Quote Originally Posted by Schmedlap View Post
What type of missions are they doing? Please don't tell me that they're handing out handbills or trinkets.
They did some of that. Mostly when they were just tagging along on a patrol. I usually got the 'terps to take a look at the "product" before they took it out. We did some incident-specific product distrobution that I think was helpful. I remember they had these really stupid comic books that portrayed the ISF as super-heroes. I had the 'terps read them to me; it was so lame. I imagine the Iraqi kids that read them laughed.

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
We did some of this, I think it helped with crowd control in a few occasions.

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.
This was their major effort. The Det. NCOIC wanted to get out and do this on every mission, which I encouraged. I think his findings were skewed, in some cases. I didn't find the atmospheric reports all that helpful.

Most recently, they were our lead guys in working with IA to set up the IA's own "IO" cell.
For some reason, we didn't think of this until about half-way through the deployment. For one, the IA BN wasn't up to it, nor did they grasp the concept at first. The IO guy they ended up nominating was a PL that was fired for stealing. The PSYOP NCOIC put in a good effort and did successfully employ some IO themes into IA ops. Should have started it from day one.

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.
I remember specifically the PSYOP company's effort to erect a billboard in one of the larger cities in the AO. We vehemently disagreed with the whole thing from the get-go. It was a "wanted" poster for an HTV. I can't remember exactly why my MiTT chief opposed it, but this went on for months. The billboard was eventually erected, and the locals destroyed it the next day.

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?
Ditto on all. Most that didn't apply we ignored.