Retired Doctors and Nurses First – PSYOP, PA and IO Next?

We know we are losing the information war. Our peer adversaries, China and Russia are cleaning our information clock.  They waging economic war through global investments and have seized Covad-19 as a major theme for disinformation. (see: https://nyti.ms/33Yy9Xr, which is also a photo source.)

The pandemic has fostered a critical shortage of medical personnel, the Army put out a call for retired medical professions to return to active duty to help quell the spread of the virus. Over 9,000 former soldiers (see: https://abcn.ws/3dF17A5, another photo source) have answered the call.

What about the information war?

Perhaps the time has come for the Retired Information Corps (RIC). The RIC would be composed of retired PSYOP, Public Affairs, Information Operations (IO) and perhaps even Civil Affairs personnel. For administrative purposes the RIC could fall under USACAPOC while it would report to USSOCOM.

As a part of USSOCOM the RIC could reinforce influence operations conducted outside the United States. It is not inconceivable that a significant portion of these project-oriented missions could be conducted by personnel working from their home computers.

Projects such as propaganda analysis, content creation and counter disinformation would be assigned to individuals and teams from the retired force.

Alternatively, retired military influence professionals could be assigned to a Civilian Influence Corps (CIC). As civilians they would be able to support influence operations internationally and domestically as a part of the appropriate federal, state or local governments. CIC personnel could supplement Public Affairs in Emergency Operations Centers. They could also augment efforts to counter foreign disinformation campaigns in Social Media and on domestic soil through traditional media.

Congress has already recognized the need for civilian support to critical missions when it called for a creating a reserve force of civilian cybersecurity experts. (See: https://bit.ly/3awud2D, which is another photo source)

Of course, this is a radical idea, but this are radical times that call for radical measures.

What do you think?