Monday, December 4, 2023

POVA LEAFLET DROP - October/November 2023




POVA LEAFLET DROP - October/November 2023




PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE


Greetings and welcome to the expanded September Leaflet Drop. In addition to the PSYOP News, this edition features two interesting articles from our members and an announcement about the upcoming PSYOP Ball in Fayetteville on 18 November.


This month’s PSYOP news features articles about disinformation, deepfakes and the unfortunate demise of the creator of PowerPoint.


Our website update is in its final stages. Thanks to those of you who sent in photos and suggestions.


Your Board of Directors held our monthly meeting on 20 September.


Mike Rogers, Hammond Salley, Dan Wood and I were present for duty. Anyone who would like a copy of the minutes can email me at: Dietz.POVA@gmail.com and I will send a copy.


I am also pleased to report that POVA received a very generous donation from Lindsay London in honor of SGT Ryan Knauss. Thanks for your invaluable support!


Our Life Member roster has increased with the very welcome addition of Albert Viator.


Here are the Statistics for the August Leaflet Drop

Sends: 584

Opens: 342 (59%)

Clicks: 22

Bounces: 1

Unsubscribes: 1


There is nothing significant to report on our discussions with PRA or setting up a virtual office call with the CG of SWC.


If you missed the August Leaflet Drop, you can find it at:

https://conta.cc/45OTK3nOur next virtual Board meeting is 15 November at 1900 Eastern Time. If you are interested in attending, please email me for an invite.. All POVA members in good standing are welcome to attend.


Thank you for your continued support! All the best,

Larry

Lawrence D. Dietz, President





PSYOP NEWS - OCTOBER NOVEMBER 2023




Articles of Interest


21 Nov 23

How Israel's shift CENTCOM is paying off during Gaza Conflict

WASHINGTON and JERUSALEM — During a media roundtable this morning, the Pentagon’s No. 2 official was asked about the Defense Department’s assistance for Israel. And while material concerns and reports of a potential ceasefire were touched on, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks also pointed to the importance of an inside baseball change to Israel’s relations to the US.

“We are seeing some of the benefits of having [US Central Command] CENTCOM looking both at defense of Israel issues and the overall picture in the region,” Hicks said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast in Washington. “So much of what we do in and around Middle East security is about working with our Arab partners and CENTCOM … bringing in the Israelis to that structure, I think has helped to broaden the picture.”

“In this crisis, at this time, I think that has been opportune: CENTCOM can help advise on the range of what is happening in the region,” she later added. https://breakingdefense.com/2023/11/how-israels-shift-to-centcom-is-paying- off-during-gaza-conflict/? utm_campaign=Breaking%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=283479831&_h senc=p2ANqtz-8Da4iqkKdB- naPWeyJDX0o39dDXvWpEEPS2n5YAf3arjUtAjFW4db4_IxoWqJiVYcLzrszKx6n GWLEVqnDTxyQnDZMYg&utm_content=283479831&utm_source=hs_email


13 Nov 23

New tech plays role in Gaza war, but not to level Israel once envisioned JERUSALEM — In 2020, Israel launched a new military doctrine and modernization effort commonly referred to as the “Momentum” plan. The concept relies on a rapid war of maneuver, blending quick strikes and the highest technological capabilities the IDF can bring to the front.

The grinding war in Gaza — four weeks of aerial bombardment followed by the slow taking of territory — resembles nothing like what was laid out in that 2020 document. Instead, Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks has relied heavily on classic military tactics and, in some cases, older military hardware that the developers of

Momentum expected to consign to history. https://breakingdefense.com/2023/11/new-tech-plays-roll-in-gaza-war-but-not- to-level-israel-once-envisioned/?

utm_campaign=Breaking%20Defense%20Land&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=282 676966&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-

8BTk7wvNOHGTNXqICHMxmECoS5oSOcIxTxI3NMiN-fO342IrWjdCk4wU7ef1j- Qfyvx5DuqsAHL7j1QhmJtRz83VldYQ&utm_content=282676966&utm_source=h s_email

7 Nov 23

85% of people worry about online disinformation, global survey finds.

More than 85% of people are worried about the impact of online disinformation and 87% believe it has already harmed their country’s politics, according to a global survey, as the United Nations announced a plan to tackle the phenomenon.

Audrey Azoulay, director general of the UN’s culture body, Unesco, told reporters on Monday that false information and hate speech online – accelerated and amplified by social media platforms – posed “major risks to social cohesion, peace and stability”.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/07/85-of-people-worry- about-online-disinformation-global-survey-finds


7 Nov 23

Old Dogs, New Tricks: Why PSYOP Needs to Take Primacy Ocver Specail Forces in Great Power Competition


The global geopolitical landscape has witnessed a paradigm shift from warfare emblematic of the post-9/11 era, to a new frontier defined by information warfare, underpinning great power competition. China and Russia, as formidable adversaries in this arena, have strategically integrated information warfare within their military doctrines, thereby changing the rules of engagement. Against this backdrop, the United States stands at a pivotal juncture, necessitating a radical recalibration of its Army Special Operations Force structure, from a Special Forces-centric approach to a pronounced emphasis on Psychological Operations (PSYOP). This shift is not merely a tactical repositioning, but strategically supported by the US Code Title 10 Section 167j, which recognizes PSYOP as a special operations capability in its own right.


https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/old-dogs-new-tricks-why-psychological- operations-psyop-brad-carr-okwze/? midToken=AQHgtbxXAIdREQ&midSig=2bUoGo7RRAaX01&trk=eml- email_series_follow_newsletter_01-newsletter_content_preview-0- headline_&trkEmail=eml-email_series_follow_newsletter_01- newsletter_content_preview-0-headline_-null-3zij~looav407~1b-null- null&eid=3zij-looav407- 1b&otpToken=MTMwZDFiZTkxYjJiYzNjNWIyMjcwY2U5NDMxN2UxYjE4N2NlZDg 0MDkzYWM4NjYyNzJjMjAzNmM0NjViNTY4ODkwYjA5Zjk1NzNmYWMxYjFhOW Q0OWUwMDQ2Y2JjMTViZGIyNzg1ZmJkNmQ5MjIsMSwx


6 Nov 23

9 military operations that sound like Taylor Swift songs

Pop queen Taylor Swift is known for her vague, oft ethereal-sounding song titles. Her most recent album, “Midnights,” boasts tracks with names like “Lavender Haze,”

“Vigilante Sh-t” and “Midnight Rain.”

Reading such titles makes it hard not to liken the naming pattern to the U.S. military’s own operation naming conventions, which are typically indistinct adjective- noun combinations that evoke anything from absurd patriotism to complete confusion.

As such, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite U.S. military operation monikers that could easily pass as Taylor Swift song titles.

https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2023/11/06/9-military- operations-that-sound-like-taylor-swift-songs/


5 Nov 23

IDF intel. Starts to open up on October 7 failure - analysis

The scale and scope of the Israeli intelligence and defense establishment failure on October 7 will likely only become clear several months down the road, when evidence starts being presented before a commission of inquiry.

The Jerusalem Post has garnered some of the pieces of the fiasco from IDF intelligence officials, from what they have said and what they have not said.

One of the primary causes was extremely high confidence that Hamas was deterred from starting a war with Israel in the foreseeable future.

Several pieces of information were used toprove this deterrence, including the

fact that Hamas stayed out of multiple rounds of fighting between Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Israel, twice over the last two years.It was costly for its reputation within Gaza that Hamas stayed out of these fights, something that seemed to support deterrence even further.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-771806


1 Nov 23

How an AI company parsed misinformation early in Israel-Hamas war


WASHINGTON — When Hamas militants raided Israel in early October, killing and abducting more than 1,000 people, videos, images and text flooded social media. Rumors and shoddy information proliferated, blurring the line between fact and fiction.

Artificial intelligence and data analysis firm Primer monitored the situation from afar using its Command software. It demonstrated its AI-enabled parsing capabilities at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual convention in Washington days later, promising to identify kernels of truth among the chaos in the Middle East.

“Just aggregating lots of data, particularly if it’s a really noisy environment and the facts have yet to be established, can be really problematic because you’re just making a big pile for the user to go through,” Primer CEO Sean Moriarty told C4ISRNET on the show floor. “As you might imagine, data is all over the place.

There’s all sorts of open-source intelligence data. The question is: What can a professional do with it, using their knowledge and experience? And that comes down to speed, power and accuracy.”

https://www.c4isrnet.com/information-warfare/2023/11/01/how-an-ai-company- parsed-misinformation-early-in-israel-hamas-war/


1 Nov 23

The Army needs to invest in psychological operations, not cut them

The United States, as a global superpower, finds itself at a critical juncture in the evolving landscape of international security and geopolitics. The post-Cold War era,

characterized by U.S. preeminence as the lone superpower has given way to a world where great power competition, which refers to the competition between the U.S., Russia and China, has reemerged. In this complex and volatile environment, the United States faces a myriad of threats ranging from traditional military challenges to asymmetric warfare, cyber threats, and operations in the information environment.

A crucial yet underutilized tool in the U.S. strategic arsenal can help counter the multifaceted threats sophisticated adversaries pose: military information support operations, or MISO, carried out by psychological operations forces. In layman’s terms, MISO is designed to develop and convey messages and devise actions to influence select foreign groups and promote themes to change those groups’ attitudes and behaviors.

https://www.militarytimes.com/opinion/2023/11/01/the-army-needs-to-invest-in- psychological-operations-not-cut-them/


31 Oct 23

SOCOM: United States Special Operations Command

George Englehart has penned an article that describes the history, purpose, core operations, organization, and mission of the United States Special Operations Command. (Grey Dynamics, Oct 31, 2023).


https://greydynamics.com/socom-united-states-special-operations-command/


20 Oct 23

353rd CACOM expands capabilities to include psychological operations


FORT WADSWORTH, N.Y. –

The 353rd Civil Affairs Command assumed mission command of the 2nd Psychological Operations Group this week in Fort Wadsworth, New York. The 2nd POG will maintain the same mission, but with the added support of being administratively assigned to a versatile one-star command entity.

The 2nd POG is the largest Psychological Operations Group in the United States military. It consists of four battalions arrayed across the country. Its soldiers are specially trained to perform psychological operations that influence the behaviors of designated foreign target audiences at the direction of military commanders, American ambassadors, and other

U.S. government entities.

https://www.usar.army.mil/News/News-Display/Article/3564368/353rd-cacom- expands-capabilities-to-include-psychological-operations/

16 Oct 23

IntelBrief: Past as Prologue: The Challenge of Urban Warfare in Gaza Bottom Line Up Front

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has extensive experience fighting in Gaza,

but even with prior experience, the challenges of urban warfare are still monumental.

Given the methodical planning involved in the October 7 attack, it seems likely that Hamas will have devoted significant time planning for the next phase of this conflict, conducting extensive preparation of the battlefield in Gaza that will complicate IDF operations.

Ground mobile drones, uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs), and other intelligence assets may be used to map the tunnels and identify booby traps before sending soldiers to clear them.

Hezbollah can tie up IDF resources without having to fully commit to the fight,

instead relying on occasional rocket or missile strikes to prevent the Israelis from growing complacent and forcing the IDF to commit manpower and materiel along the northern border.

https://thesoufancenter.org/intelbrief-2023-october-16/




14 Oct 23

Analysis: Propaganda, deception, and fake news in the Israel-Hamas conflict -

The last thing that matters in any propaganda operation is whether there is any truth in it.


The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs has called Israel’s already notorious directive that all civilians should evacuate the northern part of the Gaza Strip “fake propaganda”.

Whoever wrote that is dead wrong, and was certainly not involved in the planning of last week’s armed incursion into Israel carried out by the Palestinian group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. The last thing that matters in any propaganda operation is whether there is any truth in it. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/14/analysis-propaganda-deception- fake-news-and-psychological-warfare


13 Oct 23

SOF and Multidomain Operations - TRIAD leaders Update AUSA at Warrior’s Corner


Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler, commanding general, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command; Lt. Gen. Jonathan P. Braga, commanding general, U.S. Army Special Operations Command; and Lt. Gen. Maria B. Barrett, commanding general,

U.S. Army Cyber Command, spoke during the Association of U.S. Army’s Warriors Corner event –“Special Operations, Space, and Cyber Operations: A Modern-Day Triad” – in Washington D.C. on Oct. 11.


They discussed how their commands provide the joint force with an enhanced capability to see, sense, stimulate, strike and assess across spectrums of conflict.


“Two years ago, if we were doing an exercise and we were doing our mission analysis and running up to the exercise, we never would have thought about how we organize space, cyber and SOF. Now, it’s automatic,’ Karbler said. “Mission analysis within my team is how are we leveraging the triad capabilities as part of our mission analysis? That is at the forefront now where as two years ago, we did not necessarily think that way. How does intel integrate the intel enterprise to get after the multidomain or multi-capability approach we all bring?


“We might have cobbled it together along the way, but now it’s really a part of the formal mission analysis,” he added.


https://www.dvidshub.net/news/455756/triad-leaders-update-ausa-warriors- corner


13 Oct 23

US Army special ops chief on ‘most important’ lesson from Ukraine: Information

Operations


US Army Special Operations Command's Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga credits successful information operations with the defection of 17,000 Russian soldiers. AUSA 2023 — Of the many, many lessons American military leaders and tacticians are taking from Ukraine’s fight against Russian invaders, one stands above the rest for the head of US Army special operations: the criticality of information operations. “I think [information ops] … could be the most important lesson learned from the crisis in Ukraine,” Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, commanding general of US Army Special Operations Command, said today. “I mean, the world has rallied to support the Ukrainian armed forces, in my belief, because of information operations and gathering support.

https://breakingdefense.com/2023/10/us-army-special-ops-chief-on-most- important-lesson-from-ukraine-information-operations/? utm_campaign=BD%20Daily&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=278284142&_hsenc=p 2ANqtz--ZDJGOU7hPZ_qXRd-wpc4Qrb1fhfKY- ocWMx7an_NMFpRsu7ielazVvOcDt0MK-f00RPc51Tej8SMtpblXOQqJMq8m- A&utm_content=278284142&utm_source=hs_email


11 Oct 23

Forget PowerPoint, and move faster on planning, Army 2-star says


WASHINGTON, D.C. — The days of units organizing their operations around a 24- hour cycle, with a short list of targets and procedures, and walking through each at a comfortable pace are over.

“Right now, the way we organize ourselves is in a 24-hour battle rhythm, and that has to change,” said Maj. Gen. Charles Costanza, special assistant to the commanding general of Army Forces Command. “[Large-Scale Combat Operations] are not going to let you do that,” he said.


https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2023/10/11/forget-powerpoint- and-move-faster-on-planning-army-2-star-says/


9 OCT 20

In Wake of Hamas attack, Israel may have to change intel, tech strategy


JERUSALEM and WASHINGTON — With active fighting still ongoing along the Israeli-Gaza border, it is still too early to know how exactly Hamas pulled off the biggest assault on Israel in 50 years, killing hundreds and capturing dozens of hostages. But analysts agree that the Israeli security establishment is going to have to ask itself hard questions about why it didn’t see the assault coming, and whether its bet on high-tech defenses is enough.

“I would imagine there will be a very, very major and deep-rooted inquiry,” Jonathan Spyer, director of research at the Middle East Forum told Breaking Defense. “And I assume heads will roll, because what just happened is a very, very major event.” https://breakingdefense.com/2023/10/in-wake-of-hamas-attack-israel-may- have-to-change-intel-tech-strategy/?

utm_campaign=BD%20Daily&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=277645761&_hsenc=p 2ANqtz-8yMdCkkWW2Ex0hzdm8YLT8B6wu0V50lsFxxZcDeisrD5- k0ApA0oS01N2jHJJ3HMfJLUippHOHpoPHz2IjDmxUnmKFug&utm_content=277 645761&utm_source=hs_email


9 Oct 20

US Helps Israel Defend Against Hamas Attack

The Hamas attack on Israel out of Gaza is at a different level than in the past, a senior defense official said today.

Hundreds of Israelis have been killed in the attacks that also killed 11 Americans, President Joe Biden said in a written release. Hamas terrorists have also kidnapped people in Israel and taken them to Gaza.

"While we are still working to confirm, we believe it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held by Hamas," Biden said. "I have directed my team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts."

The senior defense official said the unprecedented Hamas attack is notable for its violence. "I want to differentiate this from other times we have seen conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza," the official said. "This is ISIS-level savagery that we have seen committed against Israeli civilians — houses burned to the ground, young people massacred at music festivals." https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/israel/2023/israel-231009- dodnews01.htm?_m=3n%2e002a%2e3738%2erg0ao0ejdg%2e3h1l


9 Oct 20

Activist Hackers are Racing Into the Israel-Hamas War for Both Sides

After an attack on Israel by Hamas on Saturday, Israel declared war and fighting escalated throughout the weekend. As the death toll mounts on both sides and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) prepares an offensive, hacktivists in the region and around the world have joined the fight.

Within hours of Hamas militants and rockets entering Israel, such “hacktivist” attacks started to spring up against both Israeli and Palestinian websites and applications. In the short period since the conflict escalated, hackers have targeted dozens of government websites and media outlets with defacements and DDoS attacks, attempts to overload targets with junk traffic and bring them down. Some groups claim to have stolen data, attacked internet service providers, and hacked the Israeli missile alert service known as Red Alert.

https://www.wired.com/story/israel-hamas-war-hacktivism/

9 Oct 23

The Israel-Hamas War is Drowning X in Disinformation

In the wake of Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel this weekend—and the Israeli military’s response—journalists, researchers, open source intelligence (OSINT) experts, and fact-checkers rushed to verify the deluge of raw video footage and images being shared online by people on the ground. But users of X (formerly Twitter) seeking information on the conflict faced a flood of disinformation.

While all major world events are now accompanied almost instantly by a deluge of disinformation aimed at controlling the narrative, the scale and speed at which disinformation was being seeded about the Israel-Hamas conflict is unprecedented

—particularly on X.

https://www.wired.com/story/x-israel-hamas-war-disinformation/? bxid=5c74687efc942d5f0c7095da&cndid=25726349&esrc=OIDC_SELECT_ACCO UNT_&mbid=mbid%3DCRMWIR012019%0A%0A&source=Email_0_EDT_WIR_N

EWSLETTER_0_DAILY_ZZ&utm_brand=wired&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_101023


23 Sep 20


Disinformation most active on X, formerly known as Twitter, EU says


X, formerly Twitter, has the biggest proportion of disinformation of six big social networks, a European Commission study has suggested.

It examined over 6,000 unique social media posts across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and YouTube.

The study analysed content in three countries deemed particularly at risk to disinformation - Spain, Poland and Slovakia.

The BBC has approached X for comment.

"My message for [X] is: you have to comply with the hard law. We'll be watching what you're doing," the EU's Values and Transparency Commissioner Vera Jourova warned

The disinformation study which prompted Ms Jourova's comments covered Spain, Poland and Slovakia, countries at risk of being targeted by disinformation due to elections or proximity to the war in Ukraine.

The platform with the largest "ratio of discoverability" of disinformation - meaning the proportion of sensitive content made up of disinformation - was Twitter. YouTube had the lowest, the study suggested.


https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66926080


23 Sep 20


Russian disinformation strategy in Africa: impact on Ukraine and Western relations


Africa holds a significant role within Putin’s foreign policy agenda, which is committed to dismantling an inequitable “unipolar” global order, characterized by

U.S. and European dominance, and establishing a more balanced “multipolar” framework involving major powers, including Russia. Within this narrative, Putin extends a promise of Russian support to African nations as they strive to shed the remnants of European colonialism. Furthermore, Africa stands out as the primary focal point in Putin’s efforts to counter diplomatic isolation. The backing of African allies has assumed paramount importance for Russia, especially within the United Nations (UN), where African countries collectively constitute a quarter of all votes in the General Assembly. The participation of African states plays a pivotal role in Moscow’s periodic calls for support from nations, seeking their votes – or, at least, abstentions – on critical UN resolutions.


https://www.weareukraine.info/russian-disinformation-strategy-in-africa- impact-on-ukraine-and-western-relations/


8 Sep 23


PLC Social Media Warfare and The Cognitive Domain


The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has come to recognize the important role of social media in modern conflict and peacetime operations. As such, PLA

researchers have begun using the term “social media warfare” (□□□□□) to describe the extension of non-kinetic military activities onto social media by two or more opposing sides. This term is part of an ongoing conceptual expansion of the scope of warfare in Chinese military thought in which social media is viewed as another space for conflict and not just another channel for distributing propaganda. While the term “social media warfare” does not represent PLA doctrine, its emergence does indicate that the Chinese military finds these activities important enough to raise awareness of them amongst its rank and file. Together with other evidence, this suggests the PLA is working to better incorporate social media into its operations.


https://jamestown.org/program/pla-social-media-warfare-and-the-cognitive- domain/




PSYOP Bulletin Board - November 2023

'Hell On Wheels'

Short Story by

Maj. Ray Ambrozak, US Army (Ret)

“What the hell have you been doing?” The question was being put to me by a LTC at Infantry Branch, who had just thumbed through my records. It was late 1971. I was just coming out of my third tour in Vietnam by way of Medevac for malaria. He was of course referring to the fact that I was an infantry officer who had spent most of his career in Psychological Operations (PSYOP) units which he explained would not compete well with my Infantry contemporaries.

My orders at the time were sending me to the 2nd Armored Division, Ft. Hood, Texas. The LTC advised, that it was absolutely necessary that I have staff duty with troops at the 2nd Armored Division if there was to be any opportunity to salvage what was a flagging career.

When I arrived in the 2nd Armored Division, I was surprised how warm the welcome was. This made me optimistic about getting into a Mechanized Infantry Battalion - which was what the LTC at Infantry Branch had told me was my last best hope at the next promotion board. My optimism proved to be unfounded. The Division G-1 told me that they had looked at my records and saw I was the perfect candidate for a special mission that the division had just been given. He listened to my protests as I explained why I didn’t want anything special. I had done special and it did not do me any good. He invited me

to return the next day, at which time I met the Division Chief of Staff who painted a picture of how well suited I was for the job about which the division was in a quandary. He proved to be as patient as the G-1 had been as I vented about my need to get staff duty with troops to which he answered that I should return to the headquarters the following day.

On my third day in the Division, I was escorted by the aide into the office of the Commanding General of the 2nd Armored Division. As the door closed behind the aide, the CG. announced in a manner that did not invite conversation on my part, “You are going to be my Unit of Choice officer”. Without allowing time for that to sink in, he launched into an explanation of how the Army was to become an “all volunteer” force. The new Unit of Choice (UOC) program was designed to support filling out the Army’s personnel needs. The UOC allowed a recruit to select a unit that he would be assigned to upon entering the service. To assist him in making that decision, major active units were to establish their own recruiting programs. This was the task that the CG. was directing me to take on because he felt my previous PSYOP assignments made me uniquely qualified. He said he was sensitive to my wanting to be in a mechanized infantry battalion to get staff duty with troops, so he made a proposal. He would have me assigned as the Assistant G- 1 with UOC as my only duty, for six months. In that time, I was to establish the Division’s program to include all necessary memorandum SOP’s selecting Division recruiters to work in Recruiting Main Stations throughout the country, create and manage a budget to cover all operations. After six months, he said he would put me in any battalion I wanted. When he asked is six months was enough time, I told him he could start looking for my replacement in three months.

Thus, began an intense year (yes, one year) of the use of Psychological Operations directed toward the civilian population. I knew the heart of the program was going to be the division recruiters that we sent into the field to work with the regular recruiters. They would have two target audiences – the civilian recruit and the recruiters they were to work with - face-to-face communicators.

One of the things I emphasized to our recruiters was to market the 2nd Armored Division name in any way they

could. This resulted in special events taking place all the way from historic Boston on the east coast to raceways on the west coast. When an opportunity arose to connect our campaign to the sport of car racing, we were eager to do so, as it targeted our key demographic 18-25 year old males.

One of the events at car racing venues involves what is known as funny cars. The front of these machines lift off the surface as they fly down the track going 100mph traveling only on the rear tires. I was contacted by a funny car racer with an idea to build a 2/3 size fiberglass tank painted with 2nd Armored Division identification. The tank would appear at raceways where it could be coordinated with recruiting efforts in the area. Bob Perry, the race car entrepreneur, came to Ft. Hood so we could discuss the details of what the tank would look like, as well as the details of the contract, which were tricky since the tank had not been built leaving a list of questions to be answered. When I told Bob that Patton called the 2nd Armored Division “Hell on Wheels”, we both agreed it would look great painted on the side. Bob suggested mounting titanium rear wheels which would contact the track, as the front came off the ground, causing a fireworks display. From that point forward, the negotiations seemed to go easier.

The inaugural run of the tank was at the Western Grand Nationals Race held in Ontario California. This race was to be featured on an upcoming ABC Wide World of Sports telecast. When I contacted the District Recruiting Command about the tank and the race, they were excited and ready to do all they could to make it a recruiting event to remember. There was an extensive static display including Armored Personnel Carriers, artillery, an Abrams tank and the “2nd Armored Division Hell on Wheels Tank”. There were two helicopters used in an aerial repelling demonstration on race day. When that day finally arrived, all of the parts seemed to know where they belonged and began to fall into place. All the things we could control were going well, except one thing we could not master– the weather – a light shower had wet the track enough to delay the beginning of the races. The delay provided me enough time to work up my courage to make a request of the ABC director Roone Arledge. The ABC operations center was in a trailer near the staging area. Inside, there were four men expressing, in very

colorful language, their disappointment about the unforeseen delay. At the earliest opportunity I introduced myself to Roone Arledge and asked him if the 2nd Armored Division tank would be shown in the telecast. His jaw was set when he answered that there were no guarantees, if anything at all would be shown from this day. My uniform was probably the only thing saving me from being tossed out of the trailer. Undaunted, I broached another question. “Mr. Arledge , if I can get the track dried off in the next twenty minutes or so will you put the tank in the telecast”? He had a smile on his face as he first shook his head, then nodded with a “you

bet”. I told the chopper pilots to keep their engines running before I went to the trailer. As I exited, I gave them a thumbs up. The two choppers hovering ten feet off the deck, the length of the track, had it dry in

minutes. There is little doubt that this was the only time a pair of U. S. Army choppers got a standing ovation from several thousand fans at a sports event. The second standing ovation came at the hands of the C.G. as we watched ole Hell on Wheels roar across the TV screen in his office, both of us feeling the “thrill of victory” avoiding “the agony of defeat”.




Article Courtesy of Ray Ambrozak and “The Sentinel”, Chapter 78 Special Forces Association (https://www.specialforces78.com/)












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