ISAF Joint Command

Even though we’ve been in Afghanistan for more than 8 years now, the ISAF Joint Command (IJC) was only stood up in September of this year. Previously, there was only the ISAF Headquarters and the individual Regional Commands (RC). ISAF Headquarters was busy coordinating the war on the political level with the international community, while the RCs were busy running the war for their respective geographic spaces. There wasn’t a corps-level, headquarters command that was focused on coordinating all of the RCs’ efforts. That’s what the IJC is designed to do. The IJC moved to North KAIA in late September. It took a couple of months to set up all of the office areas, computer networks/systems, and operational processes. The goal was for the IJC to reach “Full Operational Capability” by 12 Nov 09 and while I know there are kinks still be worked out, as the below commemorative photo indicates, apparently we met the goal. I’m in the second row behind the general officers and to the left. I don’t normally work on the Joint Operations Center (JOC) floor, but I was filling in for the Air Liaison Officer that morning. The JOC is where all of the current operations are monitored and managed.

Some notes about the picture: The JOC was built inside of North KAIA’s new gym. Although fairly well made, all of the desks are unsanded, bare wood. We have to duct tape the edges so we don’t get splinters. (This is really the temporary, 18-month IJC until the permanent IJC is built.) The five screens behind everyone are actually the front of the JOC. They display situational maps of current operations and informational PowerPoint slides. Sometimes we even watch live video feeds of the operations. I hope you can get the flavor of how diverse the supporting countries are. Just in the first row of general officers, there are 3x US Army, 1x US Navy, 1x US Civilian, 2x British, 1x French, 1x Spanish, 1x Italian, 1x Canadian, and 1x Norwegian. (I love how the Italians wear scarves tucked into their camouflage uniforms.) And the 1388 over the IJC logo is the current year according to the Islamic calendar. Hope you like the picture. It’s a rare look into an active JOC.