Team Leader / Writer / Lead Editor
Dennis J. Cahill, Sr.
“Everything I know about Civil Affairs, I learned in Somalia.”
Colonel (Ret.) Dennis J. Cahill, Sr., retired from active duty in 2011 after serving 27 years in the U.S. Army. He is a 2014 Distinguished Member of the Regiment (DMOR) for the Civil Affairs Corps, a past Honorary Colonel of the Regiment (HCOR) for the Civil Affairs Corps, and a 2005-2006 National Security Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University under the U.S. Army War College Fellowship Program. A 1984 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy commissioned as a Field Artillery officer, he began his uniformed career in civil affairs in 1992, starting as a Civil Affairs Direct Support Team Leader with C Company, 96th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne) and ending as the G-3/5/7 of U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) and the Development Line of Operation Chief for CJTF-82/Regional Command-East in Afghanistan. His major civil affairs deployments include Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1993, Operation Iraqi Freedom Study Group in 2003, and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2009-2010. He is the author of FM 3-05.401/MCRP 3-33.1A, Civil Affairs Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, published in 2003, and has written extensively on civil affairs topics in numerous publications. He is a Civil Affairs Association (CAA) Director who serves as copy editor of the annual publication of Civil Affairs issue papers and conference reports on the Publications Committee and as Chairman of the Legacy Committee.
Team Member / Writer
Christopher Holshek
Colonel (Ret.) Christopher Holshek is an international peace & and security consultant and civil-military director at Narrative Strategies. A retired U.S. Army Civil Affairs officer with over three decades of civil-military conflict management experience at multiple levels and settings across the full range of operations, his assignments included: command of the first Civil Affairs battalion deployed to Iraq, in support of Army, Marine and British forces (featured in Thomas Rick’s Fiasco); Chief of Civil-Military Coordination for the UN Mission in Liberia; European Command Military Representative at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and a senior associate with the Project on National Security Reform. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command inducted him as a Distinguished Member of the Regiment for the Civil Affairs Corps in 2017. In addition to his contributions to U.S. Army, Joint, NATO, and UN civil-military and peace & stability operations policy and doctrine, he has published in numerous formats on national strategy, civil-military, humanitarian, and peace & stability issues, including Foreign Policy, The Huffington Post, Sicherheit & Frieden, and the Modern War Institute, as well as chapters books on security and civil-military affairs.
More recently, he has been a senior civil-military advisor for the NATO “Resilient Civilians in Hybrid and Population-Centric Warfare” and Grey Zone projects. As a vice president for the Civil Affairs Association, he develops and organizes force and professional development events for U.S. civil affairs with interagency and multinational partners and edits the Civil Affairs Issue Papers. He is also the principal author of the Peace Operations Training Institute’s course on Civil-Military Coordination in Peace Operations, which he recently updated. For his efforts to strengthen transatlantic ties among civil-military professionals, he received the NATO CIMIC Center of Excellence Award in 2021. A rare American with UN field mission service in civilian and military capacities in the Balkans and Africa, he contributed to the original UN civil-military policy in 2010 and to the 2017 UN Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination Standards.
At home in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley, his civic work is largely based on his book, Travels with Harley – Journeys in Search of Personal and National Identity. With the American Legion Riders of Orange County, NY, he helps drive Legion support of youth development. In partnership with the Orange County Youth Bureau and others, his National Service Ride project is an adaptive, community-based initiative to mobilize youth to better themselves, their community, and their country through community service as well as to help schools integrate service-learning in their curriculum strategies in support of the New York State’s Seal of Civic Readiness Program. In 2024, he introduced an initiative for high school seniors and young veterans to serve as “youth guardians” on Honor Flights with the Hudson Valley Honor Flight. They have a unique, first-hand opportunity to better understand the meaning and value of patriotism and service, helping to pass the baton of leadership from one generation of Americans to the next.
For his service prior to and since his retirement, Sen. James Skoufis inducted him into the 2023 New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame.
Team Member / Writer
Ryan McCannell
Ryan McCannell is in transition from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), having served most recently as acting deputy director of the USAID Office of Civilian-Military Cooperation. From 2022 to 2024, he served as development advisor to the Department of Defense, detailed to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.
From 2018 to 2022, Mr. McCannell directed the USAID Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention and its predecessor, the Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation. Previously he was a faculty instructor at the U.S. Army War College and senior advisor to the Peacekeeping & Stability Operations Institute; democracy specialist, senior advisor, and division chief for Conflict, Peacebuilding, and Governance in the USAID Bureau for Africa; and program officer for African political development programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington D.C. He teaches part-time at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy.
Mr. McCannell served on the board of directors of the Civil Affairs Association from 2019 to 2025 after presenting an award-winning Civil Affairs Issue Paper in 2018 on the evolution of Civil Affairs and interagency partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was an inaugural member of the editorial board for the CA Association’s online Eunomia Journal and has written several pieces on the relationships between the Civil Affairs community and its relationships with other federal agencies, as well as moderating numerous panels on this issue for Association events. Mr. McCannell participated on several board committees to improve outreach and expand the membership of the CA Association, with an emphasis on promoting its work in the diplomatic and development assistance communities. In October 2021, he received the Association’s Ralph R. Temple Award for his “outstanding service in the furtherance of the Association’s objectives.” In November 2024, the Association awarded him with a silver General Winfield Scott Medallion for having demonstrated “the highest standards of integrity, moral character, professional competence, and who have contributed to the promotion and advancement of the Regiment.” He was recently selected as an Honorary Member of the Regiment for the Civil Affairs Corps and will officially receive this honor in a ceremony at Fort Bragg, NC, in November 2025.
Team Member / Writer
Patrick Pascall
“Plans are nothing; planning is everything.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
Colonel (Ret.) Patrick Pascall began his military journey in 1979, enlisting in the U.S. Coast Guard at age 18 from Buffalo, New York. After a brief break in service, he joined the U.S. Army and completed Military Police training at Fort McLellan, Alabama. He deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm and served with the 42nd Infantry Division of the New York Army National Guard. In 1993, he earned his commission through Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Armor branch.
Over the next four years, COL Pascall served as an Armor Platoon Leader and Company Commander before transitioning to Civil Affairs in 1997. Prior to September 11, 2001, he completed Airborne School, multiple Combat Training Center rotations, and humanitarian assistance missions across the Caribbean and Central America. He deployed to Haiti with the U.S. Support Group, serving as the J5 planner for humanitarian and civic assistance projects.
Following the attacks of September 11th, COL Pascall deployed to Afghanistan as a Civil Affairs Team Leader supporting the Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF) and Special Forces Team ODA 514, 5th Special Forces Group. Working alongside the Northern Alliance, his team helped establish the first Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT)—the model later replicated across Afghanistan to advance governance and humanitarian coordination.
In 2003, he deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. There he led Civil Affairs efforts with the 1st Armored Division and 1st Cavalry Division, as well as the U.S. Marine Corps. His team established the first Neighborhood and District Advisory Councils, which became the framework for local governance and civic engagement throughout Iraq.
In 2006, COL Pascall joined Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT) as a Civil Affairs planner, serving in Tampa, Qatar, Afghanistan, and Djibouti. He developed the five-year Civil Affairs plan for the Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) and contributed to planning efforts for both Iraq and Afghanistan.
After graduating from the Command and General Staff College in 2008 and the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) in 2009, COL Pascall joined the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command (JECC) in Norfolk, Virginia. He deployed to Haiti in 2010 following the earthquake, leading Civil Affairs planning for Joint Task Force–Haiti and Operation Unified Response. He later served as lead operational planner for Operation Odyssey Dawn, which deployed a Joint Task Force aboard the USS Mount Whitney to direct coalition operations in Libya.
In 2013, after a 26-year career as a Police Chief in Buffalo, New York, COL Pascall returned to active duty. He completed the Army War College Basic Strategist Program (BSAP) and served at the Pentagon as Director of Strategic Analysis in the Army G-3/5/7. The following year, he assumed command of the 445th Civil Affairs Battalion in Mountain View, California, where he established a strong partnership with the 25th Infantry Division and positioned the unit as the premier Civil Affairs battalion supporting U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
In 2016, COL Pascall attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, earning a Master’s in National Security Studies. While there, he represented the Army in the President’s Cup hockey competition and instructed fellow students on Joint Task Force operations. Upon graduation, he was promoted to Colonel and assigned to the 9th Mission Support Command in Hawaii, serving as Chief of Operations, Plans, and Training for U.S. Army Pacific. In that role, he oversaw the development of multiple operational plans and the synchronization of a staff supporting 31 subordinate units and more than 3,000 Soldiers.
COL Pascall has been married to his wife, Amy, for 30 years. They have two children: Heather, a nurse in Buffalo, New York, and Ryan, a federal employee at Fort Meade, Maryland, who aspires to serve in the U.S. Department of State.
Team Member / Writer
