Civil Affairs and CID

I just went to selection for CA and got selected. I learned a bit of what CA truly does and from my experience there I think it personally will be the best fit for me in the Army. If you want to engage with people on many different levels all over the world then CA is good for you. If you want to help people and use your brain to it's breaking point and exhaust all possible resources to create the best solution to assist the commander in your AO then CA is right for you. If you want to be a detective, then CID, but personally I think CA is way more rewarding a MOS and field.

The direct link between the military commanders and the civil authorities in the area of responsibility (AOR) is Civil Affairs. If headquarters needs an analysis of a community in the AOR, such as who the key figures are, what's the status of the basic survival needs (water, food, medication), education, basic atmospherics, etc., the commanders turn to CA. But that's not all CA does. Lots of teams assist in training foreign militaries in not only Civil Military Operations, but various other things such as medical and human rights. CA does much more than that; CA is such a broad MOS with no direct written boundary of the limits of a "job". Every deployment is different.

Both are honorable careers and you are doing the right thing by researching both of them. CID has been great to me and I love the opportunities it has given me.

With that said continue your research and determine which one is the right fit for you.