concentrate on primary duties to develop infrastructure, Cox said.

And with operations in both the United States and in Afghanistan, division personnel will be in business around the clock.

Cox expects to travel extensively between the division’s headquarters in the United States, and its area operations in Afghanistan, the Middle East and central Asia. He envisions spending seven to 10 days a month just in Afghanistan.

His first order of business will be to tour the Corps of Engineers’ project sites throughout Afghanistan.

“If I can see and touch every single project office, every single resident office and area office, chances are, I can better understand what’s happening on the ground, because I’ve had zero time in Afghanistan. I can learn the requirements and fundamentally what is needed. That’s a critical piece " what’s needed,” he said.

He wants to visit both the best sites, so that he can articulate the successes to members of Congress and others back in the United States, and the most troubled sites, so that he can assist in resolving issues, he said.

He plans to take in the scenes at the districts’ headquarters in Kabul and Kandahar, and experience the living and working conditions at the smallest forward operation bases in the most remote mountains and deserts of Afghanistan.

A critical component will be meeting individual professionals from the Corps of Engineers, other U.S. government agencies and the private sector who have volunteered to work together under the Corps of Engineers’ flag to rebuild the war-torn country, the general said.

“Getting out and seeing them and talking to them, I can find out what makes them tick. What’s their passion? What do they need from me to help them do their jobs?” he said during a phone interview from Virginia. “That’s extremely difficult for us to do back here in Winchester.”

The best measure of success for the new Transatlantic Division realignment would be the need to rescope it in three or four years, Cox said.

“If we are doing what we’re supposed to be doing, which is providing facilities and capabilities for a better quality of life and security for the Afghan national security forces and the Afghan people, then we are working ourselves out of a job, per say, in Afghanistan. But we’re doing it the right way,” Cox said.

He expects, however, that the Transatlantic Division simply will morph during coming years to address the ever-changing needs in a highly strategic region of the world.

“The potential exists that in 2014 or 2015, our mission will be done in Afghanistan and we will close down the offices just like we’re doing in Iraq,” he said. “But I guarantee, if we deliver, we’ll be someplace else in the world, because they need our capabilities.”