Soldiers complete crucial training

by Sgt. Tony Hawkins
USASOC PAO

	photo by Sgt. Tony Hawkins/USASOC PAO A civil affairs team from Alpha Company, 97th Civil Affairs Battalion, 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, encounter “local police” during a training exercise.

CAMP BUTNER, N.C. – The 97th Civil Affairs Battalion recently completed a validation exercise for two companies of “Gun Toting Diplomats” before their deployment in support of Special Operations Command Pacific missions.
With only about eight months available to train teams, many of which are brand new to civil affairs, the battalion needs exercises such as this to confirm that the teams are ready to deploy. In many cases, the teams of usually no more than four Soldiers are required to operate independently in U.S. embassies or on remote fire bases with a Special Forces team, where their next highest supervision could be several hours away by plane.

“We’ve been building the unit and it’s a pretty fast and grueling pace,” said Lt. Col. Brian Michelson, commander of the 97th CA Bn. “Part of the reason why we need to have these validation exercises is to make sure we’re on target and sending out teams that can handle difficult missions in diplomatically sensitive environments.”

Realism was a large focus in the scenario, as teams had to react to contact and handle multiple casualties simultaneously. Sceanrios included conducting negotiations to pacify disgruntled village leaders who were upset with reconstruction delays caused, in part, by the growing influence of insurgent groups in the area, assessing civil governmental capacity, conducting civil reconnaissance, and then brief ing it all, in a shirt and tie, to an “ambassador” and his staff.
“Irregular warfare is a battle for legitimacy and influence over a population,” Michelson said. “It’s not our war, it’s their war; we can’t win it for them, but we can help them win it. That’s a lot of what civil affairs does. We provide the Army the capability to provide ‘armed diplomacy’ while also providing the ability for struggling governments to build legitimacy and credibility with their populace.”

“Our civil affairs units are built for irregular warfare,” he said. “We can self-protect and provide defense, since we fall under special operations. Be polite, be professional, but also be prepared to kill.”

This kind of training is exactly what prepared Sgt. 1st Class Drew Kimmey, a former team sergeant with the 97th CA Bn., who was awarded the Silver Star in 2008 for his actions during an operation in Afghanistan in November 2007.

On Nov. 2, 2007, Kimmey and his team arrived at the village of Sarsina with members of the 3rd Special Forces Group and Afghan commandos to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to the locals. During the operation, the teams were ambushed by nearly 300 insurgents. As his team drove its vehicle further into the village to rescue an element of the group cut off by the attack, Kimmey remained exposed, manning the .50 caliber machine gun even after the vehicle had been immobilized.

“Sergeant Kimmey is a perfect example for having to be prepared to do what’s necessary for the mission,” Michelson said. “The interagency community does not have the ability to go into contested areas. But we are Soldiers first. He and his team were in there where other agencies wouldn’t have, or couldn’t have gone when they were attacked.”

Kimmey agreed that those areas are the most crucial places in an ideological battle.

“Usually you need to be in the contested areas in order to really affect a populace’s mindset,” Kimmey said. “One of our main keys to success is to focus on the populace. When we were attacked, our intent was to go interact with the populace to see what their grievances were and to open a dialog between them and their government. By doing this, we can help facilitate improving their infrastructure, which makes it more difficult for violent organizations to manipulate the local populace.”

Michelson added, “I want their government to be capable and credible, and have the ability to root out extremist organizations. In an ideological battle, you’re only going to win with better ideas. We have to show them why it is better for their future to support their government than to follow the insurgents.”

Training for humanitarian missions is important because it allows civil affairs Soldiers to help ground commanders in gaining popular support for local governments, Kimmey said.