Civil affairs officers ready for missions

by Angela E. Kershner
USAJFKSWCS PAO

The frigid weather drove the festivities inside, but it didn’t chill the jovial atmosphere as 53 Army and Navy Reserve officers were inducted into the Civil Affairs Regiment shortly before graduating from the Civil Affairs Qualification Course Feb. 25 on Camp Mackall.

More than 75 percent of the day’s graduates are scheduled to deploy with one of over 30 Army Reserve civil affairs units in the near future. Throughout their Fort Bragg-based courses, the students were trained in populace and resource control, foreign humanitarian assistance and negotiation and mediation, among other tasks.

“The civil affairs mission is to go in and be the liaison between our commander and the civilian population and civilian institutions,” said Capt. Keith Young, who will return to his home unit, the 405th Civil Affairs Battalion in Pleasant Grove, Utah, as a newly qualified civil affairs officer.
The graduation commemorated the first time students in the full-time, eight-week Civil Affairs Qualification Course for Mobilization at Fort Bragg trained in the field during a shared culmination exercise alongside the students of the primarily Internet-based distance learning qualification course.

About 94 percent of the Army’s civil affairs assets belong to the Army Reserve, and many civil affairs officers must balance their civilian occupations with up to nine months of online courses and a four-week iteration of active- duty training, while officers preparing to deploy on a tighter timeline must opt for eight full weeks of classroom training at Fort Bragg.

“(Combining the classes) gave us the ability to interact with others that have more experiences than we do,” said Capt. Marybeth Lightfoot, of the 418th Civil Affairs Battalion in Belton, Mo. “This training was tremendous.”

Both the full-time and distance learning courses prepare aspiring civil affairs officers to lead or work within civil affairs teams throughout the world.

A week-long culmination exercise brought all the students together for a field training exercise at Camp Mackall. The exercise took place in an environment simulating the need for a civil affairs team in the fictional land of Pineland, complete with Arabic and French-speaking role players.

The ceremony also marked the first time the Civil Affairs Qualification Course for Mobilization was conducted by the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School’s Company B, 3rd Battalion, with the support of 13 Army Reserve instructors from the 1st Training Brigade, part of the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command. The Special Warfare Center and School, USACAPOC and the 1st Training Brigade are all based out of Fort Bragg.
“The Soldiers we are training will join their force, so having their experienced instructors, senior NCOs and officers is the most valuable part. It’s been a real good experience in creating new relationships between SWCS and USACAPOC,” said Staff Sgt. Will Sauder, SWCS’s noncommissioned officer in charge of the Civil Affairs Qualification Course (Reserve Component).
“The number of junior officers coming in through here is tremendous,” said Brig. Gen. Katherine P. Kasun, USACAPOC deputy commanding general, the ceremony’s guest speaker. “The lieutenants and captains are the ones leading Soldiers on the ground and outside the wire, and when we can teach them the right way to conduct civil-military operations, we can reach civil affairs Soldiers across our ranks for generations to come.”

As members of the Army Reserve, civil affairs Soldiers possess unique skills and training from their civilian occupations unavailable through military training.

“These Army Reserve Soldiers have done more things, trying to integrate real-world solutions with what’s going on in Pineland. I have never seen that before. Thinking outside the box, networking … they are using their civilian skill set to solve Pineland scenarios … something we typically don’t see with active-duty Soldiers,” said Maj. Shawn Keller, Company B, 3rd Battalion SWCS course manager for the Reserve component.

“The graduates of the Civil Affairs Mobilization course and new inductees into the Civil Affairs Regiment represent the ever-evolving and adaptable nature of the Special Warfare Center and an instructor force from the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command,” said Lt. Col. Kyle Reidel, commander of the 3rd Bn., 1st Special Warfare Training Group. 

“Today’s U.S. Army Reserve, Army National Guard, and U.S. Navy servicemembers will be meeting civil-military operational requirements within the next few months,” Reidel said. “Without a doubt, they are ready to deploy and support combatant commanders’ missions.”