Marine Corps Launches Civil Affairs School

Since the initiation of Operations ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) and IRAQI FREEDOM, the Marine Corps has grappled with complex insurgencies that require more than overwhelming force to secure and stabilize the operating environment. It is anticipated that, for the foreseeable future, the operating environment will remain a complex, densely populated, and urban one, where challenges from younger and more disenfranchised societies driven by cultural, political, and historical conditions will require a Marine Corps fully prepared to employ a MAGTF across the range of military operations.1 To succeed in such environments, a MAGTF must have the integral capability to plan and execute civil-military operations (CMO) and to seamlessly integrate interagency activities into these operations.

    Lately, much has been written on the importance of CMO within the current operating environment. For example, the U.S. Government Counterinsurgency Guide2 illustrates the need for Marines who can understand the civil dimension of the operating environment and who are well versed in interagency coordination and planning integrated approaches to complex problems. To address the challenge of integrating the elements of the civil component into MAGTF operations, the Marine Corps has made great strides this past year toward building Active Component structure needed to assign civil affairs (CA) Marines and CMO planners across the MAGTF.

    However, until very recently, the only option to receive training in and be awarded the MOS3 for a Marine slated for a CA/CMO planner billet has been to attend the U.S. Army’s Special Warfare Training Group CA School, Fort Bragg, NC (also courses conducted at Fort Dix, NJ, and Fort Hunter Liggett, CA) or the U.S. Navy’s Maritime CA and Security Training Command in Little Creek, VA. While these schools still remain available to Marines, Training and Education Command (TECom) recognized that the specific and unique requirements inherent to Marine CA needs would best be met through the establishment of a Marine CA school. To meet this need, the Marine Corps established its own school at Quantico.

    The Marine Corps CA School graduated its first class at Marine Corps Base Quantico on 6 November 2009. The CA MOS course, designed to train both Marine Corps officers (0530) and enlisted personnel (0531) assigned to or en route to CA billets, began on 12 October 2009 with 22 students from units across the Marine Corps. This 4-week resident course, run by the Security Cooperation Education and Training Center (SCETC) CMO Branch, is designed to train both Active and Reserve Component CA Marines to Civil Affairs Training and Readiness Manual individual 1000-level tasks, with a heavy emphasis on the practical application of CA MOS skills.

    The first 2 weeks consist of classroom instruction on the fundamentals of CMO, including the core CA tasks (foreign humanitarian assistance, civil information management, support to civil administration, nation assistance, populace and resource control), CA methodology (understanding the civil dimension through “ASCOPE” (area, structures, capabilities, organization, people, and events) analysis), cultural appreciation, interagency operations, key leader engagement (KLE), negotiations and mediation, working with interpreters, and fundamentals of project management.

    Week 3 splits the class between 0530 and 0531 students and consists of a series of practical application exercises for the enlisted students and 1 week of intensive Marine Corps Planning Process training for the officer students. Enlisted students conduct field assessments and KLEs, utilize interpreters, prepare and conduct tactical briefings, and are “subjected” to media interviews. In addition, enlisted students are introduced to civil information management hardware and software, specifically the IKE-GATER system and CIDNE.4 While enlisted students conduct practical application, officer students simulate a G–9 (CMO) operation planning team (OPT) or working group to support a MAGTF OPT with the objective of producing Annex G (the CMO supporting plan) to a MAGTF operation order.

    Week 4 consists of the final exercise (FEx), a realistic 4-day exercise conducted at Camp Upshur and training areas aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, that includes working with role-players, conducting CA assessments, and operating a CMO operations center. Students are divided into teams and are expected to utilize the skills acquired in the previous 3 weeks to support a MAGTF commander’s CMO activities and responsibilities. A highlight of the FEx is a cultural dinner (currently Afghan) to allow for a more informal interaction between students and role-players while enhancing cultural understanding and familiarity.

    Upon conclusion, the graduates will have demonstrated mastery of the individual CA tasks and will be expected to return to their units and begin working with their teams and detachments to help craft collective training in order to prepare them for future missions, whether deployed in support of operations in Afghanistan or as part of the Marine Corps component theater security cooperation and engagement programs.

    The course is conducted quarterly with a maximum of 36 students, ranging in rank from corporal to lieutenant colonel, and complies with the change to the MOS manual that went into effect with the 1 October 2009 publication of Marine Corps Order P1200.17, MOS Manual, requiring graduation from a TECom-approved school in order to receive the 0530/0531 MOS. Although the current course reflects an emphasis on practical support to U.S. Central Command operations, it can be easily tailored to meet emerging Marine Corps requirements as they relate to the complex worldwide operating environment.

    In addition to the resident MOS awarding school, SCETC CMO Branch offers a 2-week CMO Planner’s Course that may be conducted locally through mobile training teams. SCETC CMO Branch, in partnership with the College of Continuing Education, has produced several CA course modules that Marines can take via MarineNet distance learning. Given the predictions as to what the 21st century joint operating environment5 will be like, the need for CMO planners and CA practitioners to support MAGTF operations can now be met “in house.”

    For more information about enrollment, contact MSgt Ted Yntema at 703–784–1114 or theodore.yntema@usmc.mil. Course information and contact information is also available at the SCETC website at http://scetc.tecom.usmc.mil/scetchome.asp or at the SCETC page on the TECom portal at https://www.intranet.tecom.usmc.mil/scetc1/default.aspx.

Notes

1. Headquarters Marine Corps, United States Marine Corps Service Campaign Plan 2009–2015, Washington, DC, 2008.

2. U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Counterinsurgency Guide, 13 January 2009.

3. 0530 and 0531 are designated as a secondary (nonprimary) MOS.

4. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Infrastructure and Intelligence Reachback Center is currently fielding the “it knows everything™ (IKE)” with the geospatial assessment tool for engineering reachback (GATER), a field data collection platform for collecting information related to infrastructure assessments in the field. The IKE is a rapid data collection device consisting of a handheld computer, global positioning system, laser rangefinder, digital camera, and inclinometer all in one ruggedized handheld device. The GATER is actually the customized ArcPAD® interface that is developed and tailored for a specific area of responsibility. The GATER currently supports CA assessments as a module of forms that the user easily accesses and fills in during the field CA assessment. The deployment of the IKE device with the GATER is considered IKE with GATER. The Combined Information Data Network Exchange (CIDNE) is a secure Internet host site that contains an engagement tool for tracking three types of entities—people, facilities, and organizations. IKE-GATER and CIDNE are current systems used in OEF.

5. See U.S. Joint Forces Command, The Joint Operating Environment, 2008.