4th Civil Affairs Group

4th Civil Affairs Group (4th CAG) is a civil affairs unit of the United States Marine Corps. It is based in Hialeah, Florida. For information on 4th CAG prior to 2012, see 2nd Civil Affairs Group, which was formed out of the original 4th CAG in Washington D.C.[1] It is one of only four civil affairs groups in the Marine Corps, all of which are reserve units. 4th CAG was the first civil affairs group in the Marine Corps and mostly supports II MEF.

4th Civil Affairs Group
CountryUnited States
BranchUSMCR
TypeCivil Affairs
RolePlan & conduct civil-military operations in concert with combat operations to reach the commander’s objectives.
Part ofMarine Forces Reserve
Garrison/HQHialeah, FL
EngagementsOperation Desert Storm
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Operation Enduring Freedom
Commanders
Current
commander		Colonel David Cox
4th CAG at the USMC War Memorial, Washington, DC in August 2004

Organization

4th CAG is commanded by a Colonel and the unit has 38 Marine officers, 85 Marine enlisted, 4 Navy officers and 1 Navy enlisted.[2] The unit consists of one Headquarters Detachment and three Line Detachments. Civil Affairs Marines carry the secondary Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 0530/0531 (Civil Affairs Officer/Specialist) in addition to their primary military operational speciality.

History

On November 1, 1955, 4th CAG was activated originally as 5th Staff Group at Henderson Hall, Arlington, Virginia.[3] The first commanding officer was Colonel Winslow H. Randolph Jr. In 1973, the unit had a table of organization of 30 officers and 50 enlisted and was commanded by Colonel J. Z. Taylor.[4] In the late 1970s, 4th CAG supported several iterations of Operation Solid Shield with NATO.[5] In 1979, 4th CAG was relocated to Naval Support Facility Anacostia.[3] 4th CAG activated several Marines for the first time in the unit's history to support Operation Just Cause in Panama.[6] The entire unit was activated for the first time in December 1990 and deployed for Operation Desert Storm in 1991.[6][7] During Operation Desert Storm, 4th CAG was assigned to 2nd Marine Division and helped process over 10,000 Iraqi POWs.[8] Immediately upon return from the Middle East, a detachment from 4th CAG deployed to Northern Iraq in support of Operation Provide Comfort to provide humanitarian aid to Kurdish refugees.[9] 4th CAG sent numerous detachments to the Balkans in mid-1990s until 2003.[10][11] 4th CAG participated in numerous New Horizons missions in Central/South America and the Caribbean Islands. 4th CAG deployed to Iraq three times for the Iraq War: (1) February to September 2003, (2) August 2004 to March 2005 and (3) September 2006 to April 2007. 4th CAG sent a detachment to support Joint Task Force Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, from September to October 2005. 4th Civil Affairs Group also sent detachments to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom in May 2009, November 2009, and August 2011 and participated in Operation Strike of the Sword.

On December 15, 2013, 4th CAG was reactivated and relocated to Hialeah, Florida, as part of the Force Structure Review. Colonel Augustin Bolanio was assigned as the Group Commander and Sergeant Major Mark T. Davis was posted as the Group Sergeant Major. 4th CAG's primary mission is to provide civil affairs support to the U.S. Southern Command.

Unit awards
4th CAG Lineage
4th CAG Honors
  •   Presidential Unit Citation
    • March 21, 2003, to April 24, 2003 (with I MEF)
    • May 29, 2009, to April 12, 2010 (with 2d MEB)[12]
  •   Navy Unit Commendation
    • January 1997 to November 2001
    • August 2, 2004, to February 1, 2005 (with I MEF)
    • September 2006 to March 2007 (with I & II MEF)
  •   Meritorious Unit Commendation
    • August 1, 1990, to June 30, 1991 (with 4th MarDiv)
  •   Commandant of the Marine Corps Certificate of Commendation
    • December 1978 to December 1980

Notable members

Notes
  1. "Our Nations Civil Affairs Units". Civil Affairs Association. 2002. Archived from the original on 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2007-08-30. This webpage listed locations of civil affairs units throughout the United States.
  2. U.S. Marine Corps (February 1999). 4th Civil Affairs Group, MARFORRES — Table of Organization. Retrieved 2007-11-01. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. "Unit Profile- 4th Civil Affairs Group: Anacostia Naval Station, Washington, D.C.", Continental Marines (Fall 2011), page 28.
  4. "'Brainy' Marine reservists man one of a kind Civil Affairs unit", Wilmington Morning Star, Marine Edition, volume 106, number 158 (Wilmington, North Carolina, 21 April 1973).
  5. Bartlett, Tom. "Strength In Reserve", Leatherneck Magazine, volume 62, number 5 (Marine Corps Association, May 1979), pages 47-48.
  6. Brown, DeNeen L. "Activated for the Aftermath?", The Washington Post (December 15, 1990), pages E1 and E3.
  7. Colonel Charles J. Quilter II. U.S. Marines in the Persian Gulf, 1990–1991: With the I Marine Expeditionary Force in Desert Shield and Desert Storm (Washington, DC: Marine Corps History and Museums Division, 1993), p. 65.
  8. Kaheny, John M. "After the Storm" - "Marine Corps Civil Affairs During Desert Shield/Desert Storm", The Officer, volume 77, number 4 (Reserve Officers Association, May 2001), pages 19-20.
  9. Brown, Ronald J. Humanitarian Operations in Northern Iraq, 1991: With Marines in Operation Provide Comfort (Washington, DC: Marine Corps History and Museums Division, 1995), page 3.
  10. Wilkerson, Thomas L. "One Corps-Standard A Proven Total Force Concept", The Officer, volume 74, number 1 (Reserve Officers Association, January/February 1998), page 63.
  11. Lowrey, Nathan. "Peacekeeping Operations in Kosovo: The 26th MEU During Operation Joint Guardian", Marine Corps Gazette, volume 83, number 12 (Marine Corps Association, December 1999), page 59.
  12. "4th Civil Affairs Group, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Presented Presidential Unit Citation" (September 2012). Scroll & Sword (The Journal and Newsletter of the Civil Affairs Association), Columbia, Maryland, volume 62, issue 1, page 11.
  13. Wood, David. "'Vietnam Vet' Richard Blumenthal: Many Apologies Are in Order" Archived 2015-09-13 at the Wayback Machine, Politics Daily, 18 May 2010. Retrieved on 02 January 2013.
  14. O'Leary, Jeremiah. "High Desert", Leatherneck Magazine, volume 54, number 26 (Marine Corps Association, January 1971), pages 27-28. Article says Clayland Boyden Gray served in 4th CAG as a Sergeant.

References
  • 4th CAG (2006-02-04). USMC Civil Affairs Update. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-02. 4th CAG briefed this slideshow presentation at the Civil Affairs Association Winter Board Meeting on February 4, 2006, and it contained a good summary of the organization and its missions. It also contained a synopsis of 4th CAG support to OIF and the future direction of the unit.
  • 4th CAG (2004-03-12). 4th CAG Command Chronology for Calendar Year 2003.
  • 4th CAG (2005-04-19). 4th CAG Command Chronology 1 July 2004–31 December 2004.
  • 4th CAG (2006-07-15). 4th CAG Command Chronology for Calendar Year 2005.
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