United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command

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United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne)
U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) shoulder sleeve insignia.
Active	1990–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army
Type	U.S. Army Reserve
Role	Civil Affairs and PSYOP
Garrison/HQ	Fort Liberty, North Carolina
Website	USACAPOC(A) official website
Commanders
Current commander	BG Andrée G. Carter
Insignia
Distinctive unit insignia of the command
Unit flash of the command
Combat service identification badge

The United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), USACAPOC(A), or CAPOC was founded in 1985 and is headquartered at Fort Liberty, North Carolina.^[1] USACAPOC(A) is composed mostly of U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers in units throughout the United States. The size of the Command is nearly 13,500 Soldiers,^[2] which is 76% of the Department of Defense's Civil Affairs forces and 63% of Psychological Operations forces.^[3]

Historically, USACAPOC(A) was one of four major subordinate commands composing the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). In May 2006, the reserve component of USACAPOC(A) was administratively reorganized under the U.S. Army Reserve Command. The administrative move, however, does not detract from the capability of Army Reserve Civil Affairs Soldiers ability to carry out missions in support of unconventional environments or special operations. Both Active and Reserve component Civil Affairs Soldiers are products of the special operations community, they must go through qualification training at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. The Army Reserve Civil Affairs is considered to be more dynamic than that of their Active duty counterparts. The largest difference being, while the Active component’s focus is mainly on unconventional environments, individual Soldiers from the Army Reserve Civil Affairs may be tasked with supporting both conventional or unconventional operations. In addition, the Army Reserve Civil Affairs largely maintains functional skills or specialties that the Active Component is typically unable to, due to the nature of a separate civilian career or the professional backgrounds of many Reserve Soldiers. The Army's active duty Special Operations Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations units, along with the Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Force Modernization/Branch Proponents, continue to fall under the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, respectively. The Active Component Civil Affairs Brigade—the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade—and the two active component Psychological Operations Groups—the 4th Psychological Operations Group and the 8th Psychological Operations Group—fall under USASOC.^[4]

U.S. Army Reserve Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations constitute 5% of the U.S. Army Reserve's total force, but account for approximately 20% of Army Reserve deployments. Reserve Civil Affairs are deployable specialized forces within the Reserve. Reserve Soldiers often bring civilian expertise and education that is typically not found among active-duty soldiers. The projects these elements coordinate are worldwide, but more recently have focused on Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa regions.^{[citation needed]}