On Thursday, Dec. 2, the Clements Center for National Security and the Business, Government & Society Department at the McCombs School of Business will host "Afghanistan from the Ground Up," a two-part event featuring a book talk with Wesley Morgan on his recent release, The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley, followed by a panel of four veterans including Chris Doneski, Michael Garcia, John Rodriguez and Jessica Saenz, who will discuss their experience during the Afghanistan War. The book talk will take place from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m., and the panel will take place from 1:45 to 3 p.m. Join us at 12:15 p.m. CT in the Crum Auditorium, Robert B. Rowling Hall.
The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley
Wesley Morgan is a journalist who has covered the U.S. military and its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2007. His reporting has appeared in Politico, the Washington Post, the New York Times and other outlets. He is a graduate of Princeton University. Follow him on Twitter: @wesleysmorgan.
When we think of the war in Afghanistan, chances are we're thinking of a small, remote corner of the country where American military action has been concentrated: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan provinces. The rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made the region a natural hiding spot for targets in the American war on terror, from Osama bin Laden to the Islamic State, and it has been the site of constant U.S. military activity for nearly two decades. Even as the U.S. presence in Afghanistan transitioned to a drone war, the Pech remained at the center of it, a testbed for a new method of remote warfare.
Morgan first visited the Pech in 2010, while he was still a college student embedding with military units as a freelancer. By then, the Pech and its infamous tributary the Korengal had become emblematic of the war, but Morgan found that few of the troops fighting there could explain why their remote outposts had been built. In The Hardest Place, he unravels the history those troops didn't know, captures the culture and reality of the war through both American and Afghan eyes, and reports on the snowballing American missteps that made each unit's job harder than the last as storied outfits like Marines, paratroopers, Rangers, Green Berets and SEALs all took their turn.
Through reporting trips, hundreds of interviews with Americans and Afghans, and documentary research, Morgan writes vividly of large-scale missions gone awry, years-long hunts for single individuals, and the soldiers, Marines, commandos and intelligence operatives who cycle through, along with several who return again and again to the same slowly evolving fight.
Veteran Reflections on the War in Kunar, Nuristan, and Nangarhar
Michael Garcia is a first-year graduate student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs studying for a Master of Global Policy Studies with a focus on international security, intelligence and diplomacy. Originally from San Antonio, he joined the Army after high school and served for five years in special operations as an intelligence analyst for the 75th Ranger Regiment. He served three deployments in Afghanistan, operating as a targeting analyst and senior intelligence analyst. After leaving active duty, he has continued his career in national security and intelligence in the 505th Army Reserve. Garcia attended the University of Houston and The University of Texas at San Antonio, and completed his undergraduate degree in government with a security studies certificate from the Clements Center for National Security at The University of Texas at Austin. As a student, he interned for Sen. Donna Campbell (R-25) at the Texas Senate's Committee on Veteran Affairs & Border Security. He has focused his education on U.S.-Russian international relations, intelligence studies and asymmetrical security threats.
John Rodriguez is a lieutenant colonel in the Maryland Army National Guard. His operational assignments include: information operations planner for the Cyber National Mission Force in 2020; director of information operations for Combined Joint Task Force—Horn of Africa from (2017–18); and rifle platoon leader and company executive officer for Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment in the Korengal Valley in Kunar Province, Afghanistan (2008–09). He holds a B.A. from Mount Saint Mary's University and a M.A. from Georgetown University. He lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Lorraine.
Jessica Saenz is a U.S. Army combat veteran, former staff sergeant and human intelligence (HUMINT) collection team leader with over six years of military experience supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. This includes 27 months of direct combat deployment to Nuristan Province (2006-07) and Logar Province (2009), Afghanistan. Saenz was decorated for her efforts as the first female U.S. Army HUMINT collector to work in the mountainous Kamdesh District, Nuristan Province, creating the first reliable and ongoing source operations network in the midst of frequent combat engagements with enemy forces. In Logar Province, she led a four-soldier HUMINT collection team that far exceeded U.S. Army Intelligence accepted norms — providing daily and timely intelligence for local U.S. commanders, Special Operations forces and the intelligence community as a whole. She was individually recognized for numerous missions in support of U.S. Special Forces, providing on-objective detainee screening and civilian interviews leading to the positive identification of high-value individuals. Upon ending active duty, she became a senior-level instructor at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, for advanced-level certification in military source operations. She received a B.S. in criminal justice from Texas State University and an M.A. in English from The University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB). As an English instructor, she spent four years developing and teaching online and classroom curriculum for English composition and rhetoric courses at Midland College and UTPB. Saenz collaborated with the Green Zone Program at Midland College to equip faculty and staff with training to raise awareness regarding student veterans' transition from the military to a college campus. She volunteered as the faculty mentor for Midland College's Veterans Student Club and was the keynote guest speaker at the 2015 Midland College Veterans Day Ceremony. Since 2019, Saenz has been an instructional designer at Texas Tech University to develop online courses, and support undergraduate and graduate courses as well as the TTU K-12 online program.
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR ALL VIRTUAL AND IN-PERSON EVENTS
The Clements Center will continue to follow all public health-related policies of the University of Texas. Please be mindful that an inherent risk of exposure to viruses and other health threats exists in any public space. Attendees voluntarily assume all associated risks. All UT guidelines and FAQs about COVID-19 can be found at Protect Texas Together.
For more information about this event, contact Elizabeth Doughtie: elizabeth.doughtie@utexas.edu.