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Assessment and selection for Regular Army civil affairs units.
CAAS did not exist in 1992 when I was in the Regular Army and chose civil affairs as a functional area. Officers self-selected into the functional area with no screening; non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were transferred (often reluctantly) from the 82nd Airborne Division, 20th Engineer Brigade, and medical units around Fort Bragg, NC, to fill 11B Team Sergeant, 12B Engineer Sergeant, and 91B Medical Sergeant positions. The 13 public safety, medical, engineer, logistics, and administrative positions on the company civil assistance teams were hardly ever filled. As a result, we often had team members who were not suited for civil affairs. I met many great people in the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne), but I also encountered several who lacked basic people skills. If they could not relate to or get along with members of their own unit, I wondered, how could we expect them to succeed in establishing relationships with members of supported units or, more importantly, the members of foreign communities on whom we rely for information or actions that are critical to our mission sets?
The requirement for CAAS arose after CA became a branch of the Regular Army in 2006. Initially, officers fully trained in functional area 39C, Civil Affairs, were offered the chance to switch to the new area of concentration (AOC) 38A, Civil Affairs, and were grandfathered in without further assessment or selection. The transfer process for non-commissioned officers (NCOs) was more difficult because, at that time, there was no 38B military occupational specialty (MOS) training program for active component (AC) NCOs.
According to a 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Special Operations) (Airborne) information brief dated 30 January 2012, the challenge faced by the CA force in those early days was to “ensure that all potential CA candidates have the appropriate combination of physical, emotional, and functional attributes (SOF Attributes) required for graduation from CAQC [Civil Affairs Qualification Course] and for successful service within the Active Component Civil Affairs.” The CAAS cadre, composed of borrowed military manpower, conducted three pilot courses in FY 2010, starting in November 2009, and transitioned to full implementation in 2011. The CAAS schedule reflected events tied to the baseline ARSOF attributes: intellect (intelligence and problem-solving), character (judgment, influence, integrity, and team player), and commitment (motivation, physical fitness, and perseverance).
Today, candidates for the AOC 38S, Special Operations Forces (SOF) Governance Officer, and MOSs 38R, Civil Reconnaissance Sergeant, and 38W, Civil Affairs Medical Sergeant, are generally recruited by the Special Operations Recruiting Battalion (SORB). CAAS continues to operate with borrowed military manpower.
Since the summer of 2025, the USAJFKSWCS has been studying the idea of combining CAAS for AC civil affairs and psychological operations (PO) candidates in an effort to reduce overhead. As of the publication of this blog post, the results of that study have not been released.
Assessment and selection for U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) civil affairs units.
A centrally-controlled assessment and selection process did not exist for the USAR CA units I was assigned to and observed in the late 1990s and early 2000s (and still does not today). In the USAR, Soldiers are generally assigned to units first and, if needed, trained later. Training in an Army AOC or MOS was not required for officers and NCOs whose AOC or MOS matched the desired position; however, for those officers and NCOs who wanted to branch transfer to the civil affairs AOC 38A or MOS 38B, a process was in place then and remains in place today.
While USAR recruiters do exist, USAR CA units do not have dedicated recruiters focused solely on their units like USASOC’s SORB. Membership in USAR units is usually (but not always) based on geography, with most members living within a reasonable commuting distance (e.g., 50 to 100 miles) of the unit reserve center. Filling vacancies is the responsibility of the unit. When a Soldier shows interest in joining a unit or is recruited by the chain of command for CA vacancies, his or her suitability for the unit and the position is typically assessed through a series of interviews with key unit leaders. Of course, the process varies among units, but it is hoped that each unit seeks a Soldier with the personal qualities necessary to succeed as a CA officer or NCO.
If the Soldier meets the unit’s expectations, he or she must obtain permission to transfer from his or her losing unit by processing a DA Form 4651, Request for Reserve Component Assignment or Attachment. Once in the CA unit, the Soldier must complete all training requirements for the new AOC or MOS within two years of assignment.
For more information.
For those Regular Army Soldiers planning to attend CAAS, these links offer some tips for preparing for and navigating the process today.
– Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection: What you need to know
– Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection #caas #caqc #army #civilaffairs
– How to Pass the Civil Affairs Assessment and Selection
– CAAS Prep Handbook FY25 Final.pdf
Questions for our teammates: Was there CAAS when you were considering CA? What were your expectations about CA assessment and selection (if applicable), attending the CA Qualification Course, and assignment to a CA unit? Was your experience everything you expected, or were there surprises?
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