Welcome to One CA Podcast. Today we have CSM Garric Banfield, Command Sergeant Major of the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade at Fort Bragg, NC, discusses the 95th mission and organization and offers tips for current and future CA non-commissioned officers.
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Transcript:
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think there's a better job in the Army than being an NCO on a civil affairs team. There's nowhere else in the Army that a staff sergeant or sergeant first class has a strategic effect on a region or theater that they do on a civil affairs team. Our NCOs are routinely entrusted and engaged directly with U .S. country teams and embassies and indigenous partners and institutions around the world on behalf of theater commanders. The language skills and cultural expertise that they gain through a training pipeline is exceptional, and they'll always be confronted with and expected to solve complex problems with little more than the knowledge of the nation's interests and an understanding of the strategic intent.
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Hi and welcome to the 1CA podcast. My name is John McElligot, your host for today's episode. We're joined today by Command Sergeant Major Garrick Banfield. He entered the U .S. Army in June 1992. Since then, he has served in numerous leadership positions ranging from scout team leader to brigade command sergeant major. He currently serves as the brigade command sergeant major of the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade Special Operations Airborne. CSM Banfield's assignments have ranged from the 1st Squadron 3rd Cab rudiment, 4th Squadron, 7th Cav, 124th Infantry Regiment, 15th Cav Regiment, and the 1st Cav Regiment in Germany. He then switched over to Civil Affairs and was 1st Sergeant for the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion Special Operations Airborne based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He's also served as the Senior Enlisted Advisor for the Combined Arms Center Special Operations Forces Cell at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the Battalion Command Sergeant Major of the 81st CA Battalion in Fort Hood, the Brigade Command Sergeant Major of Task Force Sinai in Egypt, and Action Officer in USASAC for the Commander Initiatives Groups in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Command Sergeant Major has deployed on several contingency and combat operations to include Operation Desert Falcon, Operation Joint Endeavor, Operation Joint Guard, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation New Dawn, and the Multinational Force and Observer Mission. He holds a Master of Science degree in Defense Analysis and Regular Warfare from the Naval Postgraduate School and a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland University College. CSM Banfield, thank you very much for being on the 1CA podcast.
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Hey, sir. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
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I was trying to look up your name and the origin of both Garrick and Banfield, and it looks like it's an old English name. I think the finding, what I found from Garrick was one who governs with a spear and mighty warrior. Do you know the background of your first name or surname?
00:03:31 SPEAKER_03
Well, sir, actually, I was originally going to be named Garrett. However, my mother's best friend, who was pregnant at the same time, had her son a couple weeks before I was born, and she took Garrett. So Garrick was the next thing on the docket. So that's the origin of my name. I do appreciate your research and background, and I'm going to latch onto that and say it was the spirit of the warrior that she saw in me when she named me.
00:04:02 SPEAKER_04
Exactly. That's awesome. Thank you again for being here. Really glad to have somebody from the 95th. We wanted to dig in for the listeners to what the 95th is, what your responsibilities as a Sergeant Major are, and talk a little bit more about the battalions that serve under the 95th. So I want to start. By asking you, how long have you been with the 95th?
00:04:24 SPEAKER_03
Sir, this time around, I've been with the 95th for about a year. I assumed responsibility as the brigade command sergeant major last May. However, I originally came to the 96th in 2005 after graduating the civil affairs qualification course. I served with the 96th and dealt the company as a team sergeant. then the first sergeant in both charlie company and hhc 96 and then i left the 96 in 2011 to go out to naval postgraduate school in california on graduation from naval postgraduate school i was assigned to the combined arms center special operation forces cell at fort leavenworth kansas I served as a senior enlisted advisor to the CACSO South. And then I was selected on Battalion CSL in 2012 and moved out to Fort Hood, Texas. Served as a Battalion Command Sergeant Major for the 81st Civil Affairs Battalion from 2013 to 2015. In 2015, I was selected for an Army Brigade. Command Sergeant Major position, which I served in Task Force Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt from 2016 to 2017. And upon returning from that assignment, I worked up at USASOC as an action officer for the Commanders Initiatives Group. And then I assumed my current position as a 95th Brigade Command Sergeant Major. Wow.
00:06:07 SPEAKER_04
That's an awesome... careers director that you've had. So how many total years in service now since 1992, I guess, right?
00:06:16 SPEAKER_03
Right. So I've got about 27 in July 9th. I'll hit 27 years.
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Wow. That's awesome. Now, a lot of listeners are probably familiar with the first sergeant and maybe the battalion sergeant major. What are the responsibilities for the brigade command sergeant major and your job in the 95th?
00:06:35 SPEAKER_03
My principal duties as a brigade command sergeant major are what they are outlined in the AR -600 -20, which is to advise a commander on the performance, training, appearance, and conduct of the brigade. I'm also responsible for enforcement of Army policies and standards and administering the unit's non -commissioned officer development program. So what that translates down to in my eyes is I'm the commander's wingman. I'm 100 % committed to making sure my commander is successful, and I take a lot of personal pride in understanding his intent and then taking the initiative and providing guidance and direction to the force to meet his intent. Colonel Burnett, the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade Commander, and I had the privilege of serving together for two years as a battalion command team in the 81st Civil Affairs Battalion. which meant we didn't need to spend a whole lot of time getting to know each other when we began our current roles together. In general, the CSM is very similar to the role of the first sergeant and the role of the team sergeant. I see the role of non -commissioned officers abroad at every echelon as being the agile member of the team that provides balance and fills in the gaps wherever it's needed to accomplish the day -to -day business of the organization.
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the organization.
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get the training validation complete, and really enforce and uphold the standards of the organization. This allows the commander to focus on providing direction to the organization, whether that be at the team, company, battalion, brigade, or higher levels.
00:08:12 SPEAKER_04
Okay. Can you describe the relationship then, so between the brigade and the battalion sergeant major, sergeant's major? and what kind of direction or guidance you may provide to them, or does that come from their battalions only?
00:08:27 SPEAKER_03
So really the most critical relationship, although we're all one team, the most critical relationship in those command teams is between the command sergeant's major and that commander. So while I provide guidance and direction to the battalion command sergeant's majors and provide them guidance on how to accomplish the commander's intent, Really, they take their marching orders from their battalion commanders, who in turn take their battalion commander, take their marching orders from the brigade commander. So we are, the NCO support channel is almost an auxiliary channel that is there to support the chain of command. We have absolutely consistent and constant communication between the battalion command sergeants, Major and myself. We talk on a daily basis. They keep me abreast of issues within their formations that I sort of coalesce and provide that feedback to my brigade commander.
00:09:26 SPEAKER_04
Okay. Now, you've been with the 95th now for a while, as you've just described. What would you say is an elevator pitch or a capabilities brief for the 95th overall?
00:09:36 SPEAKER_03
Well, that's a great question. Several aspects to that. First is who we are. We're warriors, problem solvers. and regional cultural experts focused on the human component of the land domain in support of the geographic commanders, U .S. ambassadors, and at the end, the nation's priorities. But it's what we do as a brigade, and those break down into three key tasks, civil reconnaissance, civil and unified action partner engagement, and human network analysis. So our brigade has recently... refocus on developing our metal, and we currently have five tasks that are metal brigade metal tasks, and those are establish a civil affairs task force, conduct human network analysis, coordinate unconventional warfare, coordinate foreign internal defense, and coordinate foreign humanitarian systems operations. And the battalion metals are coalesced. in a line to support that brigade medal, which is passed further down into the guidance that the battalions give to their companies for their training. So we're trying to get to a sustained readiness model where it's medal -based, evaluated and validated against performance metrics that support the medal, as opposed to solely mission -focused training for an upcoming mission.
00:11:10 SPEAKER_04
You started out in the 96th, and the 95th Brigade grew out of that 96th Battalion in 2007. How many battalions are there currently under the 95th, and aren't they regionally aligned? Could you talk about those battalions and their regional alignments? Absolutely.
00:11:29 SPEAKER_03
So when I arrived to Civil Affairs, it was the 96th, and there were regionally aligned companies within the 96th. The Quadrennital Defense Review outlined the growth of civil affairs across the Army and directed the growth of the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade. And then we immediately went into growing the 96th into a brigade organization. And the brigade was actually activated in 2007. And it rapidly grew from one battalion into... five regionally aligned battalions that we have today. And those are the 91st Civil Affairs Battalion, which is focused on Africa and regionally aligned with Africa. The 92nd Civil Affairs Battalion, which is regionally aligned with Europe. The 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, which is regionally aligned with the CENTCOM AOR. The 97th Civil Affairs Battalion, which is regionally aligned with the Indo -PACOM Theater. And the 98th Civil Affairs Battalion, which is regionally aligned with Southcom. So they're focused on South and Central America.
00:12:43 SPEAKER_04
Would you say that the battalions will flex, grow a little bit as needed if there's more focus on CENTCOM AOR as opposed to AFRICOM, for example? Or now we're doing a lot of work in the Indo -PACOM area, so does 95th get more focus based on whatever the 95th? you know, hires telling the 95th and the 1st Special Forces Command and saying, hey, 95th, we need you to flex in this area more than others.
00:13:09 SPEAKER_03
So we're very, very focused on getting our civil affairs officers and NCOs regionally aligned by the battalions that they've been trained and educated for their language, their regional analysis and studies into those battalions. Each battalion has six line companies in a battalion with five civil affairs teams. And really based on the global employment requirements, we feel that we're right -sized right now to meet the requirements for contingency plans and persistent engagements throughout if we're manned to 100%. Roger.
00:13:55 SPEAKER_03
Some theaters require more teams than others. So while we do not like to break regional alignment, there's times that we have to. And we're going to, instead of piecemealing personnel and breaking their regional alignment and sending them into battalions and companies that are not regionally aligned, what we're looking at doing now for some mission sets in theaters is to deploy a company outside of their regionally aligned AOR. to augment those theaters an example would be in in centcom the 96 has a has a heavy requirement for civil military score elements uh within the centcom aor and they've been going pretty hard and heavy for the past uh past 16 years in the in the centcom aor right um we are now looking at taking rotating in companies from other battalions to pick up some of those missions within the CENTCOM AOR, specifically the combat -oriented missions that may be best suited compared to the civil -military support element missions for somebody that is not specifically regionally aligned to the CENTCOM AOR. Yeah,
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that's a good idea. So I've seen the public information on the website for the 95th that says that it's been in the process of growing, right? From 2017, there were about 1 ,200 soldiers to more than 1 ,800. Did that happen? Did that growth take effect?
00:15:28 SPEAKER_03
Well, we did get a good bit of that growth completely. We've sort of settled right now at about 1 ,700 soldiers, civilians within our brigade. We're not projecting any growth in the near future. And with minor exceptions, we seem to be about the right size to meet our current mission requirements. We've got 150 regionally aligned deployable civil affairs teams, 30 companies and five battalions that are able to meet the theater, special operations command, and geographic command and commander requirements. Wher