This Fort Liberty unit is being disbanded — again

Rachael Riley, Fayetteville Observer
Updated ·2 min read

Editor's note: This is an updated version of the original story.

A Fort Liberty civil affairs battalion will remain only in the history books after a two-year process to disband the unit is completed in June, a spokesman for the 18th Airborne Corps said this week.

A January 2022 Army Structure Memorandum, part of the total Army analysis of its force structure, directed that the 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion be inactivated, Sgt. Maj. Daniel Bailey said. Initially, the inactivation was to be completed by September but that date changed to June.

The 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion is the U.S. Army Forces Command’s only active-duty civil affairs component and is aligned with the 16th Military Police Brigade under the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty, according to the Army.

“The 83d maintains readiness in order to support any worldwide contingency mission,” with soldiers skilled in civil reconnaissance, civil and network engagement and civil information management and “prepared for multi-domain operations and large-scale combat operations,” the unit’s website states.

Sgt. 1st Class Jordan Phillips, with the 83rd Civil Affairs, shares tactical combat casualty care procedures with Lebanese armed forces in July 2015 during Resolute Response, a bilateral training engagement between the U.S. military and Lebanese armed forces.
Sgt. 1st Class Jordan Phillips, with the 83rd Civil Affairs, shares tactical combat casualty care procedures with Lebanese armed forces in July 2015 during Resolute Response, a bilateral training engagement between the U.S. military and Lebanese armed forces.

What's next?

Bailey said orders to disband were published Oct. 20, 2022, and the Army personnel system normally stops assigning soldiers to an inactivating unit one year before the inactivation date.

“The 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion completed all mission requirements in the fall of 2023 and began a deliberate reassignment of all remaining personnel, to be complete by June 2024,” he said.

About 160 of the unit's 263 soldiers have already been reassigned to the Army Special Operations Command’s civil affairs units or civil affairs staff positions in other units, Bailey said.

The remaining soldiers with other job specialties will be reassigned across the Army, “with priority to fill requirements” at Fort Liberty, he said.

“Soldiers are reassigned to meet the needs of the Army,” Bailey said.

Then-Lt. Canyon Yeamans from the 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion, shows photos to leaders of the Indian Army at Ban Non Lueam School in Korat Province Jan. 27, 2017 during annual multilateral training exercise Cobra Gold 2017.
Then-Lt. Canyon Yeamans from the 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion, shows photos to leaders of the Indian Army at Ban Non Lueam School in Korat Province Jan. 27, 2017 during annual multilateral training exercise Cobra Gold 2017.

More: Civil affairs battalion to remain at Fort Bragg

Unit history of inactivation, reactivating

According to the Army, this year is not the first time the 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion has been inactivated.

The unit's storied past traces to its first activation as the 41st Military Government, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, at the Presidio in Monterey, California, on Aug. 24, 1945.

It was inactivated May 31, 1947, after the Korean War and reactivated March 18, 1955, at Camp Gordon, Georgia, before being designated as the 41st Civil Affairs Company on June 25, 1959.

A team member from U.S. Army Civil Affairs Team 8324, 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion, provides guidance on site exploitation for Gabonese park rangers known as EcoGuards during counter illicit trafficking training in September 2018 in Loango National Park, Gabon, Africa.
A team member from U.S. Army Civil Affairs Team 8324, 83rd Civil Affairs Battalion, provides guidance on site exploitation for Gabonese park rangers known as EcoGuards during counter illicit trafficking training in September 2018 in Loango National Park, Gabon, Africa.

In 1965, during the Vietnam War, the company was assigned to the Headquarters Company, I Field Force, Vietnam, in Nha Trang, where it participated in major campaigns and earned the Meritorious Unit Citation.

The unit was again disbanded Feb. 29, 1970, during the drawdown of American forces in Vietnam and was most recently reactivated on Sept. 16, 2012, as the active-duty Army's, U.S. Central Command-aligned civil affairs battalion for conventional forces.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fort Liberty civil affairs unit to deactivate this summer