Civil Affairs
unclestevie45, funny my third post to you today!!
I served in Vietnam, and worked with the 4th Infantry CA teams working in the Jarai Montegnard villages of the central highlands. My unit maintained Camp Courage, 13 enlisted men and 1 officer who lived in the combined relocation village of Plei Klan Ngol.
My time spent there was very interesting and uplifting. Beside helping the villagers learn how to defend themselves from Viet Cong, we brought them clothing, medicine and sanitary education, as well as English lessons.
We ate the native food, lived in the Vil with pot bellied pigs and chickens running all around, and Water Buffalo working in the rice paddies.
I wasn't a full time CA specialist, but I spent a fair amount of time with Major Barrantine, our Division S4 who was in charge. We had a Priest who said Mass in the Vil on some Sundays for the troops there, and some villagers joined in.
We taught them about sanitary water, disease control and worked side by side with them planting and harvesting rice. They showed us how they used local resources to survive.
We learned from them, they learned from us. It was a unique experience that I'm glad I had the opportunity to share.
While there were some scarey nights and probed perimeters, the CA work was relativley quiet compared to a grunts work. If you need the adrennalin rush, or are an action freak it might not be for you. If you want to help some people in desperate need, and let yourself grow, you might like it.
I think the CA work going on in Iraq now is a lot tougher job than it was in Vietnam. While I had exposure to some ARVN (Army Republic of Vietnam) units and civilians, for the most part they weren't as hostile and militant as the civilians in Iraq now. Maybe you COULD get the rush there!!