Sergeant First Class Sean Acosta accepts the Army NCO of the Year award from General James McConville, vice chief of staff of the Army, and Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Dailey. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Joe Lacdan)

Sergeant First Class Sean Acosta, a civil affairs instructor at 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Warfare Training Group (Airborne), is the Army's NCO of the Year for 2018. In addition to his outstanding military performance, SFC Acosta was co-author of the winning paper presented at the 2017 Civil Affairs Symposium, published in the 2017-18 Civil Affairs Issue Papers. He wrote “Beyond Hearts & Minds: Transforming the Civil Affairs Regiment to Consolidate Gains​ in 21st Century Warfare” with CPT Jarett Redman and SFC Valor Breeze, then all of the 83rd CA Battalion.

"This is an absolutely tremendous accomplishment," wrote Colonel Jay Liddick, Civil Affairs Commandant at the U.S. Army JFK Special Warfare Center & School, in his most recent newsletter, "and it is further evidence that Civil Affairs possesses some of the Army's greatest talent."

Acosta and many other outstanding young civil affairs leaders will be at the Civil Affairs Centennial & Symposium at Ft. Bragg, NC, during the week of the 29th of October, with the Symposium on the 2nd and 3rd of November. For more details on the Centennial & Symposium, visit https://www.civilaffairsassoc.org/events.