 My rank is Staff Sergeant Miguel Chacon and with the Third Civil Affairs Group out of Great Lakes, Illinois. So during Exercise Balikatan our job has been to engage with the civil environment mostly through planned civil engagements but also we've done just some impromptu civil engagements out in town just meeting with the locals trying to get a feel for what they know about Balikatan what their prior experience was with Balikatan in 2016 when it happened here and just through again civil engagements doing some civil reconnaissance of the local area to better understand one, how does the civil environment affect Balikatan operations but also how does Balikatan operations affect the local populace So doing civil affairs activities here in San Jose, antique Philippines helps us conduct civil affairs in other operations because people are, it's different environments but people are human beings at the end of the day we all have those fundamental commonalities between everyone so engaging people, getting to know about their families, meeting with kids, it's very similar so it gives us that experience both in a interpersonal communication type of way but also just helps us understand how everything plays on a big scale from the smallest town village barangay to a national global level it all works whether it's directly or indirectly there's effects it all kind of works together Working along the United States Army has enabled the civil affairs team here by providing a different perspective we don't often, I haven't often worked with the Army so it provides a different perspective just as far as their training goes and their capabilities and it's good because on again a big picture it's good for the Philippines to see us as a U.S. Armed Forces not necessarily Marine Corps Army Navy Air Force but they see us as a whole as a united armed forces so I think it's both beneficial for us and then beneficial for the locals to see us as a whole us working with the Armed Forces of the Philippines is the key to making all of this possible number one on a security standpoint we don't go anywhere without them but they are obviously from here they are the Philippines Armed Forces so they have key information and buy in into the different cities barangays a lot of them grew up in the local area so they know more about this obviously than we will so we rely heavily on them to one provide us that key that access but also again the big picture is to work with them we are allies we are partners and it's important for them to you know even though it's me specifically that they're meeting they know that I'm you know United States Marine and they will that good relationship will carry on to the next Balakutan and the next teams that work with the AFP and vice versa so building these relationships now will affect us as a Marine Corps by setting a solid foundation right if we were able to work together in peacetime you know if the time comes when we need to pick up arms together for whatever reason we will again have that foundation again it's kind of a generalization of it but when they see United States Marine or US Armed Forces you know if they have a good relationship with us our civil affairs team on the ground I think they will assume or to carry that experience with them for future operations again whatever the case they'll know that we're professional that we're good you know people and again most importantly that we're allies and we're on the same team and that is all built on what we're doing now what we do here as a civil affairs team enables commanders on the decision making by providing that civil environment details so our job is to again conduct targeted and planned civil engagements and civil reconnaissance around strategic areas and again we do that by talking to people, meeting key leaders, meeting the locals and just understanding what a typical day is here for a Filipino by getting those details and providing that information to the commander they're able to make better decisions and understanding that their actions have second and third order effects that many times are overlooked especially the civilians Mission accomplishment is number one but at what cost and a lot of times you know the little people if you will the civilians the people who are impacted the most get overlooked so that's our job to make sure that that doesn't happen civil affairs is a force multiplier by the information that we can bring we are on the ground we are meeting with people we're walking around the brown guys talking to men women and children who live here and we're gathering all that information through again targeted interviews civil reconnaissance things of that nature and trying to get the best picture possible of the environment and then we do different we have different tools we use to better understand what are areas of stability instability biggest problems biggest concerns areas of strengths things of that nature and we're able to compile that into a information that's provided to the commander so that they can understand the civil environment and then ultimately make better informed decisions being a reservist and being able to support Balakatan is a great opportunity it's not every day that I'm in the Philippines obviously it's great to be able to get these experiences personally when I joined the Marine Corps that was one of the things that I wanted to accomplish was to travel see the world it's because the world is a lot bigger than my small hometown of a thousand people or whatever but being here it enables me personally and the reservists to again understand the big picture of what we do as a Marine Corps and how the actions that we take as individuals affect a much larger picture that sometimes we don't understand but coming out here and being able to see how other people live you know the the good and the bad really brings a different perspective that we can carry as reservists to our civilian occupations as well I do think that I'm more unable to do my job as a civil affairs specialist especially as a reservist because I have a nine to five job where I work with civilians and non-military people so that perspective having those different switches I know when I need to turn it on and you know be Staff Sergeant Chaconne who's in charge of a platoon for example versus when I'm in my civilian job and it's just me myself and I you know working on my nine to five paying the bills taking care of my family etc but I'm able to reservists are able to provide that almost civilian aspect which obviously is in the name civil affairs that sometimes gets lost when you're nine to five is working on a base you know with other Marines or US Armed Forces so civil affairs as a reserve function specifically benefits Marfa Rez by again civil affairs specifically offers at civilian side a lot of my colleagues are lawyers and they work in the medical field I work in personally I work in insurance and as a claims adjuster so I deal a lot with people during difficult situations which really ties into human humanitarian assistance disaster relief operations that we do so it really brings that human civilian element additionally this is an AT an annual training for me so I'm able to be away for two to three weeks without too much disruption in my civilian life and we're able to accomplish the mission in this area and you don't have to be here I don't have to be here for six months to a year however long deployment to accomplish that mission I think the timeline two to three weeks is sufficient to accomplish the mission and and provide what what we need to Marfa Rez