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- The 97th Civil Affairs Battalion (Special Operations) (Airborne) is a civil affairs battalion of the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It is a member of the only active duty Special Operations Civil Affairs unit in the United States Department of Defense. The concept for a Civil Affairs brigade had been under consideration for years, but was finally approved as a result of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review. Tracing its lineage to a military government group that was active after World War II, the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) was not officially activated until 2006, and remained a provisional unit until 2007. Its creation was part of a US Army plan to increase Civil Affairs units, and Special Forces units overall. The brigade is a direct reporting unit of the 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne), and as such, is airborne qualified. The 95th CA BDE (SO) (A) commands five geographically aligned civil affairs battalions: 91st, 92nd, 96th, 97th, and the 98th, geographically aligned to Global Combatant Commands (GCC) - AFRICOM, EUCOM, CENTCOM, INDOPACOM, and SOUTHCOM, respectively and under the operational control of the Theater Special Operations Commands (TSOC) - SOCAFRICA, SOCEUR, SOCCENT, SOCPAC, and SOCSOUTH, respectively. Today, SOF Civil Affairs operators are versatile, innovative, and highly trained Soldiers who operate in small, autonomous teams among local populations, in hostile or denied territory. Specially assessed, selected, and trained in foreign languages, cultural expertise, and negotiation techniques, SOF CA Soldiers commonly operate in civilian clothes in over 80 different countries worldwide to build networks of formal and informal leaders and accomplish important missions in diplomatically and politically sensitive areas. (en)
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