95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne)
95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Provisional)

Civil affairs units support military commanders by working with civil authorities and civilian populations in the commander's area of operations during peace, contingency operations and war. Used during both conventional and special operations, civil affairs forces have a vital role and are capable of assisting and supporting the civil administration during operations.

Civil affairs specialists identify critical requirements needed by local citizens in war or disaster situations. They also locate civilian resources to support military operations, help minimize civilian interference with operations, support national assistance activities, plan and execute noncombatant evacuation, support counterdrug operations and establish and maintain liaison with civilian aid agencies and other nongovernmental organizations.

In support of special operations, these culturally-oriented, linguistically-capable Soldiers may also be tasked to provide functional expertise for foreign internal defense operations, unconventional warfare operations and direct action missions. The functional structure of civil affairs forces and their expertise, training, and orientation provide a capability for emergency coordination and administration where political-economic structures have been incapacitated.

The 95th Civil Affairs Brigade was first constituted on 25 August 1945 in the Army of the United States as the 95th Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, Military Government Group, and activated at the Presidio of Monterey, California. After the end of the Second World War, the unit deployed to Japan to participate in the occupation. It was inactivated there on 30 June 1946.

While inactive, the unit was redesignated on 7 September 1948 as the 95th Military Government Group. It was reactivated on 29 October 1948 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. During the Korean War the unit was deployed and participated in 3 campaigns: First UN Counteroffensive, CCF Spring Offensive, and UN Summer-Fall Offensive. The unit was inactivated on 28 October 1951 in Korea.

The unit was allotted on 9 December 1954 to the Regular Army and activated on 9 February 1955 at Camp Gordon, Georgia. It was reorganized and redesignated on 25 June 1959 as the 95th Civil Affairs Group. The unit was inactivated on 21 December 1974 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Provisional) was stood up in FY06. Though technically inactive, the unit was formally redesignated on 14 March 2006 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 95th Civil Affairs Brigade. As of May 2006, the unit was composed of approximately 420 soldiers with 20 assigned to the Brigade Headquarters and the remaining 400 to the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion. Troop strength for the brigade was slated, as of May 2006, to eventually grow to about 900 soldiers by the year 2011.

Though the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) was only formally activated on 16 March 2007 at Fort Bragg North Carolina, other units had provided tactical civil affairs was provided to military commanders during Operation Just Cause in Panama, Operation Desert Shield, and Operation Desert Storm in Southwest Asia, support to the restoration of the Panamanian government infrastructure during Operation Promote Liberty, management of Haitian refugee camps at Guantanamo Bay and stateside natural disaster assistance in the aftermath of hurricanes Andrew and Iniki. Civil affairs experts were also called on to help rebuild the Haitian civilian infrastructure during Operation Uphold Democracy and participated in NATO peacekeeping operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.

Before and after the activation of the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, Civil Affairs units deployed with ground combat units in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom to assist the Afghan and Iraqi people in rehabilitating their societies after the Global War on Terrorism brought an end to decades of war and oppression in those countries. Civil affairs soldiers played critical roles in the global peace and stabilization and reconstruction of both countries and provided support for missions in countries like Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia and Yemen.

Initially, the Brigade was only assigned the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne), which had previously fufilled the civil affairs mission for the special operations forces community and as a civil affairs element that could be rapidly deployed around the world. Concurrently with the activation of the Brigade, the 97th Civil Affairs Battalion was also activated. This was followed by the activation of the 98th Civil Affairs Battalion in 2008 and the 91st Civil Affairs Battalion in 2009.

With these activations, regional focuses could be assigned to entire battalions. The 96th Civil Affairs Battalion was reoriented toward to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility. 97th Civil Affairs Battalion was focused toward the US Pacific Command (PACOM) area of operations. 98th Civil Affairs Battalion was focused toward the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility. 91st Civil Affairs Battalion was focused toward both the area of responsibility for US European Command (EUCOM) and of the new US Africa Command (AFRICOM). As of 2008, the US Army was already planning to active a fifth battalion specifically for EUCOM.