Motley Crew

There are four main civil affairs units in the Marine Corps, two reserve and two active duty. The reserve units are located in Washington DC (4th) and Camp Pendleton (3rd), while the active duty units are housed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (attached to the 10th Marine Regiment) and at Las Pulgas (attached to the 11th Marine Regiment). It is to the last of these that I belong.

Marines think it is strange that we are located here. After all, 11th Marines (AKA The Cannon Cockers) is an artillery unit having nothing to do after with our mission. In fact, we seem to have been placed here as an afterthought, perhaps having to do with available space on Pulgas. We have heard rumblings of being moved to the First Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) headquarters further south in Del Mar, but so far that has yielded nothing solid.

Our position is just one indicator of our pariah status. Another would be the Civil Affairs Course offered in Quantico, Virginia. The four-week class began less than a year ago and is staffed mostly by senior enlisted Marines with very little experience in civil affairs. Marines returning from the course found it compelling only because they started knowing absolutely nothing about our work.

This brings me to the most interesting aspect of our civil affairs detachment (all forty-something of us) and that is the variety of backgrounds. Most of the Marines arrived at this unit after being "offered" by their parent command, usually an artillery battery from 11th Marines. This crew comes from communications, heavy equipment, motor transportation, utilities, and so on. The officers also arrive from a variety of places and rarely have any background in civil affairs. I would bet less than one in ten would even have heard of this job before arriving at the shop. My story--an idealist dead set on working in civil affairs--seems to be almost unique.

The one exception is a fascinating young lance corporal I'll call Tongue. He spent four years as an interpreter for the United Nations, two for Doctors without Borders, and then two for USAID. For some reason (one I have a hard time fathoming) he focused on joining the Marines and is now working as our unofficial cultural/linguistic advisor. He already speaks five languages, improves his pashtu every day, and will prove invaluable for his team when they deploy.

I see Tongue as a harbinger of the future. As the Marine Corps recognizes the importance of governance and reconstruction as they relate to our broader objectives, it will begin to draw in people from more diverse backgrounds focused on non-traditional fields. They will enlist because they recognize the value of the challenges and traditions of the Marines while seeking broad and varied training applicable in the civilian sector. I hope time does not make me into a liar, because otherwise we will remain a motley crew.