What type of missions are they doing? Please don't tell me that they're handing out handbills or trinkets.Originally Posted by Voodoun
The primary use of PSYOP that we've leveraged on my deployments was non-interference messages on a raid or cordon & search and to inform bystanders immediately after a raid of what just occurred and why - both largely achieved by one guy driving and perhaps one or two on foot handing out mission-specific handbills. Less frequently, they were used to collect "atmospherics" on general attitudes and perceptions in a given area, in order to gauge the cognitive impacts of our operations. It was always up to the PSYOP team leader whether anyone on his 3-man team stayed with the vehicle - but he had the option of not doing so because they always traveled with a larger unit for security (can't ride around in one vehicle and many units won't allow you any less than 3 vehicles). Most recently, they were our lead guys in working with IA to set up the IA's own "IO" cell.
Like FSO, my biggest gripe was always with the TPD/TPC and/or their bosses. There were few pieces of information more worthless, in my opinion, than the weekly Measures of Performance rollup from the TPD's, yet it seemed to be their primary focus. They'd send us products that we never requested, purportedly to achieve effects inconsistent with our commander's intent, and then constantly badger us for current data on how many we handed out, while ignoring our requests for other products. You handed out x0,000 handbills in y location? Wonderful. You played x radio spots on y stations for a total of z minutes? Great. Do we have even the slightest hint as to Measures of Effectiveness (MoE)? Do we have any idea of how to measure the MoE? Then what is the point of the performance that we're measuring? Just to show that we're not sitting on our butts, doing nothing?
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