7-minute read
Reporting back to the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne) (96th CA Bn (Abn)).
The CA Course ended on 21 August 1992, a Friday. My orders required me to return immediately to the 96th CA Bn (Abn) after completing the 6-week CA course; the rest of the “pipeline” – Regional Studies Course, language training, and (if selected) a master’s degree in international relations from Troy State University – would have to wait.
The 96th CA Bn (Abn) HQs was located on Ardennes Street directly across from the John F. Kennedy Memorial Chapel in the building that now houses the Special Warfare Museum. The four line companies were located two blocks east, across Community Access (now Zabitosky) Road, and behind the former location of the Special Warfare Museum at the corner of Ardennes Street and Reilly (now Rock Merritt) Road. Both buildings were razed in 2017 to make way for the construction of Volckmann Hall.
When I signed in, the battalion’s companies were focused on the four existing Geographic Combatant Commands, as follows:
A Co – U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM)
B Co – U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM)
C Co – U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM)
D Co – U.S. European Command (EUCOM)
I knew I had been slated for C Co, but since I was pretty proficient in Spanish after 6½ years of studying the language in high school and at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) – including an immersion program in the summer of 1983 that sent me to the Dominican Republic for two weeks and assigned me, along with five other USMA cadets, to host twenty cadets from ten Latin American countries for another two weeks – I asked if it would be possible to be assigned to A Co. I was told that Alpha Co had its full complement of officers, but Charlie Co was short several captains.
When I reported to Charlie Co, I was assigned as Team Leader of a four-member CA Direct Support Team (CADST). My Team Sergeant was an 11B Infantryman with years of experience in the 82nd Airborne Division; my Team Engineer was a 12B Combat Engineer from the 20th Engineer Brigade; and my Team Medic was a 91B Combat Medic (now 68W Healthcare Specialist) from the 82nd Airborne Division. None of them had been formally trained in civil affairs operations (CAO), and all I knew about CAO was what I had learned in the previous six weeks. We quickly settled into a garrison routine of studying the CENTCOM theater, inventorying and maintaining team equipment, participating in airborne operations, and supporting USASOC taskers.
Class A inspection.
One routine event was a battalion Class A inspection held in the JFK Chapel parking lot. There were very few Soldiers in the formation because the battalion routinely deployed about half of its members to multiple requirements and for varying durations in each theater. When the battalion commander approached me, I remember him looking me over and jokingly saying, “Gray hair is not authorized in this unit.” Next was the battalion command sergeant major, who first looked at my “slick sleeve” right shoulder and then at the meager five ribbons I had earned in eight years of service, including two overseas assignments and a tour with the 1st Ranger Battalion. He then said, “We’ll take care of that.”
Battalion Prop Blast.
Another memorable event was an ill-fated Battalion Prop Blast Ceremony. The Prop Blast Ceremony is an airborne unit tradition that started in December 1940 at Fort Benning, GA, and aims to foster camaraderie and pride among newly qualified U.S. Army paratroopers joining their first tactical airborne unit. For this ceremony, the Prop Blast Cadre made exceptions to the usual rules. Before arriving at the 96th, I had already spent 32 months on jump status, completed 38 military jumps from high-performance aircraft, with 29 of those being day or nighttime combat equipment jumps, and earned Senior Parachutist wings – mostly while assigned to 1st Ranger Battalion. However, the 1st Ranger Battalion did not hold a Prop Blast Ceremony during my 26 months there.
On the designated day and time, I, along with about 18 other newly assigned, airborne-qualified Soldiers of the unit, stood in formation in the parking lot behind the Alpha Co area. When the Prop Blast Cadre emerged from Alpha Co’s back door, the senior cadre member – the A Co commander – was speechless. Apparently, we ignored the memo that stated paratroopers who are to be Prop Blasted must present themselves to the senior member in proper uniform. Before him stood a scruffy and seemingly undisciplined group of men and women in bandanas, sleeveless brown T-shirts, BDU trousers cut into shorts, and combat boots. The battalion S-3 was even carrying a “boom box” playing obnoxious music. The A Co commander refused to start the ceremony until we fell out and returned in proper uniform, but, at the direction of the S-3, we stood our ground. Finally, after what seemed to be at least 30 minutes of both sides standing and staring in stubborn silence, the battalion commander, standing in the Prop Blast formation’s third squad, ordered both cadre and uninitiated to stand down, change into proper uniform, and report to the aircraft mock-ups at Green Ramp where we would spend the rest of the afternoon conducting a modified version of pre-jump training as a “professional development” event. To this day, after completing 119 jumps in five separate airborne units over 15 years on jump status, I have never participated in a true Prop Blast Ceremony.
Static Display.
A final memorable event was supporting a tasker to present a static display briefing on the operations and activities of the 96th CA Bn (Abn) in Spanish to 30 officers from the Guatemalan Command and General Staff College. Since I was the only Spanish-speaking officer in Charlie Co, the tasker came to me. When I tried to reclama the tasker and have it reassigned to Alpha Co, I was told that all the officers in Alpha Co were deployed, and I was the only one in the battalion with the language skills to do it. The briefing involved a prepared speech based on a series of photos displayed on a standard A-frame sandwich board. I took the script, originally written in English, and carefully translated it into Spanish, consulting with a Spanish instructor at USAJFKSWCS to ensure accuracy. I memorized the speech, rehearsed it multiple times, and believed I had it down. When it was time to present to the Guatemalan officers, my mind went blank on one photo halfway through. I said aloud, “No recuerdo la palabra.” One of the Guatemalan officers then said, “Say the word in English.” I responded, “No recuerdo la palabra en inglés, tampoco.” The word eventually came to me, and I finished the presentation. I quickly realized I was “given a chance to excel,” even though anyone in the unit could have delivered the presentation in English, and the audience would have understood completely.
Choice of TDY.
Sometime in early September, not long after reporting to the unit, the C Co commander called me into his office to discuss a common challenge for CA company commanders. Charlie Co was tasked with sending three individuals on three separate missions that required captains. One was to CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa, FL, to review CENTCOM War Plans; another was to a location I don’t recall within the CENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR); and the third was for duty as an observer/controller augmentee during two rotations at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Chaffee, AR. The commander selected three of his CADST leaders for these missions. He told me he planned to give each of us the chance to choose our preferred mission when he called us together later that afternoon. He also recommended I choose the duty at JRTC, highlighting it as an excellent opportunity to observe and mentor a CA team supporting brigade combat team (BCT) operations, since I had extensive BCT experience from my three years providing fire support to 1st Bde, 3ID, in Germany.
That afternoon, three captains entered the commander’s office to discuss TDYs. By the time we left, one chose to review CENTCOM war plans, the second chose a trip to the CENTCOM AOR, and I chose JRTC. I was beginning to see what life would be like in the Army’s only active-duty CA battalion.
Questions for our teammates: What was the reception at your first CA unit like? Was it everything you expected, or were there surprises? How different was life in this unit from your previous unit assignments?
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