Mass production
In response to Bill Moore:
Let me first note that I was primarily commenting on how while the article in question discussed its implications on CA and PSYOP, the discussion was heavily focused on SF. This is reflective of the attitude I perceive throughout the community, although I've already been happily made aware that some of my perceptions are wrong.
I essentially agree with everything in Bill Moore's post. Mass production results in production errors. It is something I'm going to have to live with, and all I really have control over is my team, and how we perform on deployment.
I'm glad to know that senior CA and PSYOP officers are making the same sort of comments I did, because that means I've accurately assessed the situation, to some degree at least. Absolutely I agree that the emotion should be taken out of the discussion. I'm not sure if I seemed particularly emotionally invested in the matter (nor am I sure that it was implied that I was), but if I did, let me assure you that I simply don't have the emotional resources to be diverted in that direction.
As far as tactfully educating my command on how to employ us, I'm all over that one - My team chief wants me to have our team's CAPEs brief ready to go a month before we deploy.
Anyway, I think the questions you raised are absolutely critical to the future of this country's military hegemony.
I think we need to rephrase the sentiment though - 'we need more properly trained and effective PSYOP and CA' is a more comprehensive way of expressing the conventional wisdom. Can I get a hallelujah?
As far as answering this bit:
<Third, "if" CA and PSYOP Soldiers are poorly trained, who reached that conclusion and why? What is it that we want CMO and PYSOP to accomplish downrange? Can the Soldiers do it? If not, why not? Inadequate training in some skill areas? Unrealistic expectations? Bottom line is that we to identify the “specific” problems (if there are any), then figure out how to fix them. >
I could not agree more, and if I thought I could do it, and anyone would care, I'd scrap my current thesis (an examination of how the rejection of Aristotelian reason in response to al Mamum's mihna, and the decline of Mutazalite influence in Sunni Islam in the 9th c. CE has directly contributed to the intransigence of the Arab-Israeli conflict) and all the research I've done, in order to try to answer those exact questions so that people smarter than me could develop solutions.
I've got my ideas concerning those answers, but as a social scientist I don't like to draw conclusions based solely on my own observations, no matter how common sense they may appear to be.
I could postulate all night over what ifs, and engage in thought experiments and grandiose proposals for selection boards, Personality Inventories, 6 month long AITs, continuing MOS specific training, ad nauseum (nauseating for you, at least!) but I do think there are some no brainers worth addressing.
PSYOP is a confusing job. It's ill defined, and rather than try to better define it, we need to give soldiers a better chance to wrap their heads around it. Some of the concepts are collegiate level issues that need that sort of attention. Creating cognitive dissonance is one example. Collegiate Cognitive Psych classes spend a week on just *understanding* what cognitive dissonance it, much less creating it.
The 18x program hasn't seen any lack of interest, has it? That's because SF is perceived to be bad-ass. People are attracted to bad-asserey. Create the perception (and work to make it an undeniable reality) that CA and PSYOP are elite units, and I suspect interest will skyrocket. Get a MIST involved on the next season of 24, sex up a TPT and CAT-A by including them in the GI Joe movie sequel, and watch what happens. :-)
Reservists changing their MOS get the shaft. They may need more time than AIT students to 'get it' because we're asking them to make a fundamental change in the way they approach missions. How can we expect an MP or an Infantryman to just reject the mindset that they've developed over years of training and practice, with a 3 week test-memorizing course?
Cadre should be drawn from the best and brightest, and held to an almost impossibly high ethical standard.
Aside from that, I would love to see more integration between the Reserve and AD. We're talking about a TINY community on the tactical side, less than 1500 soldiers, from what I understand? Send AD soldiers with great evals back from deployment to spend a weekend every month with Reserve units gearing up to deploy. Send Reserve soldiers to 4th POG to boost capacity for short missions. The animosity between the reserve side and the AD side goes beyond friendly rivalry (from what I've seen) and we're too small of a community to tolerate that sort of thing.
Like I said, I could go on forever just brainstorming solutions, but I've got zero insight into the feasibility of those suggestions, nor do I understand the political dynamics or tensions operating WAY above my paygrade, although I'm fairly confident in my comprehension ability.
Good night! I've got boring homework to get back to :-)
Originally Posted by Voodoun
Good news
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