Career Progression Impact on Active and Reserve Component Civil Affairs Officer and Enlisted Soldiers as a Result of a Civil Affairs Capabilities Rest

Past and future mobilizations and deployments have placed an immense strain on the current capabilities of the Army's Civil Affairs forces. That has resulted in a recognized need for additional Civil Affair structure and capabilities in the Army's Active Component. Since 96 percent of the Army's Civil Affairs structure and capabilities reside in the Army Reserve the problems of access, operational tempo and responsiveness have created a new requirement for additional Active Component Civil Affair structure and capabilities. Although the actual number of forces impacted is small in the grand scheme of things, it can provide a potential picture of how this type of low-density capability might be increased in future force structure type efforts. Initially the investigator had anticipated finding that this new requirement would have significant career progression impacts on both Active Component and Reserve Component Civil Affairs soldiers, officer and enlisted. Therefore, the study was designed to identify and assess the impacts, but the lack of documentation regarding clearly defined proposals and career progression models hampered both identification and assessment of how realigning a portion of Civil Affairs capabilities from the Reserve Component into the Active Component might affect career progression for Civil Affairs soldiers, officer and enlisted. As a result the investigator concluded that the absence of formal information, discussion and guidance regarding the alignment of capabilities is a clear indication that Civil Affairs, Active or Reserve Component, career progression has not attained the level of visibility and importance that it demands.