Combined Joint Task Force 7 was the interim military formation that directed the U.S. effort in Iraq between June 2003 and May 2004. It replaced the Coalition Forces Land Component Command on 14 June 2003. CFLCC was the land forces component of United States Central Command that carried out the initial invasion of Iraq, was established by Commander, U.S. Army Forces Central Command, in 2002/3, to oversee two corps-sized organizations, I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) and V Corps. These two corps-level formations carried out Operation Iraqi Freedom which began on 20 March 2003.
In a meeting which Commander-in-Chief Central Command, General Tommy Franks held with his officers after the announcement of the Coalition Provisional Authority in late April 2003, it was decided that a new Combined Joint Task Force, headed by a three-star general, would be the best organisation to take over from the CFLCC. General Gene Renuart chose the new force's number, 7, as that was the number his son had worn on his soccer uniform. Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez was selected to lead the new force, drawing on the V Corps staff with senior officer augmentation from across the army.
The United States deployed more than seven-eighths of the soldiers in the occupying coalition with the majority of other troops coming from the United Kingdom and the rest made up from several other allies. Their status as Coalition Provisional Authority, or "Occupying Powers" under a United Nations resolution changed when the new government came to power on June 28, 2004, although they were still heavily influenced by the massive U.S. military and diplomatic presence in the country.
The Task Force was replaced by Multi-National Force - Iraq and Multi-National Corps - Iraq on 15 May 2004.
Read more about Combined Joint Task Force 7: Rotations 2 and 3
Famous quotes containing the words combined, joint, task and/or force:
“Pregnant women! They had that weird frisson, an aura of magic that combined awkwardly with an earthy sense of duty. Mundane, because they were nothing unique on the suburban streets; ethereal because their attention was ever somewhere else. Whatever you said was trivial. And they had that preciousness which they imposed wherever they went, compelling attention, constantly reminding you that they carried the future inside, its contours already drawn, but veiled, private, an inner secret.”
—Ruth Morgan (1920–1978)
“There is no such thing as “the Queen’s English.” The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares!”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Three million of such stones would be needed before the work was done. Three million stones of an average weight of 5,000 pounds, every stone cut precisely to fit into its destined place in the great pyramid. From the quarries they pulled the stones across the desert to the banks of the Nile. Never in the history of the world had so great a task been performed. Their faith gave them strength, and their joy gave them song.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with a manoeuver, a blow with an agreement.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)