The Newsletter of the PSYOP Veterans Association
(POVA)
Founded 1988
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President's Letter
We are, in a word, about our REGIMENT.....our traditions, our honor, our heritage. After all, that is the real essence of a Regiment! We are all part of our Regiment, regardless of our MOS, job duties, or training.
Part of being "Regimental" is feeling that one is part of something bigger than ones self! For many soldiers, their "unit" is the group of soldiers with whom they serve, be it a rifle team, squad, platoon or other unit. When you're in the fight, your "unit" is the fighters in the hole with you, but when we move to more "peaceful" pursuits, our concept of "unit" may well expand. For many soldiers, past and present, there is deep emotional meaning to being part of a special unit such as an Airborne or Ranger unit. That is the sense of feeling, belonging, and pride that POVA seeks to support between our Psywarriors and our PSYOP Regiment.
POVA will continue to examine our Regimental history and heritage, while also working to advance the values in which we believe. Our Regiment has a history going back over 100 years, to the days of trench-warfare in France and Belgium in WWI, to the jungles and land campaigns of WWII, to Korea, Viet-Nam, and every engagement in which our forces have deployed right up to this day. It is a proud heritage, one in which all Psywarriors should take pride. However you define "unit" or "Regiment," never forget that you are a member of our PSYOP Regiment. Feeling a part of our special soldiers and veterans is an important element of our esprit d'corps.
Members of POVA's leadership met in early August to discuss how POVA can more effectively promote and support our Regiment. It was a very intense discussion with some very committed people. There was, and is, much to be learned, but I believe we have a roadmap of actions POVA can take to more effectively support, advocate for, and advance our fellow soldiers, veterans, families, and friends............in short, our Regiment!
As you'll see below, the dates for our 2020 Reunion have been set. Follow on down the page for the dates. More to follow!
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 Member:
Jeffrey Whitt
You can view our entire Life Member roster on POVA’s website at
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POVA 2020 Biennial Reunion Dates Set
Our 18th Biennial Reunion, to be held in Fayetteville, NC, will run from 19 May through 23 May 2020. Details of specific events are still be defined, but here are some of the activities that are being planned to make this a most memorable Reunion:
- Possible golf outing
- Possible shotgun range time for the trap and skeet shooters in our midst
- The POVA Business meeting, election of 2020-2022 officers and Board
- A tremendous NC BBQ picnic dinner
- The Meadows Field Memorial Service for our fallen fellow warriors
- Our POVA celebration Banquet
Work is progressing on hotel location and accommodations, banquet details, and the many myriad details associated with a major Reunion event. POVA has excellent people working on these items to make this a truly memorable Reunion.
As details develop, we'll update you by newsletter, by
POVAcomm messages, and via our website at www.usapova.org.
Stay tuned!
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Check out the PSYOP Association (POA) Mobile App
Our sister organization, the Psychological Operations Association (POA) has authored a nice Mobile App you can use from your Smartphone or iPhone. It is easy to load and use this app.
Using this mobile app, you can join (or rejoin) POA, pay your dues, check out calendar, events, and purchase excellent POA books and publications. Their signature commo vehicles, FrontPost and Perspectives, are also archived on this App.
All POVA members are encouraged to consider membership in POA. Their publications and commo services are excellent.
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A Reminiscence from Viet-Nam and the 4th PSYOP Group
Alan Byrne, a POVA Life Member, served with the 4th PSYOP Group in Viet-Nam from 1967 to 1968. He served as a section chief and then as the Group Adjutant. Al recently shared a recollection of "the Army way" in his role as the Adjutant:
I was the Chief of the Audience Analysis Section with the PSYOP Development Center for my entire tour except when I took over as the Adjutant. My job as the Section Chief was to direct the research, analysis and production of all related PSYOP Reports.
I and my staff analyzed the conditions and attitudes of target groups in order to determine basic psychological vulnerabilities for PSYOP exploitation. Also recommended PSYOP themes to be conveyed to a selected audience, based on daily SitReps and Intel reports from field units. Further, when asked, recommended the media to be used for dissemination.
Reviewed all enemy PSYOP materials and made recommendations to counter. I was fortunate to get the opportunity to frequently get out to each of the Battalions every so often to learn how we could offer better service to them and make their jobs easier. And I got the chance to fly several missions with them as well.
I took over as 4th Group Adjutant General in late October 68 and the first thing the Commander said to me was: "We just got notified that we will have our very first, EVER, full scale IG Inspection within a month for the Group and all of our Battalions. And I am counting on you, as an Adjutant General Corps Officer, to make sure we don't flunk it."
Operational wise, we were in great shape. Inspection wise, we were not in bad shape, we were in Horrible shape. I picked an officer and a Sergeant to assist me and the first place I visited was our Personnel Section. When I asked our Personnel Warrant what was in the tippled stacked two foot high boxes in the middle row of the Quonset Hut, that were in a 20 foot line, he replied "Morning Reports,Sir, for the entire time the Group and our Battalions have been in country."
That is impossible I stated. "The Group and the Battalions each retain a copy and a copy goes forward to whomever you send it too." You should not have more that 7 or 8 boxes total.
"Sir, he replied, "The Group has never sent a Morning Report forward during our entire time in country."
It was then that I pondered what my chances of being able to immediately transfer out of the Group were, and I figured they most likely would not be very good.
My advice was that I did not care what he did with the boxes, but he was to retain the Group's copy and one copy from each Bn from each one of the boxes, and get the rest of the boxes out of sight.
After we visited each Bn as a team on our first visit and pointed out what each had to do to pass the Inspection, one of us visited each Bn weekly for several days to check their progress and to help them correct what ever needed to be done.
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The Group fortunately, with a lot of hard work from a lot of hard working soldiers in the field, passed with flying colors.
And just a few weeks later, I was homeward bound.
I still ponder to this day, just why is a full fledged IG Inspection ever even considered in a War Zone. Fine to send experts, especially technical and mechanical ones out to assist units.
Same was true for MOS Testing. With the help of General Abrams a few years later, we were able to win that battle when he fired a response back to the Pentagon demanding to know just when were his soldiers going to be able to study for their annual MOS test. And it died right there and then.
At left.......MAJ Al Bryne receiving a recognition plaque from LTC Laab, 4th PSYOP Group, Viet-Nam, December 1968.
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POVA Family Helps Clean the Viet-Nam Veteran Memorial
POVA Life Member Ray Ambrozak sent in a picture of his son and grandchildren helping to keep the Viet-Nam Veteran Memorial in Washington, DC, clean and shining. Ray's son David and
grandchildren Sarah and Simon took turns washing “The Wall” on a recent August Sunday. His wife Julie took the picture. In Ray's own words......"The next generation caring for our heritage. It is Poetic that the family of a current life member is helping maintain the landmark where POVA had it’s origins." Poetic indeed!
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Operation Regimental Resolve
POVA previously announced the creation of Operation Regimental Resolve, an initiative to strengthen POVA's support to our PSYOP Regiment and its soldiers worldwide. Taking cues from such other famed Regiments as Special Forces, 82d Airborne and the Ranger Regiment, POVA is designing steps and processes to strengthen awareness of our Regiment among all PSYOP soldiers, veterans, families, and friends, and to build a strong and cohesive sense of esprit d'corps and pride in being a member of our Regiment.
A working group convened at Ft. Bragg between 9-10 August to begin planning. The group consisted of POVA Officers Rich Hosier, John Cheney, Curt Boyd and Chad Spawr; POVA members Ray Ambrozak and Bruce Leahy; and PSYOP Branch Commandant Robert Curris.
POVA will continue developing key components of Operation Regimental Resolve, and will share these as we are ready to bring them forward in support of our Regiment and our Psywarriors.
NEXT REPORT: The POVA Ambassador Program
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Share Your PSYOP Experience with Fellow Members of our PSYOP Regiment
POVA is eager to share your experiences with others in our Regiment. Most of us have served at least one or more tours overseas, and have had experiences that are worthwhile sharing. While many of our current "stories" come from our Viet-Nam history, our Psywarriors have deployed in dozens of foreign lands since 1975.
If you'd like to share any experience you had while in service, please send it along. A picture would also be good to share. We can learn from each other, but more importantly, we continue to expand and share our Regimental history, traditions, and culture by our communication.
Contact Chad Spawr directly about including your information and reminiscences in a future newsletter (chad.spawr@usapova.com). Please share your heritage, history, and experience with your fellow Psywarriors.
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Attention: .MIL, 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.
If you are using a .mil address, be aware that many attachments are either stripped off by the servers, or the entire message is blocked. This is a military security process, and POVA cannot change that.
If you can provide us with an alternative email address, that would help.
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 on 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. 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 each for orders of 5 coins or more.
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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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