On August 17, we commemorate the anniversary of the U.S. Army Civil Affairs Regiment.

Civil Affairs is a unique capability that can achieve the decisive advantage in places where overwhelming firepower isn’t enough for victory. Versatile, innovative, and highly-trained, Civil Affairs Soldiers are the Special Operations community’s warrior-diplomats.

Learn more about Civil Affairs from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Civil Affairs Officer Capt. Patrick Bjerke.

Transcript

Hello, my name is Captain Patrick Bjerke. I am with 3rd Brigade 101st Rakkasans. I am a 38 alpha, which is a civil affairs officer. I started my career in the Army as an 11 alpha, which is an infantry officer. I selected infantry after I graduated from OCS. From there, I decided to join the special operations community and I selected civil affairs after attending their Assessment and Selection course. The primary responsibility of a civil affairs officer on a brigade combat team’s staff is to coordinate efforts with non-governmental organizations in the international community to address any issues and concerns that the civil populace has, as a result of combat operations. A good example is coordinating with the World Food Program or UNICEF, for instance, to have hygiene items and food, water and things like that, brought into an area that has suffered damage as a result of combat operations, to decrease human suffering throughout the area. I am extremely honored to be a member of the civil affairs community, and to all the other warrior diplomats out there, and to the regiment as a whole, I’d like to say happy anniversary.