The Newsletter of the PSYOP Veterans Association
(POVA)
Founded 1988
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President's Letter
POVA has a laser focus on our Regimental heritage, traditions, values, esprit d'corps, and honoring those Psywarriors who currently serve and those who have served in the past. We organize our efforts around the "cornerstones of our values." These include:
Reconnect PSYOP soldiers with former comrades and their families and hold reunions for PSYOP veterans and families
A commitment to philanthropy to support PSYOP soldiers, veterans, and their families
Authorize the formation of individual POVA chapters, which may include acceptance of other veteran organizations as chapters of POVA
Provide PSYOP units and the PSYOP Regiment with speakers and instructors to present historical background to all PSYOP personnel
Beginning with this issue, POVA will highlight at least one Psywarrior from our past who has been a solid soldier, loyal Brother, and who contributed to our Regimental traditions, history, culture and esprit d'corps. That will also include those who served, or passed, long before our Regiment was actually activated in 1998. Our traditions, history, loyalties, and comaraderie precede and continue as long as we have a Psychological Operations element in our armed forces.
As with Regimental traditions historically, we will remember and revel in the memories of those who have gone before us. If you'd like to submit a remembrance of a Psywarrior from your own past, please send it to me, along with a picture, and we'll include it in a future newsletter.
Supporting and advancing OUR REGIMENT is something POVA is strongly committed to doing. It is in the interest of all of us.
Chad Spawr
President
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Lest we Forget.......
Please remember that American men and women are deployed in many places around the world and are in constant danger. Please save a thought and prayer for the two American Special Operations soldiers who died last month in Afghanistan. They are our Brothers!
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New POVA Life Members
POVA is very pleased to welcome new Life Members
Richard Hood
Paul Hettich
James Treadwell
Chad T. Alexander
Michael Stein
You can view our entire Life Member roster on POVA’s website at
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Remembering our Regimental Heritage and Heroes
Periodically, POVA will highlight a Psywarrior from our storied past who was a significant and highly regarded member of our profession To begin this feature, POVA remembers one of our original founders, John Henry "Jack" O'Neil.
I'm clearly biased, as Jack was my best friend, and his passing in January 2015 was genuine loss in so many ways. We had planned to return to Viet-Nam together, but his health declined so fast that he was unable to join me in 2015.
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Jack "broke me in" as a field team leader, and he left me in good shape to run PSYOP for a brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division in Viet-Nam. Jack was the embodiment of "combat PSYOP," and was as at home in "the bush" as he was later in life as a POVA founder. He was that good.
Picture at left is of Jack with part of his Armed Propaganda Team in a village near the Cambodian border in 1969. Here is an excerpt from his nomination for the MG Robert A. McClure award:
SGT Jack O'Neil enlisted in the US Army in 1967. He was sent to the Republic of Vietnam, and became a member of Bravo Company, 6th PSYOP Battalion, and 4th PSYOP Group. Jack was leader of field PSYOP teams directly assigned to support US combat forces and organized, planned, and executed a variety of PSYOP ground and aerial missions. He supported the 3d Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and 3d Brigade, 82d Airborne Division. SGT O'Neil was highly regarded by the combat units he supported, and his commanders in both 6th PSYOP Battalion and the 4th PSYOP Group frequently received compliments on his excellent leadership and performance of duties.
Jack was one of two members of the 6th PSYOP Battalion to organize and deploy teams of North Vietnamese defectors, known as Hoi Chanhs, into Armed Propaganda Teams (APT), which were deployed to support Allied forces working in areas involving local populations. The North Vietnamese defectors, armed and led by O'Neil and Spawr, were able to assist Allied forces in the field on joint operations, and the APT members effectively interfaced with local villagers to provide appropriate messaging in support of Allied operations.
SGT O'Neil was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Aircraft Crewman device, the Bronze Star Medal with "V" device, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf clusters, the Army Commendation Medal, the Good Conduct Medal with 2d award, the Viet-Nam Cross of Gallantry with Gold Palm, multiple battle stars on his Viet-Nam Service Medal, and the Presidential Unit Citation.
In 1988, SGT O'Neil was one of five former members of the 6th PSYOP Battalion who formed the PSYOP Veterans' Association (POVA). He served as POVA's second President, and frequently participated in education and training activities of the 4th PSYOP Group at Ft. Bragg. Jack was a Life Member of POVA, the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Jack O’Neil passed away from complications of his military injuries on 31 January 2015.
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Peter Westenkirchner, a POVA International Psywarrior Life Member
POVA is proud of our growth among the PSYOP forces and veterans of America's many Allies around the world, and continues to pursue those relationships. We are proud to introduce Oberleutenant (Lieutentant Colonel) Peter Westenkirchner, a PSYOP officer from Germany. Here is a summary of Peter's military and PSYOP career......Welcome Home, Peter.
A graduate of the USAJFK Center for Special Warfare PSYOP School in 1990, Peter has had a broad range of assignments in Signal, PSYOP, Intelligence, and operations during his career. He has served multiple deployments with German and Allied forces. Commissioned as a Signals Officer in 1991, and with extensive career assignments, Peter holds university degrees in Education, Sociology, and Psychology. A few examples of his career assignments include (but are not limited to):
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1987-1994 Various assignments (HQ staff, training and command functions) in Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) and the Army Signals Corps 1990 PSYOPS Officers Course; JFK Special Warfare Center & School, Ft. Bragg/USA
1992-1993 Bundeswehr Command & Staff College, Hamburg
1996-1997 Chief G2 Intelligence/Reconnaissance & SO1 Electronic Warfare; 6th Armoured Infantry Division, Kiel
1997-1999 G3 Exercise Plans / SO1 PSYOPS; 1st German-Netherlands Corps, Münster
1997-1999 Various deployments abroad with NATO's Stabilisation Force (SFOR), BiH, in Civil-Military Co-operation and PSYOPS functions
1999-2003 SO J5 Joint Plans at NATO's Regional Headquarters Allied Forces North Europe (today's Joint Force Command), Brunssum/NLD – inter alia ISAF operations planning
2001 Chief J3 Information Operations (Info Ops) at NATO's Regional Headquarters Allied Forces South Europe, Naples/ITA (augmentation for NATO's Balkan operations)
2003-2009 OPR / Concept Lead, Multinational Info Ops Experiment (MNIOE) – inter alia NATO and EU concept development Info Ops
2007-2009 SO Info Ops Concept Development, Joint Info Ops Branch; Strategic Reconnaissance Command, Bonn
2009-2011 Concept Developer / Multinational Concept Development & Experimentation (CD&E), OPR / NATO CD&E; Bundeswehr Transformation Centre, Concept Development Branch, Strausberg (Berlin) – inter alia Strategic Communication (StratCom) concept development: Framework Concept "Integrated Communication" (2010)
2011-2018 Experiment Developer / Multinational CD&E, Bundeswehr Transformation Centre (since 2012: Bundeswehr Planning Office), Experimentation Branch, Ottobrunn/Taufkirchen (Munich) – inter alia CD&E in support of StratCom implementation: Applied Concept "Communication Management" (2014), MilStratCom Practitioners Handbook (2018)
2012-today National Director / Project Manager: Multinational Experiment (MNE), since 2013 Multinational Capability Development Campaign (MCDC)
Peter's awards include: Bundeswehr Cross of Honour, Gold NATO Mission Medal, Former Yugoslavia Bundeswehr Mission Medal, SFOR NATO Mission Medal, Kosovo.
Welcome Home, Peter. POVA is proud to have you as a Life Member!
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Honoring One of our Own: SSG Mark Stets, Jr. KIA
Mark was an amazing son, husband and father. He grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia and visited his grandparents in Lewiston, New York during many summers. Mark married his wife Nina while stationed in California. They had three daughters, Jessica, December and Rachael. He was known for his sense of humor, practical jokes and his professionalism. One of the officers in Mark’s unit told me that Mark had garnered more good will in the three months he was in Pakistan than others had in an entire year. Mark was comfortable around everyone: Generals, college professors, soldiers. He had a way about him that made other people comfortable.
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Upon graduating from high school in Virginia Beach, Mark enlisted in the Navy, following in his father’s footsteps. After completing his Navy tour, Mark began the career he had always dreamed of, in the Army. He found his true calling in Psychological Operations. He deployed to Pakistan from 4
th Group, 8
th Battalion at Fort Bragg in November 2009. He was based in Islamabad, but traveled throughout the country, training Pakistani soldiers. Mark was killed by a VIED on 3 Feb 2010. Mark’s death ended over 70 years of continuous military, starting with his grandfathers’ service during World War II.
Mark earned many military awards, including the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Metal and the Combat Action Badge. The Senior Leader Course for Psychological Operations at the NCO Academy at Fort Bragg awards the Staff Sergeant Mark A. Stets Jr. Leadership Award to the course participant that exemplifies the outstanding qualities of a leader. Mark’s parents, Mark and Nancy, are honored to present the Award in his name.
Mark and Nancy Stets are POVA Gold Star members.
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Attention: Hotmail, Gmail, AOL and Yahoo Users
It seems these Internet providers are again sending POVA emails to the trash. As a result, you are not receiving items of information from our Association.....at least sometimes! Sometimes you will, sometimes you won't.
It is nothing that POVA can control.
You can, however! If you will "whitelist," or otherwise designate POVA as a "safe sender," then these providers will let your emails be delivered to you. The address to "whitelist" is chad.spawr@usapova.com. All our membership email comes from this address.
One of our primary member benefits is communication, but we cannot deliver this benefit without your cooperation. Please take a minute and do this TODAY!
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Updated POVA Challenge Coins Available
POVA's unique challenge coin has been very popular and well-received by our members and friends in the Special Operations community. To reflect our ongoing expansion to include members of the PSYOP community outside the US Army, POVA has redesigned the coin slightly to remove the "United States Army" designation the coin.
We believe the time to do this is right, as POVA now includes Allied Psywarrior members from Australia, Germany, the Ukraine, and the rapidly-developing US Marine Corps PSYOP organization. The revised coin is shown at left.
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You can order our new coin by emailing Chad (chad.spawr@usapova.com) and by paying on our PayPal account. Do this by visiting our website (www.usapova.org),navigate to the "Donate" page, and complete payment using the PayPal option. We'll ship your coin(s) very quickly.
Cost of the coin is still $12.50 apiece, or $10 for orders of 5 coins or more.
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POVA Addresses USACAPOC NCO Reclassification Class
POVA First Vice President Lawrence Dietz, COL-Ret, (at left) once again presented his excellent program to NCO's reclassing to the PSYOP professional field at Ft. Hunter Liggett in California. Here is an excerpt from his After Action Report describing the program:
I was approached via text by the CSM of the training company responsible for PSYOP NCO reclassification training at Fort Hunter Liggett. This is a USAR training unit that ultimately is part of the TRADOC chain of Command. As you may recall, last year I was the graduation speaker for this class ( a 30 level – E5s?) class and the 40 level class at Hunter Liggett. There were about 70 to 80 students in the class.
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My topic was PSYOP Support to Civil Authority Information. As you may recall, PSYOP supported relief efforts for Hurricane Andrew. I used my personal experiences as a Red Cross Public Affairs Officer on a flood and three fires as the basis of my material.
The end of my presentation included what I felt was an objective look at the three PSYOP associations (POVA, the PSYOP Association, and the PSYOP Regimental Association). Interestingly enough I didn’t get any questions on that part of the talk.
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POVA Life Member Dave Missavage and the Children of Tet 1968
In the midst of the horrors of the slaughter of Viet-Namese civilians by the Communists in Hue City in January 1968, PSYOP Officer 1LT Dave Missavage managed to bring smiles to the faces of several local children, most of whom had been forced by the Communists to watch the murder of their families. Whatever else has been said about the American soldier in Viet-Nam, we always found a way to connect with the children. Here is Dave in the midst of these kids in the middle of this maelstrom of war, and here's his part of the story:
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Hue, an ancient capitol in the central province of ANNAM, was a prestigious center of significance recognized by all. Thus the huge Basilica there located just to the south of the Perfume River. Notice the Gothic main body But and indigenous pagoda-like spire.
Thus, the NVA committed 10 battalions to occupy Hue. After a long siege to retake Hue by the ARVN and U.S. Marines, the NVA quite frustrated that their Offensive across the whole of S.Vietnam had failed, as the freedom forces were slowly overwhelming them, they decided to teach the catholic children a lesson , their civilian parents having supported the ARVN and U.S.Forces in the war. Thousands of these Vietnamese catholics were gathered and forced to dig trenchs, then they were put in them and their children gathered round to witness their folks punishment for aiding the U.S. Forces. The catholic children of Hue were forced to watch their
parents massacred, then buried, some still half alive from their wounds.
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When I arrived there in Hue City after the NVA had been driven out, I found large groups of these children gathered because they had no families left. There were over 3,000 of them. They were not smiling , having lost their families days earlier. They were smiling for joy in having been rescued from the merciless communist NVA forces. They were quite glad to see us.
I would like to thank our 4th PsyOp Gp combat photographer Spe4 Calvin Crane for composing this precious picture. Traumatized by witnessing this atrocious event and numerous other tragedies,when I returned home after the war, like most other of our veterans, I was reclusive for almost 15 years. Then in the mid 1980s, I and tens of thousands of Vietnam Veterans came out of the closet so to speak and started searching for our former compatriots whom also had experienced these horrible memories.
After graduating from St.Ambrose University in the spring of 1966, having lost my student deferment, I was drafted. So I enlisted so that I might get preferred assignments after being inspired by President JFK's call to serve.. Basic and AIT were first at Ft. Jackson, OCS and Abn Training were next at Ft. Benning, then Ft. Bragg was next for my Special Forces Training.
I arrived at Camp Alpha the day before the "TET OFFENSIVE" commenced. "I was assigned to 4th PsyOP Group's PDC (Propaganda Development Center), with my MOS-9305/9301 (Combat Intelligence Officer). I was appointed to be the Liaison to the 7th PsyOp Bn in DaNang. After seven months I became the "Coordination Officer" for the 4th Group, where I facilitated and coordinated all the Groups meetings with MACV, CORDS, ARPA, USAID, the U.S. Embassy, JUSPAO, GPWD (ARVN PsyOps)."
Traumatized by the Massacre at Hue and many other events in my tour, I was reclusive for almost 15 yrs. Then in the mid 1980s we all started coming to the open to share and find our fellow veterans. After a catharsis at "THE WALL" I joined the newly formed VVA Chapter#299 in the Quad-Cities. Edited it's monthly Newsletter I named "Shoulder to Shoulder: later became the Secretary of the VVA's Illinois State Council. There named and edited the State Quarterly newspaper the "Prairie Drummer" which was circulated to 42 states. I held that position for 12 Years.
It was a great relief to find POVA, since we special warfare vets did not belong to any of the more common reunion divisional groups. After the war, I started my family and farmed until I retired and enjoy belonging to POVA. Most grateful to Chad Spawr and the others that have given so much in it's founding and maintenance so we now have a since of belonging.
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**
POVA CONTACT INFORMATION **
PRESIDENT & NEWSLETTER EDITOR
FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT/CHAPLAIN
VICE PRESIDENT FINANCE
VICE PRESIDENT MEMBERSHIP
VICE PRESIDENT AT LARGE
HOWARD PATRICK on temporary leave of absence
VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING
ILYA NEMTSOV
ILYA.NEMTSOV@GMAIL.COM
GATEWAY CHAPTER PRESIDENT
PRESIDENT EMERITUS & BOARD MEMBER
POVA HISTORIAN
POVA ARCHIVIST
POVA TRUSTEES
PSYOP Regimental Association Website.....www.psyopra.com
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