Validation Exercise Fall 2024
Civil Affairs Validation Exercise:
On Thursday November 21, 2025 at a range on the outskirts of Fort Dix, 13 members and friends of Chapter 19, plus 4 Cadets from Rutgers Amy ROTC, served as role players in a sequence of fast-paced scenarios designed to help prepare a four-person Army Civil Affairs Team (CAT) for deployment. The scenarios were centered on a fictious camp in an ODIN country formed by refugees fleeing hostilities in adjacent country (see ODIN – OE Data Integration Network for more about the ODIN area study). CA BDE planners wrote an excellent set of scenarios and Chapter 19 added some tweaks. The CAT’s specific mission in this case was to find out all they could about the camp’s situation. Chapter 19 members played various foreign roles such as border guards, UNHCR rep, Doctors wo Borders, CAMFED rep, human rights NGO rep, camp nurse, and camp director. Rutgers ROTC cadets played protesters to distract the CAT as they moved without a break through a series of five separate meetings with area and camp reps. This was about our 10th role play with CA since the beginning of 2020. The CATs are sharp and diligent. They make us proud.
