Military avisors, or combat advisors, are soldiers sent to foreign nations to aid that nation with its military training, organization, and other various military tasks. These soldiers usually do not actually engage in combat and are often sent to aid a nation without the potential casualties and political ramifications of actually mobilizing military forces to aid a nation. In the early 1960s, elements of the U.S. Army Special Forces were sent to South Vietnam as military advisors to train and assist the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) for impending actions against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA).