Jim Gant
Man in military uniform with American flag behind him
Gant interviewed at Camp Liberty in 2007
BornLas Cruces, New Mexico
AllegianceUnited States
BranchUnited States Army
RankMajor
Unit3rd Special Forces Group
Battles/wars
Awards
Spouse(s)Ann Scott Tyson

Jim Gant is a former United States Army Special Forces officer. He served for over 50 months in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and was wounded seven times. He was awarded a Silver Star for his actions in the Iraq War in 2007, and wrote an influential monograph on Afghanistan titled One Tribe at a Time: A Strategy for Success in Afghanistan. Following his last deployment in 2010–12, he was relieved of command and forced to retire after violating military regulations and conducting an extramarital affair with reporter Ann Scott Tyson at his combat outpost in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Gant has been credited with inspiring the creation of the Afghan Local Police and the strategy of Village Stability Operations in Afghanistan.

Military career

Gant grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico.[3] He enlisted in the Army in 1986[4] and became a Special Forces communications sergeant,[5] participating in the Gulf War as an advisor to Egyptian forces.[6]

Gant later became an officer and deployed as a captain to Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004 and Iraq in 2006–7.[5] Leading Operational Detachment Alpha 316, Gant deployed to Kunar Province, Afghanistan in spring 2003 and was based at Forward Operating Base Asadabad.[6] Gant's team was one of the first American units to enter the Korengal Valley.[7] They also operated in Mangwal and built a strong relationship with the Mohmand tribe and its malik, Noor Afzal.[8] Gant returned from Kunar in October 2003[9] but deployed again, to Helmand Province, in 2004.[3]

Gant also served in Iraq for 13 months in 2006–7, advising an Iraqi Police battalion.[4] On December 11, 2006, Gant's team in Iraq was attacked in a complex ambush on the road between Balad and Baghdad.[10] On May 3, 2007, Gant was awarded a Silver Star for valor for his actions during the 2006 ambush.[10][11]

One Tribe at a Time

In October 2009,[12] Gant wrote an influential paper titled One Tribe at a Time: A Strategy for Success in Afghanistan.[13] Gant first published the paper on the website of Stephen Pressfield, a historical fiction novelist who is popular in military circles.[14] The paper reached a wider audience after its publication on the Small Wars Journal website.[14] In One Tribe at a Time, Gant argued that the United States should leverage the Pashtun tribal system in Afghanistan by creating "Tribal Engagement Teams" that would embed at the village level and work with locals to build security.[15][5]

General David Petraeus called the paper "very impressive," and General Stanley McChrystal distributed it to all commanders in Afghanistan.[5] The paper received some criticism for promoting "nativist mythologies"[16] but, according to Paula Broadwell, it helped inspire Petraeus to create the Afghan Local Police.[3] Admiral Eric T. Olson, the commander of United States Special Operations Command, supported Gant's concept as well, and in November 2009 Lieutenant General John Mulholland offered Gant an opportunity to redeploy to Afghanistan to implement his ideas.[1]

Final deployment

Gant returned to Afghanistan in June 2010,[17] and was stationed in the village of Mangwal where he had served in 2003.[8] In September 2010, reporter Ann Scott Tyson took a leave of absence from The Washington Post and went to Kunar to live with Gant for nine months, in violation of military regulations.[18]

Gant and his unit built relationships with the tribes by wearing traditional Afghan clothing instead of uniforms and learning Pashto.[8] Gant himself carried Islamic prayer beads, rode on horseback, and had Pashto words tattooed on his wrists.[19] He remained in Kunar for 22 months[18] and achieved significant operational success. General Petraeus called him "the perfect counterinsurgent" and compared him favorably to T. E. Lawrence, calling him "Lawrence of Afghanistan."[20] Petraeus made Mangwal a "showcase" for his counterinsurgency strategy, and congressional delegations such as those of Lindsey Graham and John McCain visited the village.[21] By the middle of 2011, Gant had recruited 1,300 Afghan Local Police.[18] At the same time, Gant was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder.[4] He allegedly drank alcohol during the deployment, which is prohibited by Army regulations, and "self-medicated" with pain medication.[8]

In early 2012, as Gant was in the process of moving from Mangwal to the nearby village of Chowkay, he came in contact with First Lieutenant Thomas Roberts, a West Point graduate[21] who had recently arrived to Kunar.[8] Roberts reported to his chain of command that Gant was engaging in "immoral and illegal activities and actions".[8] After the subsequent investigation Gant was relieved of command, demoted to the rank of captain, and given an official reprimand by Lieutenant General Mulholland.[8] He retired from the military soon afterwards.[18]

Gant's actions led him to be compared to Colonel Kurtz from the 1979 film Apocalypse Now.[13] During his career he served for over 50 months in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and was wounded seven times.[8] After the death of Osama bin Laden, U.S. forces found a copy of One Tribe at a Time in bin Laden's compound,[13] along with a document in which bin Laden mentioned Gant by name and said that he "needed to be removed from the battlefield".[22] Gant has been credited with inspiring the Village Stability Operations (VSO) strategy which was widely employed by special operations forces in Afghanistan.[23][24]

Later life

Tyson and Gant have married and live in Seattle, Washington.[25] In 2014, Tyson wrote a book about Gant titled American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant.[26] In 2021, Gant participated in the efforts of Task Force Pineapple to evacuate Afghan allies during the Fall of Kabul.[27]

References

  1. 1 2 Simons, Anna (2017). "21st-Century Challenges of Command: A View from the Field". Strategic Studies Institute. p. 20.
  2. 1 2 Green, Daniel (April 9, 2014). "The Odyssey of Jim Gant: An Insurgent within the U.S. Military". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on July 4, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 Broadwell, Paula; Loeb, Vernon (2012). All In: The Education of General David Petraeus. Penguin. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-101-55230-8.
  4. 1 2 3 Boot, Max (July 1, 2014). "The Horror, the Horror". Commentary Magazine. Archived from the original on January 26, 2022. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Tyson, Ann Scott (January 17, 2010). "Jim Gant, the Green Beret who could win the war in Afghanistan". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  6. 1 2 Morgan 2021, p. 26.
  7. ↑ Morgan 2021, p. 76.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Meek, James Gordon; Schwartz, Rhonda. "Top Green Beret Officer Forced to Resign Over Affair With WaPo Reporter". ABC News. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  9. ↑ Morgan 2021, p. 33.
  10. 1 2 "The Insurgents' Increasingly Complex Tactics in Ambushes". The Washington Post. June 3, 2007. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  11. ↑ Kojetin, Nicole. "Soldier in Heroic Battle to Receive Silver Star". www.army.mil. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  12. ↑ Edwards 2020, p. 422.
  13. 1 2 3 Thompson, Mark (June 25, 2014). "The Fall of the Green Berets' Lawrence of Afghanistan". Time. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  14. 1 2 Edwards 2020, p. 424.
  15. ↑ Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili (April 21, 2016). Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan. Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-107-11399-2.
  16. ↑ Grunstein, Judah (November 6, 2009). "The Horror, the Horror: Afghanistan Edition". World Politics Review. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  17. ↑ Knarr, William; Nutsch, Mark (2020). "Village Stability Operations and the Evolution of SOF Command and Control in Afghanistan: Implications for the Future of Irregular Warfare". Joint Special Operations University. p. 74. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Wood, David (March 24, 2014). "In Afghanistan, A U.S. Special Forces Major's Meteoric Rise And Humiliating Fall". HuffPost. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  19. ↑ Edwards 2020, p. 435.
  20. ↑ "Report: Petraeus Hails 'Lawrence of Afghanistan'". Military.com. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  21. 1 2 Edwards 2020, p. 426.
  22. ↑ American Spartan. February 26, 2014. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  23. ↑ Meek, James Gordon. "Optimism for Trump's Afghanistan War plan from legendary US commando". ABC News. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  24. ↑ McFate, Montgomery (2018). Military Anthropology: Soldiers, Scholars and Subjects at the Margins of Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-19-093494-1.
  25. ↑ "Jim Gant, Ann Scott Tyson and their Afghan Affair". BBC. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  26. ↑ West, Bing (March 28, 2014). "'American Spartan ' by Ann Scott Tyson, about Maj. Jim Gant's mission in Afghanistan". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
  27. ↑ Meek, James Gordon. "US special operations vets carry out daring mission to save Afghan allies". ABC News. Retrieved January 16, 2022.

Bibliography

Further reading

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