Dr. Jack Kem, Supervisor Professor at the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) and retired US Army colonel, discusses his deployment in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), as the Deputy to the Commander North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Training Mission - Afghanistan (NTM-A) from November 2009 to November 2011. His position was dual-hatted as the Deputy to the Commander of the Combined Security Transition Command - Afghanistan (CSTC-A), the US-led operation for the training and development of the Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF). At the beginning of the interview, Dr. Kem sums up his career as a Military Intelligence (MI) officer in the Army and his military and civilian education. He describes how his education and experience were instrumental in the successful accomplishment of his mission and how, thanks to his position as a Department of Defense (DOD) civilian, was able to provide the Commander of NTM-A/CSTC-A with challenging and alternative points of view. Dr. Kem describes his responsibilities and his daily work to achieve unity of effort within the mission and the issues related to his dual-hatted position. He describes also the challenges in raising a competent and legitimate ANSF due to a lack of literacy, poor leadership and gender integration problems. Dr. Kem talks about the challenges arising from the creation of the Afghanistan Local Police (ALP) and the impact of the insider threat on the NTM-a/CSTC-A operations. He concludes with some recommendations to a potential candidate to the position of Deputy to the Commander NTM-A and some highlights on what he would do differently if he had to deploy again as Deputy to the NTM-A/CSTC-A Commander.

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