Weighing Armor/CA career paths

1LT Daniel Moriarty I remember when I was in your position with similar inner tension. I'm really glad I made the decision that I did to leave Armor and become a Civil Affairs Officer. However, I will say that I had very little understanding of what the job would be and how it, and SOF in general, differ from big Army.

First, It is important to understand what CA is and what it is not. CA is not all about Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief. Those are a few tools in an expanding tool box, nothing more. Civil Affairs Soldiers focus on advising decision makers on the civil component of interest and then develop and execute plans to shape and effect that civil component in line with the decision maker's intent. This is my own definition and it is intentionally broad. If you haven't already, I would encourage you to reach to all the CA Officers and NCOs that you can and learn about the various experiences they have had a CA Soldiers. They will vary greatly Soldier to Soldier.

The differences between your career as an Armor Officer vs as a Civil Affairs Officer will be vast at all levels of your career. An important thing to remember is that after you complete team time as a Civil Affairs Officer, you generally will never lead troops operationally again. With some exceptions, Company Commanders on up primarily have Title X Train and Equip responsibility. That means that your teams will go work for someone else after you equip and validate them for their mission. A Commander in CA is not a "sexy" job. However, as a Commander you will still generally have a forward presence that will allow you to support and advise your teams in varying capacities. Often in more ad hoc SOTFs, CA Commanders and Staffs act in advisory roles to a SOTF Commander as well. You are still operational, just not in the context of leading your maneuver elements. You're never going to lead a Battalion or Brigade on a Thunder Run into some foreign capital.

The good news is that the previous paragraph covered what I consider the bulk of the bad news as a CA Officer. At the team level, life is pretty awesome. Generally, Company and Battalion Commanders give a lot of autonomy to teams to plan and execute training throughout the SOFORGEN Cycle, at least compared to what I saw in 3rd ID. Also, as a SOF MOS, we tend to have more money to go through some great training and education opportunities around the world. I would say I spent roughly 50% of my time on a team either deployed or training. However, we train to standard and not time. Therefore, there are plenty of days when the team rooms are empty by lunch.

SOF CA Teams are generally focused at the Strategic and Operational Level of war. The bulk of deployments take place at embassies around the world. We are operationally focused on the big picture more than Armor Officers of the same grade are. That is not to say we don't have tactical mission sets, but lets be honest, we aren't the first choice to go seize a hill top. Our focus is on the country or region instead of the key terrain feature.

I'll leave you with that for now. If you want to talk about this topic some more, message me and we can set something up. I'd be happy to have a phone call.

Well, the obvious difference is where on the battlefield your emphasis lies. Armor is direct combat, and while CA can sometimes be in the mix they generally are separate from that. CA officers also spend a good deal of time as special staff, working in that environment at levels from Battalion to Corps and above. That said, the subtle difference from being in a combat specialty is actually very helpful in working with "shooter" staffs and commanders. You speak their language, and can understand their unarticulated concerns about civil-military operations. In effect, you are already bi-lingual. Civil Affairs, if you can avoid being repeatedly being thrown out of perfectly good airplanes, is somewhat easier on the body too.

As for your skills, it's important to focus on your core skills, rather than your technical skills. Leadership, judgement, the ability to communicate in writing and speaking, flexibility, rapid adjustment to changing conditions, and empathy are all skills that will serve you well in CA. Leadership is especially important, as you may be working with different national forces, different branches, different specialties, and different command structures, and the ability to motivate and lead people without an explicit command relationship is key. Being able to 'get into the other guy's head' is hugely useful, both working with our own commanders or working with the various civil authorities.

I found CA to be very rewarding professionally. I enjoyed the relative individual nature of the job, and the independence of working in a trade that few outsiders really understand. Working with small teams isn't terribly different from working with a tank crew, either. You can build a career in Civil Affairs, since the broad range of ranks and positions provide ample promotion potential if you keep up with your PME.

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