From August through December 2002, and again from March through June 2004 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan, Major Sholto Stephens of the New Zealand Army served as the intelligence officer (S2) for his country's special operations force (SOF) contingent as part of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force (CJSOTF). In this interview, he discusses the operational focus of the CJSOTF and how it shifted from his first to second tour, going from being principally high-value-target oriented in 2002 to being more involved with unconventional warfare and the employment of enablers like civil affairs and psychological operations in 2004. In his capacity as the S2, Stephens coordinated with the New Zealand special ops elements in the field, ensuring their intelligence reports were passed on to higher and integrated into the CJSOTF-A databases, conducting thorough debriefings, and also pushing intel to them either before missions or while they were in the field - which could be anywhere in the country of Afghanistan, as they were not confined to any one regional command. Stephens describes how New Zealand SOF elements were reliant upon a number of US assets, including transportation and other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) enablers, and he also said that US forces always tried their best to be as responsive and provide as much assistance as they could. Special reconnaissance missions, Stephens said, made up a significant part of the New Zealand SOF contributions, as did filling key information voids that initially the CJSOTF and, later, Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan had. During both of his tours, incidentally, special ops forces from New Zealand consisted of less than 60 personnel, both operators and staff members. Stephens also discusses the classification/over-classification issue with the US from the perspective of a coalition partner; how he went about ensuring good interoperability with US personnel and systems; the excellent leadership provided by the CJSOTF-A commanders; what he considers the most significant accomplishments of New Zealand SOF elements in OEF-Afghanistan and what he felt was still left undone. Throughout, too, Stephens talks about working in a coalition warfighting environment, all the while providing unique insights as a foreign officer as well as recommendations for how others in the future can be more effectively employed in conjunction with the US military. Although identifying the 3rd Special Forces Group by name, Stephens closes by saying that he was "really impressed with the professionalism of [all] the American forces we came across."

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