Australien — New command for the First Mentoring Task Force

The Com­mand­ing Offi­cer (CO) of the First Men­tor­ing Task Force (MTF‑1) Lieu­tenant Colonel Jason Blain has hand­ed over com­mand to Lieu­tenant Colonel Mark Jen­nings dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at the Mul­ti Nation­al Base in Tarin Kowt.

MTF‑1 is com­prised of ele­ments of the Aus­tralian Army’s Bris­bane-based 7th Brigade, with sup­port ele­ments drawn from the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy and Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force. 

The out­go­ing CO thanked his troops and said he was extreme­ly proud of their accom­plish­ments under his command. 

“It was a great priv­i­lege to be able to lead so many fine Aus­tralians,” Lieu­tenant Colonel Blain said. 

“To watch what the men and women of the unit did every­day, putting them­selves in harm’s way and work­ing side-by-side with their Afghan Nation­al Army (ANA) coun­ter­parts, nev­er ceased to impress me. 

“The major achieve­ment was the expan­sion of our men­tor­ing and part­ner­ing effects, espe­cial­ly tak­ing over the Oper­a­tional Men­tor and Liai­son Team of the 4th ANA Brigade Head­quar­ters and the 5th Com­bat Sup­port Ser­vice ANA Kandak.” 

More recent­ly, MTF‑1 expand­ed its respon­si­bil­i­ties by tak­ing over the men­tor­ing of the 1st Kan­dak at Deh Rawood. 

Lieu­tenant Colonel Jen­nings said he was priv­i­leged to be tak­ing over com­mand of the hard work­ing and suc­cess­ful Task Force. 

“I have two main goals for MTF1; tran­si­tion­ing to the Com­bined Team Uruz­gan (CT‑U) from Task Force Uruz­gan (TF‑U); and main­tain­ing the focus on the men­tor­ing and part­ner­ing aspects with the ANA and civil­ians,” Lieu­tenant Colonel Jen­nings said. 

“We also need to pre­pare for our future tran­si­tion and relief-in-place with the Sec­ond Men­tor­ing Task Force (MTF2).”

Com­man­der Joint Task Force 633 Major Gen­er­al John Cantwell acknowl­edged the untir­ing work of Lieu­tenant Colonel Jason Blain and his Reg­i­men­tal Sergeant Major (RSM), War­rant Offi­cer Class 1 Stephan Col­man, as the MTF‑1 com­mand team hand­ed over. 

“Com­mand of com­bat oper­a­tions impos­es relent­less demands on the leader, par­tic­u­lar­ly in an envi­ron­ment as com­plex and dan­ger­ous as Afghanistan,” Major Gen­er­al Cantwell said. 

“Lieu­tenant Colonel Blain’s peri­od as Com­mand­ing Offi­cer has exem­pli­fied the best char­ac­ter­is­tics of com­bat command—an unre­lent­ing mis­sion focus, a broad and nuanced under­stand­ing of the bat­tle­space, a marked tac­ti­cal flair and above all, the pur­suit of every pos­si­ble means to keep his sol­diers safe while they car­ry out their dan­ger­ous tasks. 

“He and RSM Col­man have lived the mot­to of the Roy­al Aus­tralian Regiment—Duty First—demanding of them­selves the high­est stan­dards, accept­ing with­out ques­tion total respon­si­bil­i­ty for the safe­ty and wel­fare of their sol­diers, shar­ing the dan­gers with them and car­ry­ing the par­tic­u­lar grief of the com­man­der over loss­es and wounds. 

“I remain deeply grate­ful for their con­tri­bu­tion to our mis­sion in Afghanistan.” 

Major Gen­er­al Cantwell also wel­comed the new com­mand team of Lieu­tenant Colonel Mark Jen­nings and War­rant Offi­cer Class 1 Brett Brown. 

“The com­ing months will present a mul­ti­tude of chal­lenges and you will be test­ed time and again. 

“I am con­fi­dent you will succeed.” 

Media Con­tact: Defence Media Liai­son: 02 6265 3343 or 0408 498 664 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia 

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →