Photo By Staff Sgt. Russell Klika | Sgt. 1st Class William K. Sauder, acting first sergeant for D Company, 3rd Battalion,...... read more read more
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. ― The U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School held an activation ceremony June 13 on Fort Bragg, N.C., for a new company dedicated to training civil affairs soldiers.
This unit, D Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne), will train officers and NCOs to join the Army Reserve's civil affairs community. Civil affairs soldiers and units serve combatant commanders by quickly and systematically identifying critical requirements needed by local citizens in war or disaster situations.
"While we do serve under [SWCS], we must always recognize that our customers are all the Army Reserve officers and NCOs who will come through this schoolhouse on their way to vitally important, yet often dangerous assignments around the world," said Maj. C. Shawn Keller, the new unit's commanding officer, during the ceremony.
"It is my intent to provide for them the most beneficial, challenging and rewarding training that we possibly can," he said.
SWCS manages training, doctrine and proponency for all U.S. Army civil affairs soldiers, to include soldiers in the Army Reserve as well as active-duty soldiers assigned to the 95th and 85th Civil Affairs brigades.
Ninety four percent of the Department of Defense’s civil affairs forces are found in the Army Reserve's U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), comprised of four subordinate commands totaling seven brigades and 28 battalions across the United States. These soldiers bring lessons from their civilian education, careers and experiences to military operations when called to active-duty.
"We owe it to them, our customers, to always be at our best, to continue improving, not only the course, but ourselves as well, and to strengthen those relationships between SWCS and USACAPOC[A] in order to make their training here as efficient and effective as possible," Keller said.
Keller, a native of Charleston, S.C., deployed to Diyala, Iraq in 2007 as a civil affairs team leader with the 360th Civil Affairs Brigade out of Fort Jackson, S.C.
The company's acting first sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class William K. Sauder, was previously assigned to the 412th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne) in Whitehall, Ohio, and most recently deployed to Iraq in 2004 with the 785th Medical Company (Combat Stress Control).
Both Keller and Sauder are members of the U.S. Army Reserve, and on Active Guard-Reserve orders with SWCS.
"I look forward to the opportunity and the challenge to build upon the exceptional legacy of training that is conducted here while serving among some of the finest officers and NCOs in the military," Keller said.
D Company's higher headquarters, 3rd Battalion, is responsible for civil affairs training, to include officer and noncommissioned officer qualification courses as well as advanced individual training for initial-entry Army Reserve soldiers. The 1st SWTG(A) manages Army special-operations training for current and prospective Civil Affairs, Military Information Support Operations and Special Forces soldiers, to include initial qualification and advanced skills courses.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2011 13:07 |
| Story ID: | 72017 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 981 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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