Combined Joint Task Force 180

Combined Joint Task Force 180 was a provisional multinational land formation, primarily made up of units from the United States Army, that fought in the Afghanistan War (2001-present), especially in the initial invasion phase of 2001-2002. It was active from May 2002 to 2003/05. It was the senior headquarters in country reporting to United States Central Command.

Previously Joint Task Force 180 had served as the headquarters leading the U.S. intervention in Haiti in 1994 ("Operation Uphold Democracy"). Again, it was built around the XVIII Corps. From May 2002 to March 2003 the U.S. formation that directed all Enduring Freedom operations in Afghanistan was led by Lieutenant General Dan K. McNeill. It was initially a three-star headquarters designated Combined Joint Task Force 180 (CJTF-180), a corps level headquarters whose staff members were provided by the headquarters of the XVIII Airborne Corps and other formations.

When the 10th Mountain Division headquarters arrived in Afghanistan in late 2001, its role was to serve as a forward HQ for the Combined Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC), the headquarters in Kuwait that oversaw all ground force operations throughout Central Command’s area of responsibility. The 10th Mountain Division’s headquarters, in turn, would command all land forces inside Afghanistan. Major General Franklin L. Hagenbeck, commanding general, 10th Mountain Division, later recalled that the entire process of choosing his headquarters for CFLCC (Forward) had been improvised, providing little time for his staff to prepare. CFLCC (Forward) later became CJTF Mountain. It was this headquarters that ran Operation Anaconda.

The mission of CJTF-180 was to conduct operations to destroy remaining Al Qaeda/hostile Taliban command control and other hostile anti-Islamic Transitional Government of Afghanistan elements, trains Afghan National Army, and conducts directed information operations, civil military operations and humanitarian assistance operations in coordination with the ITGA in order to establish a stable and secure Afghanistan able to deter/defeat the re-emergence of terrorism.

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