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Across the vast continent of Africa, U.S. Army Special Operations
psychological operations (PSYOP) teams are working through, with,
and by their partnered forces to spark societal change.
There’s a saying in the PSYOP community, “ARSOF makes change happen.
PSYOP makes change last.” PSYOP is the long game, where changes in
behavior are measured not over a deployment, but often over years.
In today’s rapidly evolving information battlespace, PSYOP Soldiers
are almost always at a disadvantage.
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January 31, 2017 - A psychological operations team leader briefs his
series development to Lt. Col. Patrick McCarthy, right, and Command
Sgt. Maj. Daniel Callahan, center, who are role playing the Special
Operations Command Team Forward for the Conch Republic. The two
senior leaders are in charge of Operation Warrior Anvil, a
validation exercise held in Key West, Florida, by 7th Military
Information Support Battalion, 4th Military Information Support
Group. The exercise validated teams through unparalleled training
with joint, inter-agency, and civic partners in real-world urban
environments that reinforced PSYOP fundamentals, fostered teamwork,
and strengthened character. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Stephen Von Jett)
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Influencing a population to create lasting change when
you don’t look, sound, or dress like that population is a
tricky proposition. Cultural training, language proficiency,
and an indigenous approach can go pretty far towards closing
the gap, but true effectiveness is only achieved through
airtight relationships with host nation partners.
But to develop those relationships, the PSYOP Soldier has to
first come correct; hit the ground as a value-added combat
force multiplier, capable of developing series that are
cogent, impactful, and aimed right at the heart of the
population.
The 7th Military Information Support
Battalion, 4th Military Information Support Group, is
charged with equipping, training, and validating the teams
that will go forth into the gray zones of Africa where
alliances can be fluid and the people are as diverse as the
many landscapes. Held in the last weeks of January in Fort
Bragg, North Carolina and Key West, Operation Warrior Anvil
served to validate deploying teams through unparalleled
training with joint, inter-agency, and civic partners in
real-world urban environments that that reinforced PSYOP
fundamentals, fostered teamwork, and strengthened character.
Lt. Col. Patrick McCarthy, commander of 7th MISB,
describes Africa as an archipelago of complex societal
islands. The challenge for his battalion is preparing their
professionals to partner effectively in any one of those
numerous societies that make up the continent. Missions vary
from maritime interdiction to creating alternative options
for youth in danger of radicalization, with a thousand
nuanced shades between.
With teams spread across the
continent, working such disparate missions, it proved
impossible to craft a validation exercise that mirrored
exact mission sets. Rather than fighting the mission,
leadership chose to have the teams fight the process.
By focusing on doctrinal tasks, Soldiers were evaluated
on how they constructed a narrative framework to fit their
environment. To prevent collection on American citizens, a
simulated mission set and social media environment was
created. This intranet created a dynamic, reactive and
proactive environment to affect and inform audiences. With
analogs to Facebook, Twitter, and even Craigslist, the
system provided an invaluable feedback mechanism that showed
which messages were heard and to what extent they were
understood.
Like actual social media, there was
plenty of noise in the system. Fake news, unrelated
commentary, trolling, memes, and even pictures of cats all
served to replicate, on a small scale, the sorts of data the
teams must scrub through in order to glean information and
create knowledge.
Col. Robert A. B. Curris,
commander of 4th MISG, visited the event both as a
role-player but also to observe operations and provide
command guidance to the teams and staff. A key point in his
discussion was the importance of maintaining Warrior Anvil
as a validation exercise vice a training exercise.
“Building the mindset that this is a test you can fail is
important,” Curris said. “On a macro scale, it’s about the
credibility we bring to the table. On the micro level, if
the world falls down around our Soldiers, we have to know
that we’ve given them everything they need to survive.”
The diverse agencies partnering in the exercise are one
of the ways that 7th MISB fills those gaps where Soldiers
might not yet have everything they need to survive, Curris
said. Those partners provide the requisite experience and
knowledge to challenge the teams being validated.
A
litany of agencies committed personnel and resources to
facilitate the exercise. Local law enforcement, U.S. Navy,
Coast Guard, and civic leaders portrayed Conch Republic
government personnel. More than simple role players, whose
character background for military exercises typically is
seldom more than a few paragraphs deep, these partners were
able to use the entire breadth and scope of their careers.
They challenged the teams to provide legitimate analysis and
actionable plans.
The week was not just a series of
partnered engagements, but single dynamic exercise where
actions had immediate or delayed impacts and teams had to
deal with unintended second and third order effects of their
decisions.
When the chartered flight from Fort Bragg
touched down at the Key West Naval Air Station, the teams
aboard never made it to Florida. Instead, they stepped onto
a tarmac in the Conch Republic, a fictional nation off the
western coast of Africa. Beset by a bevy of societal
problems from drug trafficking to domestic terrorism, the
government of Conch had requested support from the U.S.
Embassy to combat these ills.
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January 29, 2017 - Petty Officer 3rd Class Gerardo Martinez and his
explosives detecting canine, K-OS, inspect luggage at the notional
Conch Republic border as part of Operation Warrior Anvil. Security
Office personnel from U.S. Naval Air Station Key West participated
in Operation Warrior Anvil, a validation exercise held in Key West,
Florida, by 7th Military Information Support Battalion, 4th Military
Information Support Group. The exercise validated teams through
unparalleled training with joint, inter-agency, and civic partners
in real-world urban environments that reinforced psychological
operations fundamentals, fostered teamwork, and strengthened
character.(U.S. Army photo by Capt. Stephen Von Jett)
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While Soldiers completed customs paperwork aboard the
aircraft, battalion planners surreptitiously planted
explosive scented training loads in one of their bags.
Security personnel from Naval Air Station Key West served as
border security for the fictional nation and swept the teams
with an explosives-detecting canine at the Conch Republic
border. The Sailors were able to train on their own
procedures and techniques as Soldiers were taken into
custody and interrogated by Drug Enforcement Administration
agents serving as Conch Republic secret police.
Any
misstep was exploited; Soldiers were detained for missing
copies of orders, incorrect team documentation, and
tough-boxes that flew unlocked were pilfered. All the while
the observer controller team took notes, evaluating from a
rubric comprising myriad deployment-necessary skills.
The unit broke new ground in this exercise along both
technological lines, through the use of new communications
equipment and series development software, to partnering
opportunities as the first PSYOP battalion to conduct joint
training with the U.S. Coast Guard. The green-suiters
provided training on equipment such as the New Generation
Loud Speaker and other transmission devices – equipment that
is both useful in influence campaigns but also can be
lifesaving in times of natural disaster or other civil
emergency.
In turn, the PSYOP Soldiers learned how to
integrate their systems onto a variety of watercraft, the
transmission capabilities over open seas, and how the Coast
Guard conducts risk mitigation and mission planning.
Valuable skills that directly translate to what the teams
will need to know when they reach the coasts of Africa,
where many will partner with host nation naval forces to
combat piracy and smuggling.
One team leader shared
his thoughts about Warrior Anvil and where the focus was for
this iteration.
“Prior exercises have been less about
the seven step PSYOP process,” the U.S. Army captain said.
“This time, we have been focused on the process throughout
training and certification on the road to validation.”
That focus is exactly for what Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel
Callahan, senior enlisted advisor for 7th MISB, has been
striving. PSYOP not as just a job, but as a craft. A place
where science and technique blend.
“Train for the
skillset, don’t worry about the mission,” Callahan said. “We
need to develop the craft to be applicable to any
environment.”
To aid that process, the battalion
ensured that teams would never be truly comfortable with
their environment. Some scenarios were planned and
coordinated ahead of schedule, allowing the teams to
prepare. Others came seemingly at random from a variety of
role-players. Local radio disc jockeys, roving reporters,
and even the police would ambush teams in broad daylight and
attempt to gain information, curry favor, or even solicit a
bribe to make a tough situation disappear.
Local law
enforcement role-played the Conch Republic national police.
Responding to early mistakes by the teams, some of the
role-players were given a more adversarial role. This made
for uncomfortable bedfellows when PSYOP teams interacted
with police, often during surprise traffic stops.
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February 3, 2017 - A psychological operations Paratrooper
role-playing the embassy security officer, shown center in a white
suit, negotiates for the release of the detained broadcast teams
from Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Deputies, role-playing a Conch
Republic police officer. Local law enforcement of Monroe County,
Florida, participated in Operation Warrior Anvil, a validation
exercise held in Key West, Florida, by 7th Military Information
Support Battalion, 4th Military Information Support Group. The
exercise validated teams through unparalleled training with joint,
inter-agency, and civic partners in real-world urban environments
that reinforced PSYOP fundamentals, fostered teamwork, and
strengthened character. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Stephen Von Jett)
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Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Deputy John McGee
discussed the value that exercises like Warrior Anvil bring
to his own department.
“We like joint agency
training, we include as many law enforcement departments as
we can,” McGee said. “We have detectives, SWAT, and road
departments involved. This helps us stay on our toes, stay
sharp.”
While Key West seems like a dream
destination, it wasn’t the first choice for the command.
McCarthy contacted both the National and Joint Readiness
training centers, but says they were unable to replicate the
high intensity social engagements available through the
agencies uniquely collocated in Key West. Without those
partnered engagements the teams couldn’t be validated.
“We are trying to connect legitimate government
institutions to their people,” McCarthy said. “We cannot
train complex, inter-agency, inter-governmental, and
international operations without our partners.”
By
all accounts, the juice is worth the squeeze. Community
leaders take pride in supporting a high caliber exercise,
the partnered agencies have found unique ways to meet their
own training objectives through the scenarios, and the teams
heading out the door are better prepared; prepared to
amplify African solutions to African challenges, and
prepared to survive if the world falls down around them.
By U.S. Army Capt. Stephen Von Jett
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
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