Photo By Derek D Paumen | 180609-N-NK134-130 GREAT LAKES, Ill. (June 9, 2018) A group of Marines, attached to...... read more read more
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When the U.S. Marine Corps goes to distant lands to fight, they rarely go to an unpopulated country with no resources. In those far-off places, they will find local civilians who may be both friendly and unfriendly. They will find resources that are already in place.
That’s where the 3d Civil Affairs Group (CAG), headquartered at Naval Station Great Lakes (NSGL), comes in.
On June 8-10, 3d CAG held an exercise on mainside south onboard NSGL. Each of the 3d CAG’s four operational detachments encountered local civilians—played by role players, a mix of Sailors and contractors—who they would encounter in a combat situation.
There was an American TV reporter, a local mayor, displaced persons, and persons who were ill and asking for help. The reservist Marines had to respond to each situation with skills they learned both inside the Marine Corps and in their respective civilian jobs outside of their unit.
“Civil Affairs, for the Marine Corps, provides the Marine Air-Ground Task Force commander with specially trained and equipped personnel in order to facilitate the planning, coordination and execution of civil-military operations,” said Lt. Col. Scott Morrison, 3d CAG executive officer. “In layman’s terms, our personnel are trained to go into the combat area with a combatant commander and inform that commander on what is happening in the community. Civil Affairs is not there to advocate for the community. We’re there to say, ‘Hey, sir. If you take out this road, this is the other effect.’”
Civil Affairs Marines serve as a critical link between local civilians and Marine Corps units that operate in their countries. Operations in the counterinsurgency environments of Iraq and Afghanistan relied heavily on Civil Affairs.
“The whole goal of Civil Affairs is not hearts and minds, it is mission accomplishment,” said Capt. Brittney Bennett, 3d CAG Assistant Operations Officer. “We want to help them, but at the end of the day we want to make sure that they’re not interfering with the operations on the ground.”
“Civil Affairs is dealing with civilians in an operating space. Whether it’s displaced personnel from an armed conflict, or humanitarian issues,” said Capt. Patrick Heery, a Marine Reservist officer with 3d CAG Detachment One, who has been in the unit for about a year.
As part of the exercise, each detachment set up a Civil-Military Operations Center (CMOC). “It’s the equivalent of a little headquarters unit,” said Heery. “It’s a space where we can bring people in, interview them, speak with them, sit down with them. It’s a shaded, indoor area that is more conducive to conversation. Because that’s what it is all about: Interacting with the populace. ‘What are your needs? How can we help you?’”
“A lot of what we want to do is find the civilian authorities that are legitimate, like a police force. You may have a bad government, but the police force may be very capable of maintaining the peace,” said Morrison. “We want to make sure that those organizations are recognized and supported.”
Interacting with the populace isn’t the only mission. “What we also try to do is go into areas to do assessments,” said Morrison. “So in one scenario today, we’re assessing a couple of buildings. The combatant commander may want to know what sort of resources are available that are already in the area. For instance, rather than bringing in all the fuel from the ship, there could be a gas station.”
In the Marine Corps, Civil Affairs Groups generally have about 180 Marines, and each CAG is broken down into four detachments: three operational detachments and a headquarters detachment. Each operational detachment would support a combatant commander.
While there are some active duty Marines working in Civil Affairs around the world, “The preponderance of Civil Affairs forces in the Marine Corps are reservists,” said Morrison.
“Everyone in Civil Affairs comes from different backgrounds,” said Bennett. “I’m a judge advocate. Backgrounds go from grunts, to intel, to artillery. It’s a whole mixture.”
“Civil Affairs Marines have a lot of different perspectives based upon previous military experience and civilian work,” said Heery.
“Civil Affairs requires a higher level of thinking with regard to communication with people of different cultures, and being sensitive to different backgrounds,” said Bennett.
About two months of planning went into the exercise for both the Marines and for Mark Wegge, NSGL’s installation training officer.
“Part of this exercise is fostering the independence of each detachment—our small unit leadership. We’re training and identifying our weaknesses,” said Bennett.
“This is the first time that we’ve reached out to Great Lakes to try to do something like this,” said Morrison. “This has been super.”
“It was great to work with the base. It made it possible to train our Marines and we’re looking forward to a future exercise on a bigger scale,” said Bennett.
| Date Taken: | 06.09.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2018 10:13 |
| Story ID: | 280770 |
| Location: | GREAT LAKES, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 389 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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