From May 2007 through May 2008 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan, Major Stephen Boesen served variously as the chief of three different embedded training teams (ETTs) within 1st Brigade, 203rd Afghan Regional Security Integrated Command-East, and as the operations officer for 1st Brigade, ARSIC-East. During his tour, he was based, again variously, out of Khowst, Gardez and Ghazni. In this interview, Boesen - an Iowa National Guard infantry officer with, at the time, more than 21 years in service - begins by discussing the three months of predeployment training he went through at Fort Riley to prepare him to be an indigenous force advisor, which he says was of mixed value, and then how, once in theater, his team got "spread to the four winds" all across the 203rd Corps. Boesen starts discussion of his advisory experiences by observing, first, that "Afghanistan is the shaping operation for the theater. It's a secondary effort," he said, "and not a lot of attention has been paid to it, somewhat rightfully so, because they were focused on Iraq. That's where the decisive operation is. However, now we're seeing that we probably haven't paid as much attention to it as we should have because Afghanistan is starting to blow up in our face." To wit, Boesen added, the constant difficulties he as a team chief faced in getting logistical support for his ETT and in dealing with his partnered CJTF-82 units, as well as the fact that there is, in his estimation, a "schism in the Army right now on how to conduct counterinsurgency operations." Much of Boesen's time, too, was spent resolving logistical and support problems for his Afghan battalions. Among the high points of his deployment was the chance he had to serve with some truly great Americans, and the very high regard in which the Afghan people hold both their Afghan National Army and also US/Coalition soldiers. Among the low points was a relief in place process that was completely inadequate in terms of length; still lingering "discrimination" on the part of the Active Component for the Reserve Component; and that, according to Boesen, the Army is not placing enough emphasis on putting the right people with the right skill sets on advisory teams. Above all, though, Boesen says that the US is just "spinning [its] wheels in Afghanistan" owing to the lack of a "comprehensive national strategy." He closes his interview by saying that, "Until we fix those systemic problems, we're going to be in Afghanistan for a long time. I'm sad to say," Boesen added, "that my children will probably be doing the same mission I did when they're old enough, if we don't get our act together."

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