Welcome to One CA Podcast. Today, John McElligott interviews attendees of the 2018 AUSA Annual Meeting to answer the question, "What is Civil Affairs?"
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Transcript:
00:00:00 SPEAKER_04
From my perspective, it's kind of like sales with a gun. So, you know, you've got to go out into the community and make friends and meet people and learn who the movers and shakers are, but you're armed at the same time. So it's sort of a professional military sales group. All right, thank you.
00:00:22 SPEAKER_04
Hi, and welcome to the 1CA podcast. My name is John McElligott, your host for today's episode.
00:00:33 SPEAKER_04
I had the opportunity to attend the 2018 AUSA Annual Meeting in Washington, D .C. I walked around the convention center and asked people what they knew about civil affairs. Here are their responses. Being a guy who's in special operations myself, we work very closely with CA as well as PSYOPs. So I really appreciate what they do. I really appreciate the fact that they have... the ability to engage on the local level by, with, and through in the same way we do partnered and enable operations for kinetic strikes. You guys are doing very similar work with hearts and minds on the ground. So we think it's a great fit, and we actually think that PSYOPs and CA should be used more and have more interaction with SOCOM as a whole. I don't know anything about civil affairs. All right. What do you know about civil affairs? I know nothing as well, sir. Sir, what do you know about civil affairs? Not much at all. So my understanding in terms of the civil affairs, I kind of lumped them together like civil affairs and psyops, that might be incorrect. But in terms of those community, if you look at across everything that has to get done in the conduct of war, they're going to be filling in a lot on the infrastructure side and with the population and with whatever government that we're working with in terms of fulfilling whatever that role is via some of the decisive action on the battlefield. Great, thank you. And sir, how about you? Yeah, I'm going to go with what he said. I've got to be honest, I really don't know much about them at all. Sorry. All right, thank you. From my understanding, civil affairs is sort of the military's opportunity to do sort of PR within other countries and sort of do community building and just generally understanding areas that we don't have a lot of information about or we want to start building better community -level relationships with. All right. Thank you. Civil Affairs are the gang that helps bring to fruition actual projects on the ground to help the host nation country. Things like building schools, building wells, things like that. Sir, what do you know about civil affairs? I know that civil affairs works infrastructure with different countries, going in and establishing what they need, building schools, promoting U .S. culture, integrating it with their own host country culture, and trying to make things better for them.
00:03:08 SPEAKER_01
I know quite a bit. I am a civil affairs officer in my secondary MOS, and I served as a primary civil affairs officer for five years, including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2011.
00:03:22 SPEAKER_04
Was that with the Army or the Marine Corps?
00:03:26 SPEAKER_01
That was with the Marine Corps Reserve.
00:03:29 SPEAKER_04
My experience with civil affairs is that you guys are the multi -everything, you know, dealing with schools, government, police, fire, anything of that line or that sort. You help everybody else get established.
00:03:46 SPEAKER_03
Sir, what do you know about civil affairs? I know it's a... pretty small organization assigned to the U .S. Army here, and they're pretty valued asset to us when we deploy to either Afghanistan, Iraq, or any place in the world to help assist us along with the civilian populace here to kind of, so to speak, win the hearts and minds. of the fellow local citizens there but they're pretty much dispersed everywhere and without them it would probably be a little bit difficult to do our job.
00:04:21 SPEAKER_04
Well, I know quite a bit. I had the great honor and privilege of serving with two civil affairs brigades in Iraqi Freedom in 2008 and 2009. What I was able to see firsthand is how they can take skills, capacity building skills, go out end to end and really reinforce the efforts of the combat soldier. And then once things begin to stabilize, then they make magic happen. by getting water running or getting governance or getting rule of law or getting people just to get along. So a very valuable part of our service. Thank you very much. Yeah, cool. I don't know anything about civil affairs. I know they're special operations. All right, thank you. Not a whole lot. Civil Affairs does the civil -military coordination, so coordinating local resources with military and projects to help shape hearts and minds. Thank you. I don't know what else to say after that. Sir, what do you know about Civil Affairs? I'm looking to learn more today.
00:05:24 SPEAKER_03
else to say
00:05:32 SPEAKER_04
Ma 'am, what do you know about Civil Affairs? Civil affairs are the guys who are out there putting out the... Actually, I have no idea. All right, thank you. I know very little about civil affairs. Sir, what do you know about civil affairs? What I know of civil affairs, I'd refer to as CIMIC, and they are an arm or an entity that really assists with the civilian -military link, whether it be building bridges or developing wells or ensuring children go to school. And this would be within the context of the multi -block war approach, I believe.
00:06:13 SPEAKER_04
I have no idea what civil affairs do or what they're about. Thank you.
00:06:19 SPEAKER_04
I would say my experience with civil affairs is limited. I have deployed with some, not personally, but I've been out with teams that have been out with civil affairs. I know that they, in my, how I related to them, if our unit or a unit nearby somehow, they would kind of, how am I trying to put this? They were helping build the reputation again of our unit or the military if after we did something questionable or wrong, I guess, in a village out in Afghanistan, they would kind of go out and either help out with Do they give cash? I don't know if they'd give money to the civilians? I think that was my general thought of civil affairs. But also either spreading a message, either propaganda or something to a local populace. Either help the U .S., flee the area, we're going to come through. I think that's what I have. Alright, thank you. Civil Affairs is an organization or team that goes out in austere environments and helps develop and build infrastructure for those villages or cities that need it. All right, thank you.
00:07:41 SPEAKER_04
Sir, what do you know about civil affairs? Civil affairs engages with communities in various environments around the world to support and shape their communities in moving forward in their next levels.
00:07:47 SPEAKER_02
in various environments around the world to support and shape their communities in moving forward in their next levels.
00:07:53 SPEAKER_04
Great, thank you. Not much as I should, sir. I'll say that. From what I understand, is it close to public affairs, but just more of a civil aspect of it, working with the civilian populace? Working with the civilian populace, yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yes, sir? I mean, I got the concept. I got the concept. From my perspective, it's kind of like sales with a gun. So, you know, you've got to go out into the community and make friends and meet people and learn who the movers and shakers are, but you're armed at the same time. So it's sort of a professional military sales group. All right, thank you. What I learned about civil affairs is it's a group within the Army that... negotiates and interacts with civilians of foreign national countries when we go in and have missions. They help pay the way in order for the Army to accomplish their strategic goals and or mission.
00:08:57 SPEAKER_04
Well, I spent a year in Bosnia as a political advisor after I retired from the Army, and I worked very closely with the civil affairs unit that was attached to Task Force Eagle. Also the G5 who was usually a civil affairs officer. There was a guy named Toby Puckett. I don't know if you know his name, but he was actually an active duty civil affairs officer who was with the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Tuzla and then came back later as the G5 of the first... either m3 or armored division at the time i was with both of them but it was task force equal so he knew all the contacts and knew all the history of the area which was important because the civil affairs guys normally rotated every Six months. I think it was a year at that time. And what we really need in civil affairs and other folks is continuity. Well, with all the folks that we deploy. Because my experience as a retired foreign area officer with a lot of overseas experiences, we don't have that longevity. And, you know, every group that comes in has to start over and learn it again. And the locals kind of get a little... A little frustrated with us when they've got to help explain in detail what's what, what's not, how this works to the naive and very optimistic Americans as they come in. So my hat's off to UCA guys. Very important. I could talk for hours and hours, but that's probably enough. Thank you very much, sir.
00:10:27 SPEAKER_02
You know, I would say if I was to summarize it, building relationships. You know, I think you have to be able to build relationships internally and externally in civil affairs, so internally amongst those that wear a uniform or are part of other government agencies, you know, within DOD or in the U .S. government, and then externally, obviously, with partners or the civil component, you know. So I think building relationships is how I would summarize it down, and I think that's our capability. that we need to often sell to the commander that we're working for is how do we do that? And how do we build relationships that can be, you know, a force multiplier on the battlefield?
00:11:08 SPEAKER_00
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00:11:27 SPEAKER_04
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