Peacekeeping: The U.S. Navy Gets With Civil Affairs

Archives

April 4, 2007: The U.S. Navy has assembled 320 sailors to form the first of two Civil Affairs units. For decades, the U.S. Army provided all the Civil Affairs units, which are used to deal with civilians encountered in a combat zone. The army has about 6,000 Civil Affairs troops, most of them reservists, and all of them heavily used in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

These have been augmented by thousands of specialists from other U.S. government agencies to form Provincial Reconstruction teams. The U.S. Marine Corps has also organized some Civil Affairs units, but these are temporary. The two navy Civil Affairs squadrons will be permanent. One will be stationed on the east coast of the United States, and train to deal with assignments in Europe and Africa. The other squadron will be on the west coast, and will specialize in Asian assignments. All this is part of the change in the Navy's perception of its mission, which is to include supporting the land fight wherever and whenever. The new Civil Affairs units will provide officers and NCOs who can help supervise disaster relief efforts often carried out by navy battle groups.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close