95th Civil Affairs Brigade soldiers awarded 70 medals of merit for Afghanistan deployment

At a ceremony held April 6 at Fort Bragg’s main post theater, 70 Soldiers from the 91st and 96th Civil Affairs Battalions received awards for meritorious service while deployed for nine months to Afghanistan.

The awards were presented to Soldiers of the 91st CA Battalion headquarters staff and its Alpha Company, and the 96th CA Battalion’s Echo Company by their brigade commander, Col. Jay Wolff of the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade.

The awards included six Defense Meritorious Service Medals, 39 Bronze Star Medals, two Joint Service Commendation Medals, 20 Army Commendation Medals, and three Army Achievement Medals. Wolff also pinned on 10 Combat Action Badges, and one Combat Medical Badge to 11 Soldiers who also earned the Army badges for performance under hostile fire.

Wolff congratulated the Soldiers of the two civil affairs companies and the 91st CA Battalion’s headquarters staff, noting that this was the first time the headquarters staff of one of his five battalions had deployed to Afghanistan.

“From the village levels, out to the rural areas, all the way up to the national government…It was done spectacularly,” Wolff said.

He said that Special Operations Task Force commanders and Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force commanders especially praised the “seamless transition” between these units and the units arriving to replace them. 

“That’s the first sign of professionalism,” Wolff remarked. “You ensured what you did was captured in the appropriate way and was handed off….and that impact will last.”

While deployed to Afghanistan from June 2011 to March 2012, the civil affairs units and their Soldiers conducted CA operations to support village stability operations while working with Army, Navy and Marine special operations teams and Afghan and U.S. government agencies.

While deployed, Soldiers of Alpha Company, 91st CA Battalion conducted more than 700 combat patrols, 400 key leader engagements, 250 village and district shuras, four medical civil action plans and eight direct and indirect enemy engagements. Because of their battlefield proficiency, the company was also given ground force commander responsibility for more than 20 percent of all combat patrols.

Alpha Company Soldiers also implemented some of the first micro-grants in Kandahar Province, enabling local Afghans to open small businesses and create an independently maintained economic infrastructure. In the Khas Uruzgan district, their civil affairs teams helped establish hydroelectric power to bring electricity to several villages for the first time, and helped establish a stable education system for 3,000 school-aged children.

Echo Company, 96th CA Battalion teams conducted more than 450 combat patrols and experienced 11 direct and indirect enemy engagements, while operating in five provinces across Afghanistan. The teams conducted more than 700 key leader engagements and shuras, 45 clinics and five medical outreach programs treating 1,400 local Afghans.

Echo Company teams worked with local stakeholders, provincial education ministries and provincial reconstruction teams to refurbish and reopen the first public schools in the districts since public schools were closed because of Taliban threats and intimidation. The teams also improved infrastructure, bringing irrigation water to more than 35 villages, as well as flood prevention and road construction projects.

In his remarks to his Soldiers and the audience, Lt. Col. Pflanz said, “What made our teams, companies and battalion element effective in Afghanistan was our people and their education, training and experience [including]….training provided by the element commanders such as the company commanders and battalion commander of the 96th CA Battalion.  And finally experience – hard won experience from multiple deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world.”

Pflanz noted that 30 per cent of the soldiers in Alpha Company alone did back-to-back deployments and that the education, training and experience of the deployed Soldiers “provided a force with a capacity to execute civil affairs operations with incredible effectiveness.”