From July 2005 through July 2006, Major Doug Ross - a field artillery officer in the Kentucky National Guard - supported Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan on an embedded training team (ETT), assigned to the 4th Kandak of the 1st Brigade, 205th Corps and operating in Regional Command-South, in the Kandahar region. Based out of Camp Shir Zai, Ross was dual-hatted as both the operations officer and the artillery mentor of this combat support kandak. In this interview, he discusses the training and mentoring process, his relationship with a partnered artillery battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division, as well as the operations conducted by his kandak in support of infantry units. The principal focus, though, is Ross' participation in the major poppy eradication operation in the spring of 2006 known as Operation River Dance. He talks about preparations for the operation, its execution and the roles played by the Afghan National Army (ANA), the Afghan National Police (ANP), civilian contractors, State Department personnel, provincial reconstruction teams, his fellow ETT members and others. Among the many topics Ross covers is the widespread bribery and corruption associated with the eradication process, which was present on the ground with the ANP but also extended all the way up to the governor of Helmand Province himself. As such, he explains how eventually he focused simply on reducing the American presence when such chicanery was going on so as not to lend US credibility or legitimacy to such practices. "I don't think there was an information operations plan," he said, "but I assumed that sending this message was not in it." In a series of after-action reviews, Ross put these sentiments and his overall conclusions on how the operation was conducted down on paper, saying that "US and ANA presence added legitimacy to the shakedown, there was no information operations campaign in the north and [in the end] maybe one percent of the poppy had been cut." Ross contrasts throughout the stark differences between the ANP and the much more professional and respected ANA. Yet eventually, the only option as he saw it was to call an end to the operation, which he tried his best to effect.

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