Joint Task Force North Mission
Joint Task Force North (JTF North), based at Fort Bliss, Texas, is a joint service command comprised of active duty and reserve component Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, Department of Defense (DOD) civilian employees, and contracted support personnel.
JTF North is the DOD organization tasked to support our nation's federal law enforcement agencies in the identification and interdiction of suspected transnational threats within and along the approaches to the continental United States. Transnational threats are those activities that involve international terrorism, narcotrafficking, alien smuggling, weapons of mass destruction, and includes the delivery systems for such weapons that threaten the national security of the United States.
JTF North's homeland security support role is articulated in its mission statement:
Joint Task Force North supports
Drug Law Enforcement Agencies in the conduct of
Counter Drug/Counter Narco-Terrorism operations
in the USNORTHCOM area of responsibility
to disrupt trans-national criminal organizations
and deter their freedom of action
in order to protect the homeland.JTF North is assigned to U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and is under the operational control of U.S. Army North's (USARNORTH) Joint Force Land Component Command (JFLCC).
USNORTHCOM, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was established Oct. 1, 2002 to provide command and control of DOD homeland defense efforts and to coordinate defense support to civil authorities. USNORTHCOM anticipates and conducts homeland defense and civil support operations to defend, protect, and secure the United States and its interests. USNORTHCOM is also responsible for theater security cooperation with Canada and Mexico.
JTF North operates within the entire USNORTHCOM area of responsibility, which encompasses the entire North American continent, to include the air, land and sea approaches.
The JTF North staff of Department of Defense professionals is committed to accomplishing the command's mission, their dedication to the homeland security support role is best summed up in JTF North's motto:
"Service to the Nation."
