Photo By Spc. Lalita Hazelett | First Lt. Yelena Yatskikh (center), a civil affairs officer with the 405th Civil...... read more read more
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CAMP MACKALL, N.C. — An older man wearing a backpack walked out of the woods toward an approaching team of Soldiers. First Lt. Yelena Yatskikh, the team leader, looked at him and smiled while the rest of the team watched and pulled security. She then approached and greeted him. Carl Beckman introduced himself as a humanitarian ambassador for the World Food Program.
As he and Yatskikh were talking, a hooded looter ran from one of the rice sheds with a bag over his shoulder. Beckman shouted, and the Soldiers readied themselves, but the looter dropped the bag and ran away. The Soldiers had passed the first test. Now they needed to get more information on the looting, the area and what exactly Beckman was up to and why.
The scenarios Yatskikh and her fellow Soldiers are being tested on are part of the culmination exercise for the Civil Affairs Qualification Course. The course, operated under the auspices of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, the U.S. Army Special Operations Center of Excellence, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The course is comprised of both active-duty Army and Army Reserve Soldiers who are assigned to the U.S Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne).
Throughout the course, Soldiers are tested on their civil affairs core competencies, planning and analysis skills and cultural familiarity. Army Reserve Soldiers conduct a distance learning course prior to attending the 29-day CAQC, where they are integrated with active-duty Soldiers who have been learning the same information in a classroom setting.
For Yatskikh, a prior Army Reserve logistics officer, this is the first time she is putting her newly acquired CA skills to the test. Born in Russia, she enlisted into the U.S. Army Reserve six years ago, earned her citizenship and then received her commission in 2011. After hearing about CA through a friend who had joined psychological operations, she decided that the CA mission was more interesting and aligned with her civilian job in disaster management with the Red Cross.
“Since the beginning of the course, the cadre and instructors, even in the classroom, have been great,” said Yatskikh. “They not only taught us, but mentored us — sometimes individually if needed and gave us great advice. And here, they are always encouraging us, even if we fail at a mission. They provide us feedback on what we need to do better or what we could have done to be more successful.”
Yatshikh added that the instructors have a lot of experience from deployments and their own training. They always find a way to make any situation into a learning one, pointing out why things are done a certain way and why it’s important.
“Also, learning from the role players helps as well. They really get into their roles and we really believe this [Pineland] is a real country. They really get into the small details of the situation which helps the scenarios feel real,” she said.
“We’ve had some great training so far,” said Yatskikh. “I think learning how to better communicate with people, negotiation and mediating skills, as well as de-escalation skills; put together with a couple of realistic exercises that are extremely immersive and puts you under stressful conditions has helped me become more adaptable.”
Learning to be adaptable is a common skill that is taught throughout the course. A combination of classroom work and field exercises, the Soldiers are constantly tested. A key area of focus is the integration of active-duty Soldiers with the reserve Soldiers.
“We really have a great team,” explained Yatskikh. “The instructors prepped us for the possibility of bumps in the road during our integration, but our team really works well together. The active-duty Soldiers definitely have more experience in Civil Affairs than we do because they’ve been doing this for six months already and a few guys have been in CA units for a while. They all share their knowledge during training, as well as guys with an Infantry background who bring the tactical side.”
“Sometimes there’s a sort of … reluctance to work with reserves. Full-time Soldiers want to work with full-time Soldiers,” said Sgt. Scott Purvines, an active-duty Soldier reclassing to civil affairs from the armor branch “However, these reservists I’ve been working with — and this is the first time I’ve ever worked with reserves — they are professional Soldiers all the way. I’ve been really impressed with their skills because they also bring forward a set of skills outside the Army from their civilian lives. It’s been really helpful for a lot of scenarios. For instance, one of the Soldiers is a cop and he really helped us by giving perspectives from the civilian side that we didn’t get here and it’s been wonderful to work with them.”
“I think it’s very important for active and reserve to have this integration training, especially in CA because we are so reserve heavy,” said Yatskikh. “We work together during deployments so we need to be on the same page and have an appreciation of what each of us brings to the table.”
Although the stigma between the reserve component and active-duty still exists, working together is a must since reserve Soldiers make up 77 percent of the total Army CA force.
“For us [reserve Soldiers], it’s a little more challenging because this really is a crash course in civil affairs,” added Yatskikh. “But the best way of learning a skill is by doing it and learning from others who have the experience and the knowledge."
| Date Taken: | 10.24.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 11.06.2014 10:38 |
| Story ID: | 147166 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 2,848 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, Crash course in Civil Affairs, by Sharilyn Wells, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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