Tennessee, Georgia teams teach Afghans self-sufficiency

National Guard soldiers from Tennessee and North Georgia say they’re not in Afghanistan to fight — they’re there to teach.

“Our job here, basically, is to work ourselves out of a job,” said Lt. Col. Randall Simmons, commander of the Georgia National Guard’s 1/108th Cavalry Regiment, which is stationed in central Afghanistan near Kabul.

“The sooner the Afghan forces gain that basic competency to operate on their own without coalition help, the better,” the commander said.

The 1/108th, which includes a Dalton-based unit that was hit recently by an improvised explosive device, has been in Afghanistan for about a month as part of Joint Task Force Phoenix. The task force is charged with training and mentoring Afghan security forces, according to Georgia National Guard spokesman Sgt. 1st Class Roy Henry.

It’s an important calling, Lt. Col. Simmons said, because Afghan police and military must shore up to fight against constant attacks from insurgents trying to undermine national development.

Meanwhile, members of the Tennessee National Guard have been tapped to assist the general population. A 14-member, all-volunteer “agribusiness” team left for Afghanistan last January, becoming the fourth agricultural development team in Afghanistan behind Guard units from Missouri, Texas and Nebraska.

Their job: to teach residents of the Paktika and Paktya provinces how to grow and market their own crops, said Maj. Lee Sharber, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., the officer in charge of the unit.

The Afghans have been extremely receptive to that type of help, which has included building irrigation systems and cool-storage facilities, according to Maj. Sharber.

“Everything’s rolling along just fine,” he said.

The ultimate goal — like that of the Georgia-based team — is to develop governmental infrastructure that can support a peaceful population, he said.

“It’ll take years to get there, but we want to get to where they have a self-sufficient agricultural minister and director of agriculture, and each province would have an extension down to the district level,” Maj. Sharber said.

Equally as important is cementing good relations between the United States and Afghan people, said Tennessee National Guard spokesman Randy Harris.

“I think it’s important to cultivate those types of relationships with our allies,” he said.

The Tennessee team is expected home from its yearlong deployment in January 2010, and the Georgia National Guard likely will return early next year, officials said.