Joint Interagency Task Force South
Encyclopedia
Naval Air Station Key West
Naval Air Station Key West , is a naval air station and military airport located on Boca Chica Key, four miles east of the central business district of Key West, Florida, United States....
(Truman Annex), Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
.
It conducts counter illicit trafficking operations, intelligence fusion and multi-sensor correlation to detect, monitor, and handoff suspected illicit trafficking targets; promotes security cooperation and coordinates country team and partner nation initiatives in order to defeat the flow of illicit traffic.
JIATF South is a subordinate command to the United States Southern Command
United States Southern Command
The United States Southern Command , located in Miami, Florida, is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands in the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for providing contingency planning and operations in Central and South America, the Caribbean The United States Southern Command...
and is commanded by a Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
Flag Officer.
History
In response to a need for unified command and control of drug interdiction activities, the FY 1989 National Defense Authorization Act designated the Department of Defense as the lead agency for the detection and monitoring program targeted against the aerial and maritime traffic attempting to bring drugs into the United States. Commander Joint Task Force FOUR (CJTF-4) in Key West, FL, Commander, Joint Task Force FIVE in Alameda, CA and Commander, Joint Task Force SIX in El Paso, TX were established to direct the anti-drug surveillance efforts in the Atlantic/Caribbean, Pacific, and Mexico border areas respectively. The Joint Task Forces have been operating since October 1989.Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
's Presidential Decision Directive 14 of 3 October 1993 led to a reorganisation of U.S. military anti-drug organisation. On 7 April 1994, Dr. Lee Brown, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
Office of National Drug Control Policy
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy , a former cabinet level component of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, was established in 1989 by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988...
, signed the National Interdiction Command and Control Plan which directed establishment of three national interagency task forces (JIATF East in Key West, Florida; JIATF South in Panama; and JIATF West in Alameda, California).
On 1 June 1997, the Commander in Chief U. S. Southern Command expanded his area of responsibility to include the Caribbean and the waters bordering South America, and assumed command and control of JIATF East. In compliance with the 1979 Panama Canal Treaty and the necessity to complete the military drawdown in Panama by the end of 1999, the decision was made to merge JIATF South and JIATF East into one organization. Transfer of the JIATF South mission to the merged JIATF was completed on 1 May 1999.
Due to the previous history of the command, Task Groups 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4, and others, are in use controlling U.S. and allied assets assigned to JIATF South. A February 2007 Dutch magazine described the relationships as follows: under the command of the Director JIATF South, the U.S. Tactical Commander held the position of Commander Task Group 4.1, United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
forces cTG 4.2, US Navy forces CTG 4.3, the Director of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruban coast guards (DKW NA&A), who is always the commander of the Dutch Navy in the Caribbean area (CZMCARIB), Commander Task Group 4.4 (CTG 4.4), and US Customs force CTG 4.5.
Current Leadership
- Director: Rear Admiral Charles D. Michel, USCG
- Vice Director: Rear Admiral John W. Smith, USN
- Deputy Director: John Murphy, CBP
- Chief of Staff: Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Fullmer, USAF
- Command Master Chief: CMCPO Robert Murphy, USCG