News

Making sustainable lasting peace goal of operations group commander

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  He has been the commander of the 446th Operations Group since September, yet hardly any of his Airmen have actually met him.

Just as soon as Lt. Col. James Dignan arrived at McChord Field, Wash., as commander of the Reserve wing's operations group, he left. Within two weeks of arriving, this former Navy pilot deployed to Israel to serve as the deputy chief of plans for the United States Security Coordinator.

"The U.S. has an embassy in Tel Aviv and a consulate in Jerusalem. The consulate is our eyes and focal point for Palestinian issues, and the embassy for Israeli issues. They don't necessarily work in concert because their focuses are different," Dignan said.

The goal of the USSC, according to Dignan, is to help create an environment of security, stability
and prosperity in the Palestinian territories.

"And the way that was going to be done, since they're under occupation, is by working directly with the Israelis," Dignan said. "Everything we did was completely agreed upon and talked about upfront with the Israelis before we went forward with the Palestinians. So what did we do? Primarily we trained and equipped their security forces.

"Prior to 2005 the Palestinian Authority had more than 40 official and unofficial uniformed services, from civil police to fire and medical, to all types of different intelligence services and armed militia services. Well, as part of the Oslo Accords, efforts were made to consolidate many of those services and whittle them down to manageable, transparent, security services, under direct civilian control" Dignan explains.

The U.S. in 2005, stood up, within the confines of the consulate, the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and Palestine. The coordinator reports directly to the secretary of state and directly to the vice chairman of the joint chiefs. It's a combined joint task force.

As deputy chief of plans, the colonel worked some of the long range plans and funding to accomplish the equipping and training of the Palestine security services.

"Most of what we did in the past was give them the basics. We're now moving beyond that and focusing on long-term sustainability. They're not a military; they're purely a defensive police force, in the model of a gendarmerie" Dignan said. "My job was to go into the West Bank, into the ministry of interior and basically build relationships with the high-level civil servants and appointees there, and help them make the transition to long-range strategic planning.

"How do you set up long-range planning for national security forces or for a customs agency or for passports and birth certificates and registries and all those things? It was more about building the bureaucracy and setting up those intuitional capacities so they could sustain it regardless of what the political situation does or how that moves; that capacity would continue, " Dignan explains.

Dignan returned to McChord Field in May, with his family joining him July 3 from Slovakia, where they stayed while he was deployed.

During the July Reserve weekend, the 446th Operations Group held an assumption of command ceremony.

"We all thought it was important (to have the ceremony), especially since I was here for such a short period of time, in processing and out processing," said Dignan. "I never officially set roots down, if you will, so it was important once I returned to basically put my ugly mug out there in front of them so they know hey, this is the guy and show that I'm here and ready to start work on their behalf."