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How Did Operation Anaconda Use Unified Command Structure

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Operation Anaconda Command Structure Al-Qaeda attacked the United States on 11 September 2001, which forced the U.S. into the Global War on Terror, officially named Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). Operation Anaconda, commanded by CENTCOM, took place in Afghanistan at the beginning of OEF. Traditionally since 1941, the U.S. military employed the unified command structure when conducting operations. “Unity of command requires the placement of all forces operating in a specific theatre to achieve a distinct objective under a single commander” (Hope, 2008, p. 1). Operation Anaconda did not utilize the unified command structure, and therefore suffered from ineffective leadership, abandonment of doctrinal roles, command confusion, and bad intelligence reports. No Unified Command Structure At the dawn of OEF in 2001, the CENTCOM commander, GEN Tommy Franks, “served as the unified commander of all operations in Afghanistan” (Grossman, 2004). CENTCOM maintained headquarters at McDill AFB in Florida. Subordinate commands operated their headquarters from the Persian Gulf region. Unified at the CENTCOM headquarters, each joint coalition member had a liaison team in Tampa, Florida. From a strategic context, no one commanded the overall mission in Afghanistan (Hope, 2008, p. 9). Ineffective Leadership …show more content…

“The evolving war in Afghanistan compelled CENTCOM to run a complex and growing operation from a long distance” (Kugler, Baranick, & Binnendijk, 2009, p. 8). The CFACC and CAOC headquarters operated from Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan (Kugler et al, 2009, p. 8). GEN Franks utilized video conferencing to synchronize information flow between the Afghanistan, Gulf, and Florida regions. This led many in the AOR to believe that the Gulf located commands and Florida headquarters did not fully understand the situation on the

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