The Ministry of Defense Advisors (MoDA) program is comprised of senior Department of Defense civilians deployed to advise officials in the Afghan Ministries of Defense and Interior under the direction of LTG Bolger, commander of the NATO Training Mission- Afghanistan and Combined Security Training Command- Afghanistan (NTM-A/CSTC-A).
The group includes individuals of GS-13 rank or higher and who, on average, bring with them over 20 years of experience. The team's pre-deployment training included courses on advising approaches and tools, Afghan familiarization, and protection and survival. The course culminated with a capstone exercise where the advisors applied the skills and knowledge they acquired throughout the 7-week course.
Since their arrival in Afghanistan the MoDA program advisors had an immediate and far reaching impact.
Because of the great success of the initial program and with the support of NTM-A, there are currently over 60 advisors in Afghanistan, with three additional classes scheduled to deploy in 2012.