CAAF stands for Contractors Authorized to Accompany the Force: civilian employees of contractor companies, including their subcontractors, who are authorised to accompany US armed forces in specified operations outside the United States. Individuals receive this designation through a Letter of Authorization, or LOA. The category matters to SERE and personnel recovery because these people deploy alongside military forces, may become isolated or captured, and must be included in the relevant preparation, recovery and post-isolation care.
Who belongs to the CAAF category
The category generally includes US citizens and employees from third countries who do not normally reside in the operational area and who routinely work and live in close proximity to US forces there. Mission-essential employees from the host country may also be expressly designated, such as a local interpreter performing a necessary task at considerable personal risk. Host-country law and the relevant agreements apply. Normal residence, the actual place of work and military authorisation are decisive; nationality alone does not describe the category.
CAAF remain employees of their companies. US service members and Department of Defense government civilians have different employment or service relationships. Non-CAAF are contractor employees who do not have this CAAF designation, often local or permanently resident personnel working away from US forces and not residing with them. A change in duties, workplace or operational conditions may therefore require a new designation. A contract awarded to a company does not replace the individual's authorisation to accompany the force.
The LOA is issued by the responsible US contracting officer or their designee. It records the authorisation and the specific government support approved for the individual, and must be carried. CAAF are also to receive an appropriate identity card showing the Geneva Conventions category of a person authorised to accompany the armed forces; the LOA establishes eligibility when the card is issued. Passports, visas and entry clearances meet the separate requirements for crossing borders and remaining in a country. These documents must agree: an LOA can also be issued to certain non-CAAF, so it must show the actual personnel category.
Civilian status and prisoner-of-war entitlement
The law-of-war category of persons authorised to accompany the armed forces is broader than CAAF. It may also include government civilians and other authorised accompanying persons. If such persons fall into enemy hands during an international armed conflict, they are entitled to prisoner-of-war status. Their identity card helps establish the actual relationship. Losing it does not remove the entitlement. Where a person who has committed a belligerent act is of doubtful membership in a protected category, a competent tribunal decides; the protection of the prisoner-of-war convention applies until then.
For the purpose of deliberate attacks, authorised accompanying persons are treated as civilians. They may not be deliberately attacked unless they take direct part in hostilities. At the same time, they may be injured at a military workplace by an attack on the military objective. Protection from attack and entitlement to prisoner-of-war treatment answer different questions. Arrest by a state outside an international armed conflict, or abduction by hostage-takers, therefore requires assessment within the particular detention context.
Contractor personnel need written authorisation to wear military clothing and must be distinguishable from military personnel. Someone who looks like a service member may also be assessed that way by the enemy. An authorised weapon is for individual self-defence under the specified rules and requires the appropriate training. Wearing a uniform or carrying a weapon neither makes a CAAF a member of the armed forces nor authorises unrestricted participation in combat. This boundary must be understood before deployment when the person works alongside armed forces or becomes isolated.
Preparation for the role and isolation risk
Preparation starts with the actual assignment: where the person works and travels, which forces accompany them, what information they know, and how they might become separated, detained or valuable for exploitation. A technical specialist familiar with a military system and an interpreter familiar with people and relationships may have different exploitation risks. Preparation must therefore address the particular task, operational area and civilian status. It includes personal security and contingency preparation, the law of war and the SERE training required for the isolation risk.
In the US system, the military Code of Conduct addresses members of the US armed forces. DoD civilians and CAAF have a distinct civilian framework, the Principles of Behavior. SERE 100.2 accordingly contains different military and civilian focused modules; the person completes the component relevant to their status. Military rules on command within a captive group or the duties of a military prisoner of war must therefore not be applied as general CAAF obligations. A CAAF must receive and understand the civilian conduct instructions applicable to their assignment before departure.
Medical, dental and psychological fitness for the assignment, regional health threats, required immunisations and the necessary records are also part of preparation. Continuing medication and particular personal needs must fit the care and supplies that are actually accessible. This directly concerns isolation: a person who keeps a life-sustaining medicine only at headquarters, or overlooks a known limitation when planning equipment, may lose their ability to act shortly after separation. Personal protective and survival equipment must suit the threat and be available to the individual when a vehicle, baggage or accommodation is left behind.
Being included in recovery planning
The US personnel recovery programme includes CAAF regardless of their nationality. If a CAAF becomes isolated or their whereabouts cannot be established, the employer must promptly send a search-and-rescue incident report to the personnel recovery architecture in the operational area. Planned movements, locations and reporting routes must therefore be known. Comparing a failure to return with that information gives the incident a useful place and time reference. The individual contributes by passing the agreed reports and changes correctly before a possible separation.
Personal identification and authentication data, such as an ISOPREP, help friendly forces establish whom they are searching for and whether a later contact really comes from that person. An Evasion Plan of Action instead describes the actions intended after isolation: expected behaviour, possible movement and the connection to recovery planning. The data and plans required for the operational area are prepared before the assignment and kept current. An LOA and identity card establish authorisation and identity; they do not replace the agreed authentication procedures used with a recovery force.
For the individual, this must become an executable plan. They know their actual communication devices, power supply and operation, the agreed contact and recognition procedures, possible alternatives, and the information needed to prepare a pickup. They also know which friendly forces or recovery routes are planned for their assignment and the conditions those options require.
Personal tasks after separation
Following separation, the CAAF first assesses immediate threats, physical condition, location and remaining resources. This determines protection, sustainment and movement: an injury may make a planned route impossible, an exposed location may make detection more likely, and depleted water may prevent an extended wait. At a suitable protected location, the actual situation and the prepared plan are reassessed together. The aim is to preserve the ability to act and support the search or pickup through predictable actions that fit the situation.
When a usable connection exists, important information includes location, the number of people, injuries, observed enemy activity, available signalling devices and features of a possible pickup site. The person authenticates through the agreed procedure and follows the instructions received. Radio transmissions and visible signals may also give the enemy clues; their timing and use therefore follow the situation and the procedures practised beforehand. Without a usable radio, only the signalling devices actually present and suited to the circumstances, or other prepared contact options, are available. A highly visible marker in an area under enemy observation can reveal the person's location to the enemy as well as recovery forces.
Detention and captivity
In captivity, the CAAF must recognise the situation they are in. Military capture during international armed conflict, detention by a state authority and hostage-taking place different demands on establishing status and conduct. In hostage-taking, the detained person's safety or release is used to compel a third party to act or refrain from acting. A demand directed at the government or employer may reveal that pressure mechanism. The person places their known assignment and authorisation in context, instead of deriving a legal status solely from a uniform, the captor or a demand.
Maintaining personal orientation matters even when the person cannot carry out a plan or make contact. Travel directions and duration, distinctive sounds, places observed and information about other captives may help reconstruct events later. Calm, predictable behaviour reduces avoidable triggers for escalation; political or ideological arguments with captors create additional conflict. Questioning may exploit technical knowledge, names, relationships and personal information about other affected people. That information needs protection even when a conversation starts in a friendly way or initially concerns harmless subjects.
Available food and fluids, whatever hygiene is possible, and a manageable daily routine help preserve strength and a sense of time. Activities follow the person's injuries, space and the actual conditions of detention. Within a group, observable gaps in care and the condition of other affected people matter; information about their duties or vulnerabilities may also enable exploitation. The person's civilian conduct instructions and the specific captivity context govern further decisions. A military duty to escape is not transferred to a civilian in any form of state custody simply by the designation CAAF.
Conduct during an actual recovery
When friendly forces conduct a pickup, the person must be identifiable to them and able to follow their instructions. They remain protected until the planned contact, report their condition and obstacles, and prepare equipment to take with them. Any weapon is secured; rapid movements and approaching a vehicle without instructions are avoided. The recovery force has to distinguish the person being recovered from a possible threat and control the pickup within the actual situation. During an actual hostage rescue, the person stays low and still and waits for instructions instead of running towards the intervening force.
Medical support and reintegration
Military medical support for contractor personnel generally concentrates on emergencies: resuscitation, stabilisation, treatment at military facilities and assistance with patient movement when life, limb or eyesight is threatened. Additional routine care needs specific planning and authorisation and must be reflected in the LOA. Costs and transfer to civilian care are arranged accordingly; general long-term care by the Department of Defense is not provided. For the isolated person, individual health needs and available resources therefore remain part of preparation and of the later report of their condition.
After recovery, CAAF enter the first phase of reintegration; the additional phases must be offered to them. Phase I begins on return to friendly control. Medical triage and a SERE psychological assessment should precede debriefings. The person first reports injuries, illness, missing medication, stresses and immediate needs. Their recollections of separation, movement, captivity, other affected people and the equipment used subsequently help explain events and improve future preparation. Care, psychological decompression and debriefing are adapted to the person's condition; pickup marks the beginning of this work.
CAAF in an international context
CAAF is a US personnel category. A civilian employee of another country does not acquire it merely by working in the same coalition camp. National authorisation, training and conduct instructions, and the actual personnel recovery responsibility must fit together. The NATO framework also considers designated civilians and national responsibility for preparation and post-isolation care. The law-of-war category of authorised accompanying persons is internationally relevant; the LOA, choice of US course modules and US reintegration requirements are specific parts of the American system.