Once upon a time, a long time ago, there were a gazillion Soviet Divisions and America regarded the Division as the building block of the Army. Support functions like MI and PSYOP built their organizations to support these entities and the HQ above them. Today, the Army uses the Brigade as the building block for forces and in keeping with the budget reductions, the Army has announced that it is reducing the number of brigades from “45 to as low as 32” according to a January 25, 2012 article published by the Associated Press (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/25/army-to-cut-combat-brigades/).
While this was going on the Navy Seals executed another successful mission in Somalia from a base in Djibouti. The Djibouti base is being hailed as the model for small force footprints for future operations. (Photo Source: http://www.joshuaproject.net/people-profile.php?peo3=14983&rog3=DJ)
Taken together these two items present some interesting challenges and opportunities for PSYOP.
First of all, PSYOP teams will be required to operate independently more than ever before. They will also be expected to be highly deployable, yet able to bring to bear all the sophistication that today’s 7x24 news world demands. Frankly, I have little doubt that the teams will be able to execute their missions brilliantly.
My concern is Command and Control (C2). It appears that the traditional Group, Battalion, Company structure is being turned upside down. Hybrid operations be they Special Operations or General Purpose Force centric will require tailored C2 that can not only direct the operation but bring to bear the ‘reachback’ or other support necessary to conceptualize, produce and distribute the PSYOP work product necessary to succeed in these complex and unstructured missions.
Not only do we need significant organizational flexibility, probably involving well trained 04s and 05s to command and staff these hybrid HQ, but the linkages in doctrine and organization across both the Special and General Purpose Forces to insure seamless integration into the myriad of new missions and environments.
2 comments:
Word has it that MG Jacobs, CAPOC commander, has decided that PSYOP will not have a unified chain of command. His exact words, as stated on AKO's MISO NET discussion board, were that the POGs were "not going anywhere"
That being said, its looks like the CA officer who commands 7th POG will be joined shortly by another CA officer who will be commanding 2 POG.
If we're gonna have an enemy let it be CA, the greatest PSYOP Deception is letting CA run shit, the incoming USASOC CDR is going to make a grab at the 2 reserve POGs to place under the MISOC, this will ensure a one star billet, and essentially make CAPOC irrelevant it has been for years anyways, the nepotism, the criminal officers getting away with the crimes that have gotten swept under the rug, funny how there are different spanks for different ranks- no one hesitates to admonish a specialist and punish that specialist with extra duty and strip rank, however the bloated officer corps at CAPOC HQ creates billets for banished officers and relieved BN commanders, -all around crappy organization that needs to go away, 1st Training Brigade should hopefully collapse very soon. I read Jacobs 43 slides on "pet peeves", very strange that a 2 star couldnt just publish a few slides on CMD Philosophy and guidance, pehaps a mission statement, but 43 slides of rant? Very unprofessionalism bordering on neurotic. Almost falls under toxic and flagrant disrespect for enlisted. Not impressed jeff, go back to running the MUIC, or digging wells guy.Why does everyone try to drink our cool aide? CA is after our jobs, IO is trying to run things, the AC claims they are not conventional, yet own all the Division and below planner positions as well as the CTC observer controller positions. So apparently we (RC) must be in demand, but as long as we have the wrong leaders (CA officers, toxic officers) we are doomed to ass-clowns and coloring books.
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