In Afghanistan, A U.S. Special Forces Major’s Meteoric Rise And Humiliating Fall
In Afghanistan, A U.S. Special Forces Major's Meteoric Rise And Humiliating Fall by David Wood, Huffington Post
A once-promising strategy for stability in Afghanistan ended badly two years ago, along with the career of its author and chief proponent, Army Special Forces Maj. Jim Gant. His gripping story is detailed in a new book, American Spartan, by Ann Scott Tyson, the former Washington Post war correspondent who interviewed him for an admiring story in late 2009. They fell in love. Tyson eventually joined Gant in an Afghan village, where he built a reputation mobilizing local tribes against the Taliban.
A tough, wiry Special Forces soldier, Gant was decorated and recommended for promotion over 22 continuous months of combat in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. But in the end, the iconoclasm and disdain for military protocol that enabled Gant’s success were instrumental in his eventual downfall.
At his peak, Gant, now 46, posed such a threat to al Qaeda’s objectives that Osama bin Laden personally demanded his head, Tyson writes. Gant's lows came later, when he was accused by the military command of drinking and other violations, including keeping a "paramour,” and using tactics that recklessly endangered the lives of his troops. At the heart of the military's discomfort, Gant believes, was his insistence that he could trust his life, and those of his men, to the tribal Afghan fighters he'd trained and armed to reverse the Taliban’s spread across eastern Afghanistan…
Not being SF or knowing the nitty-gritty details of his “downfall”, it sounds like Gant was operating as SF was designed to….alone and unafraid. Given that as well as the environment he and his team operated in, shouldn’t one expect “rules” (especially those designed for conventional forces) to be bent?
I was shocked after reading about the fate of Jim Gant. If there ever was a living legend in Afghanistan, he was it. I had no idea he was run out of the service and thought he must be fast tracking up the career ladder by now. His punishment seems draconian and excessive when compared to his accomplishments and the operating environment he had to work in. Trying to abide by all the rules and accomplish the mission in that operating environment is like telling someone to drive from Los Angeles to New York in 48 hours without speeding, sleeping or eating. I think it’s the Army’s loss regardless.
I haven’t read the book. I don’t know the man. I can only comment on what is in the Huff Post article. I agree with Morgan that “it sounds like Gant was operating as SF was designed to….alone and unafraid.” It also sounds like he was abusing alcohol and prescription narcotics which he maintained outside the control of the teams 18D (SF Medic). There is also an effective Female Engagement Team(FET) program to provide combat forces conducting counter insurgency the support they need in engaging the local women folk. Keeping your civilian reporter girlfriend in camp, and training her to be a combatant, is not part of that program. Acquiring a small safe for classified documents and keeping it under the control of the CQ/radio watch in the team’s operations room rather than in his personal sleeping quarters, does not seem beyond the capabilities of this supremely talented officer. Is it outside the bounds of reason to suppose that someone on his own team alerted higher headquarters to this erratic behavior?
His greatest flaw however is that he tried to win the war. Someone should have told him that apparently it is more profitable and supportive of national objectives to be the looser. A whole host of our most competent and effective warrior leaders have been humiliated and relieved or forced to retire during the span of the late unpleasantness. Attempting to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat was his unpardonable sin.
That being said, this man is my hero. I am part of the larger majority who participated in combat and did not enjoy it. The ability to take the fight to the enemy in such a personal way, time and time again is truly remarkable. What is more remarkable is that such men continue to serve voluntarily under feckless and bankrupt leadership.
Unfortunately there are more sides to every story. Linda Robinson, in her book, One Hundred Victories on pages 219-221, has a different description of the some of the circumstances surrounding Jim Gant in Afghanistan. That said Amazon is supposed to deliver Ms. Tyson’s book today so I will have to read her narrative for myself.
Unfortunately there are more sides to every story. Linda Robinson, in her book, One Hundred Victories on pages 219-221, has a different description of the some of the circumstances surrounding Jim Gant in Afghanistan. That said Amazon is supposed to deliver Ms. Tyson’s book today so I will have to read her narrative for myself.
Find Tom Rick’s comment on his reading the book interesting especially from a war journalist’s (since he had been for a period of time reporting from Iraq) point of view.
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/03/26/ann_scott_tysons_astonishing_new_account_of_an_sf_officer_in_afghanistan
The Tribal Engagement Workshop, cosponsored by the Small Wars Foundation, the U.S. Joint Forces Command Joint Irregular Warfare Center, the U.S. Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare, the U.S. Army / U.S. Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center, and Noetic Group, was conducted 24-25 March 2010. Major Jim Gant was a key-note speaker.
The Tribal Engagement Workshop, cosponsored by the Small Wars Foundation, the U.S. Joint Forces Command Joint Irregular Warfare Center, the U.S. Marine Corps Center for Irregular Warfare, the U.S. Army / U.S. Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Center, and Noetic Group, was conducted 24-25 March 2010. Major Jim Gant was a key-note speaker.