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thedrifter
12-13-05, 12:48 PM
December 19, 2005
Hit ’em, then fix ’em
Artillerymen get civil affairs added to job description
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

In an unprecedented move to bolster its ability to win hearts and minds in a combat zone, the Marine Corps on Dec. 5 announced its intention to assign almost all of its artillery force the secondary mission of rebuilding societies damaged by war.

Think of it as post-barrage nation-building.

Only those units equipped with the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System — a small part of the artillery community — are unaffected by the mandate.

“I have signed new table of organization mission statements for the active and Reserve component artillery regiments [and] battalions,” Commandant Gen. Mike Hagee wrote in the Corpswide message, AlMar 061/05. “The new mission statements assign each artillery regimental headquarters and each cannon battalion with a secondary CMO [civil-military operations] mission,” which has thus far been performed by the Corps’ two Reserve civil affairs groups.

The new mission won’t lead to more training for artillerymen or less time honing their cannon-cocker skills, according to Lt. Col. Kraig Kenworthy, civil affairs integration officer with Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va. Some of the artillery units’ leadership will attend a “multi-day” civil-military operations seminar to familiarize them with the civil affairs mission and planning needs.

The movement is a response to the fact that the U.S. military, which is faced with the enormous task of rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, has begun to focus more intently on its limited cadre of civil affairs specialists — troops trained to re-establish services to war-ravaged communities and rebuild the fundamentals of law, government and civil administration.

But the military has only about 6,000 civil affairs specialists, with 99 percent of them coming from the Army. The Marine Corps runs only two permanent civil affairs groups of about 150 leathernecks each — both in the Reserve — and has been at pains to find volunteers to man two more temporary groups established to ease the strain on existing civil affairs units.

“If we’re going to do the things we think we’re going to be doing in the future, the kinds of fights that we’re getting into, the kind of stability operations … we need more civil affairs capability,” said Lt. Gen. Jan Huly, deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations, during an Oct. 19 interview.

All of the Corps’ permanent civil affairs groups had deployed once by the end of the first phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Marine officials say. And although the Corps initiated tentative reform of its civil affairs capability last year, it wasn’t enough.

Until now.

With their huge inventory of trucks, Humvees and sophisticated communications gear, Marine officials believe artillery units have the perfect mix of equipment and expertise to provide assistance to civil affairs groups. The artillery units won’t be trained to be full-up civil affairs Marines, but they’ll have close ties with each of the groups, embedding scores of civil affairs specialists into their artillery command units to help steer reconstruction missions when needed.

Artillery units will take the lead in civil-military operations on behalf of their respective Marine division in a move that will increase the Corps’ civil affairs manpower by more than 6,300 troops.

“When we’re doing all those civil affairs type things, what aren’t we doing? Probably not shooting artillery,” Huly said. “When the artillery stops, that’s when you got to go out and start making friends and passing out water and things like that.”

Marine officials argue that artillery units are usually needed for the initial phases of combat operations, but their operational tempo drops off quickly when combat operations cease. But since they’re already well forward of other units, they’re perfectly positioned to assume civil reconstruction missions quickly.

“Civil affairs units are set up to do the planning and coordination, not to do large-scale execution. A vacuum exists,” Kenworthy said.

“So what happens is, services or operations in the civil-military operations field cannot be done as rapidly as required. What happens is we miss what’s called a ‘golden hour’ to earn the trust and confidence of the local people.”

The integration

In the Corpswide message, Hagee directed Lt. Gen. Jim Mattis, the deputy commandant for combat development and integration, to establish a task force that will meet by the end of December to coordinate integration of civil affairs military occupational specialties with headquarters elements of artillery units to serve as trainers and subject-matter experts. Meetings began Dec. 12.

Each of the four artillery regiments — 10th, 11th, 12th and 14th Marines — in the active and Reserve force will have a complement of 18 civil affairs-trained Marines and two sailors — both medical professionals. Nine civil affairs Marines will be assigned to each of the four artillery regimental headquarters, with three more — one officer and two enlisted civil affairs Marines — assigned to each of the three headquarters batteries per regiment.

The civil affairs experts will be used primarily to help plan civil-military operations when major hostilities end and provide expert advice on what projects should be a priority and how those projects should be executed. The civil affairs Marines will belong to the artillery regiment, not to the civil affairs group staff, Kenworthy said.

“While [the civil affairs Marine] is in the Reserves training, he trains with the civil affairs group. He might do some training with the artillery regiment, but for the most part he’s in the civil affairs group and he is trained and equipped by them,” Kenworthy said. “When he gets mobilized to go with an artillery regiment, he becomes a member of that unit.”

The artillery regiments will have what officials call “habitual relationships” with the Corps’ two civil affairs groups “in order to develop a common culture regarding training standards, standard operating procedures, communications architecture and planning techniques.”

The artillery units’ plans section will work with civil affairs Marines to integrate annual and mobilization training into the regiment’s exercises and pre-deployment workups, said Lt. Col. Rick Long, MCCDC spokesman.

The civil affairs/artillery relationships will be as follows:

• The Washington, D.C.-based 4th Civil Affairs Group will be tied to the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 10th Marines and the Fort Worth, Texas-based 14th Marines.

• The Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd CAG will be linked to the Camp Pendleton-headquartered 11th Marines and the Okinawa, Japan-based 12th Marines.

Marine officials are still figuring out precisely how they’re going to roll out the initiative and CAG/artillery regiment integration timeline, Kenworthy said. He hopes to have them start working together soon, however.

Won’t detract from mission

The decision to give artillery the additional civil-military operations mission took several months and came as the Corps established yet another temporary civil affairs group to staff the increasing need in Iraq for troops to conduct repair projects and civilian restructuring.

Artillery units were deemed best to fill that need because of their sophisticated communications networks — which are integrated with all levels of Marine units, from headquarters to infantry platoons — transportation assets and manpower. Civil affairs detachments increasingly need security while working on civilian projects in insurgent-infested villages, and the artillerymen are a ready source, Kenworthy said.

“When they decrease their tempo on firing their artillery, they have a lot of personnel that’s freed up toward performing security for civil-military operations and the civil affairs Marines who are out there trying to coordinate and plan,” Kenworthy said.

Infantry and aviation units were too busy to assume the mission, Long said, due to the “constabulary nature” of operations in Iraq.

Though Marine officials say the move to assign artillery units the secondary civil affairs mission will have little impact on their pre-deployment training and primary mission of delivering fires, they admit the initiative was a tough sell.

“There was push-back from me on it when Mattis came and brought the idea to me,” Huly confided, wondering at the time: “Is it going to detract from our primary mission? After looking at it long and hard, I don’t think it will.”

Staff writer John Hoellwarth contributed to this report.

More than artillery
Here’s a look at some of the other duties artillery batteries have pulled since the 2003 invasion of Iraq:

• Provisional infantry.

• Provisional military police.

• Base internal security/defense.

• Base external guard force.

• Personal security detachments.

• Border security.

• Personal security detachment for division commanding general.

• Iraqi security forces training.

• ISF headquarters support.

• Operate detention facilities.

• Civil-military operations.

• Information operations.

• Theater Movement Control Center.

• Convoy escorts.

Ellie