Photo By Sharilyn Wells | Soldiers from the 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, from Encino, Calif., pose for a...... read more read more
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PORT HUENEME, Calif. — A team of soldiers reached the danger zone, a hardball road, with hesitation. As danger lurked around them, the team leader gave precise hand signals and ordered the soldiers to carefully cross the road. With a successful meeting with between them and a local key leader at a mosque behind them, the civil affairs provincial reconstruction team headed back to the mock training village snugly tucked away on the Pacific Ocean shoreline.
Soldiers from the 425th Civil Affairs Battalion, from Encino, Calif., participated in a two-week pre-mobilization training event that focused on civil military operations, at Port Hueneme on Naval Base Ventura, Calif., Aug. 8 through 19. They were sent on missions to conduct local assessments of the area around the mock village and other resources available. The Soldiers were immersed in real-life scenarios that allowed them to engage with foreign local populace, foreign law enforcement, and foreign officials.
Civil Affairs soldiers use information they gather to better inform military commanders of their operational area and lessen the impact of military operations during peace, contingency operations and war.
With an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan on the horizon, Lt. Col. Michele Haberlach, commander of the 425th, wanted to ensure her soldiers were properly trained in both their military occupational specialty, as well as their basic soldier skills before providing over 100 Soldiers to support a joint military mission in support of civil military operations.
“We basically want to work ourselves out of a job over there, so this training will enable soldiers to get a taste of the mission,” Haberlach said. “We have a different mission than an infantry unit, we have to be knowledgeable and culturally astute.”
The 425th soldiers will be helping local governments build a more stable environment for provinces in Afghanistan. Along with basic soldier skills, civil affairs soldiers learned how to communicate through interpreters, how to interact with key leaders, learned about the culture and geography of Afghanistan, how to assess resources available, and how to work as a team to accomplish the mission.
“The type of person CA attracts is a person who likes people,” explained Haberlach, who’s also a math high school teacher from Vancouver, Wash. “We aren’t just soldiers with guns out there, we are also cultural experts. We have to have good negotiating skills and the ability to work with the culture – not against it. We have to be able to work with the populace, and it’s extremely challenging.”
“These soldiers are very motivated to do this mission,” continued Haberlach. “Most of them have deployed before and this is a mission we’re proud to do.”
The 425th Civil Affairs Battalion is part of the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) headquartered at Fort Bragg, N.C. USACAPOC(A)’s nearly 12,000 soldiers comprise about 94 percent of the Department of Defense’s civil affairs forces. Army Reserve CA and Military Information Support Operations forces are 5 percent of the U.S Army Reserve force, but comprise 20 percent of the Army Reserve deployments. Since 94 percent of the Civil Affairs forces are in the Reserve component, these Warrior-Citizens bring to the Army team finely honed skills practiced daily in the civilian sector as judges, physicians, health inspectors, fire chiefs, police officers, and other professions.
Staff Sgt. Eduardo Servin, a team sergeant with the 425th, is one of these Warrior-Citizens who bring his civilian work experience to his Army job. Servin works as a police officer in Santa Barbara, Calif., and deals with the public on a day-to-day basis.
“My job on the outside is very similar to civil affairs. We work in the community and have to be able to communicate with the public to be able to do our jobs right,” said Servin. “But the Army also brings different skills to my civilian job as well. Things like discipline, the way you present yourself to the community and team building.”
This will be Servin’s fourth deployment and believes the training he and his Soldiers are going through will help them immensely while overseas.
“This training is good because the younger Soldiers who haven’t deployed before are learning from us,” explained Servin. “They’re hearing our stories and how we dealt with certain situations.”
Pvt. 1st Class Iris Martinez-Silva couldn’t agree more. This will be the full-time Westwood College student’s first deployment.
“This training is teaching the basic steps to what you have to do over there,” Martinez-Silva said. “So, I’ve been learning anything and everything from everyone else’s experiences. It’s really all about learning the right kind of training so that I don’t go out there blindly.”
The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., resident will continue to read up on her assigned province once the two-week training is over.
“I need to get all the information I can about the country and learn about the area,” Martinez-Silva said. “I need to know about current affairs and be culturally prepared so that I’m not totally oblivious while deployed.”
These culturally-oriented, linguistically-capable Soldiers also coordinate military resources to support government operations, emergency actions and humanitarian assistance from natural, man-made or war-related causes.
Staff Sgt. Danny Acala, a real-estate broker from Sun Valley, Calif., enjoys the humanitarian aspect of civil affairs and helping others get back on their feet.
“We help people who weren’t afforded the opportunity we have here in the States,” explained Acala, a PRT team sergeant. “It’s all about that smile on a kid’s face or to have an appreciation for someone with a U.S. flag on their shoulder. It’s the little things that can make a difference.”
CA deployments have provided tactical support to military commanders during Operation Just Cause in Panama, Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in Southwest Asia, support to the restoration of the Panamanian government infrastructure during Operation Promote Liberty, management of Haitian refugee camps at Guantanamo Bay and stateside natural disaster assistance in the aftermath of hurricanes Andrew and Iniki.
CA experts were called on to help rebuild the Haitian civilian infrastructure during Operation Uphold Democracy and again during the NATO peacekeeping operations in both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.
More recently, Reserve civil affairs units are deploying in support of operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and the Horn of Africa to assist the people of these war-torn nations in rehabilitating their societies after the Global War on Terrorism brought an end to decades of oppression in those countries.
“I fully believe in the mission,” said Acala. “I feel as a soldier, a CA Soldier, we serve a purpose. No matter how small or how big our actions over there are, we are making an impact.”
| Date Taken: | 08.19.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 08.26.2011 08:17 |
| Story ID: | 75968 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,025 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Civil Affairs soldiers prepare for upcoming deployment with scenario based training, by Sharilyn Wells, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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