What happened to the ANA?

​The Afghan National Army (ANA) can trace its history back to the 1800’s. The ANA received training from the Soviet Union from 1960 to the early 1990s. Unfortunately, after the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan overthrew the regime of Mohammad Daoud, the Afghan army lost a lot of their fighting ability. In the 1980s, the Soviet Afghan war occurred with the Afghan army fighting against the mujahedeen. The Taliban Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan seized the country in 1996. The timeline for U.S. training the ANA started three months after the 9/11 attacks. The model used was based on a Western Army, requiring a complex supply and logistic train that the Afghans had no chance of sustaining. Several things can be attributed to the fall of the Afghan Army. Corruption, lack of education, poor leadership, and ideological differences to name just a few. Eleven days after the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, the Afghan military fell apart. The ANA could not operate without the U.S. support. In the end, the Kabul government gave the commando units orders to retreat and hide.
This week we salute James Cookman. James is from Rosebud and served in the United States Army. He retired as a Sergeant First Class (SFC) after 20 years (1997-2017) of dedicated service. During his service, he was stationed at Ft. Cavazos (Hood), Ft. Liberty (Bragg), Ft. Sill, three years in Germany and two tours in Korea. He had four deployments, once to Iraq, twice to Kuwait and once to Afghanistan. His military occupational specialty was initially as a 13M (Multiple Launch Rocket System Crewmember) and then 13F (Joint Fire Support Specialist) for the last half of his service. When asked what was a memory that has stayed with him, SFC (R) Cookman said it was the time spent training the Afghan National Army on the artillery systems. James is married and recently celebrated his 20-year anniversary. They have one child. James is a Colstrip Police Officer.