About to join the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina - "the most deployed unit within special operations" - it came as little surprise to Major Ben Sunds that, following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, "their operational tempo would probably pick up even more." Placed in charge of a five-man civil affairs team alpha (CAT-A), Sunds participated in the early phases of Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan but actually operated in neighboring Pakistan, where they initially manned a coalition humanitarian liaison center (essentially a civil-military operations center) in Islamabad. "Part of our job," he said, "is to assist non-governmental organizations and international organizations in providing humanitarian relief and building infrastructure. Quite honestly, we want them to do their jobs. Sometimes that's a source of conflict, though, because they think we want to replace them. But our motto is, 'We always want to work ourselves out of a job.'" As Sunds explained, "When those NGOs and IOs don't know the security situation in the area or are unsure, due to conflict, what has been damaged and what the actual needs of the people in the areas are" - in this case, in Afghanistan - "that's where we come in." His CAT-A worked a variety of refugee issues, often closely with the United Nations and often in camps where Taliban influence was strongly apparent, and also found themselves occupying the role of "master facilitator" in terms of coordinating and distributing humanitarian supplies. Among Sunds' more harrowing stories was the time that only quick thinking by a Pakistani Army lieutenant colonel - who convinced an "angry mob" that Sunds and his medic were Turkish Muslims in country to observe training exercises - saved them from near-certain death. Deploying again in early 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom, Sunds and his CAT-A this time worked with the Joint Special Operations Task Force-North and the Kurdish Peshmerga in fixing Saddam Hussein's north-facing divisions along the Green Line. "We conducted foreign internal defense for the Peshmerga, assisted in training and, to a minimal extent, equipping for the war," he said. Later, following the cessation of major hostilities, he dealt with a plethora of heated Arabization-related land disputes and deep-seated ethnic tensions in the Mosul area.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited