My guest post for Big Country while he takes some time off. I’ve been a big fan of his Army stories and have been inspired to share a couple of mine. I won’t reach BCE’s high bar here, but I hope to come close.
I’ve never been to war, but I nearly died in an exercise. This is my story.
I attended the 6-week Army PSYOP course at Ft. Bragg in the summer of 92 as a 2LT reservist. That was the PSYOP heyday after their incredible successes in Desert Storm the previous year. One PSYOP campaign had a leaflet that led to 66,000 Iraqi desertions. One side of the leaflet had all the flags of the coalition. The message: It is you against the world. The other side had surrender instructions: 1) When you see coalition troops, sling your rifle upside down, 2) hold this leaflet over your head, 3) follow instructions. A simple message matched perfectly to the conditions the Iraqi conscripts on the front lines were facing.
That’s 66k we didn’t have to engage or avoid. That’s 66k that didn’t try to slow or kill our guys.
Matching a message to an audience is the key to PSYOP success. I had a chance to give it a try.
February 93 – Team Spirit, Korea.
I wasn’t your typical reservist. I maxed out my active duty time each year to fund college. I’d work as a clerk or some other duty for the total allowed 6 months per year, then do one or two semesters. Rinse, repeat. I had been doing this for the 5 years I was enlisted, and continued after earning my commission. The Team Spirit duty was available, and about 8 from my unit volunteered for the 3-week assignment. I was the senior man. I figured I’d be working for some field-grade types doing what all 2LTs do – shit work.
Nope.
The active duty PSYOP command didn’t send anyone to the exercise. So I was the senior PSYOP guy – a butter bar in a LTC slot. Talk about a weapon of mass destruction! In hindsight, I could have brought the whole system down with one “good” idea.
I was assigned to the Corps HQ (3 star command) at the Suwan air base – the top command for the Team Spirit exercise. And in this role, I had to introduce myself to the Chief of Staff, a bird colonel. The guy was all business, and his business was killing commies first, and eating lieutenants for lunch a close second. And he was all out of commies. The look of disgust when I reported to him was epic, and I remember it as if it were yesterday.
But there was a mismatch. He didn’t know who he was dealing with.
I thrived on his disgust. It fueled me. A prior NCO, I knew the Army, the system, the bureaucracy, and I knew them well. For example: A guy with only 2 years of college, I beat out a hundred OCS applicants, all older and all with degrees including some graduate-level guys. And I smoked OCS as the youngest and least-educated in my class, not only surviving my class’s 66% attrition but finishing 2nd in PT and 8th in leadership. But my finest traits as a officer, IMO: I was confident of my abilities and I didn’t care about the career. I loved the Army and my fellow troops, and I was in it only until it wasn’t fun. Seriously. Unlike practically every other LT, retirement wasn’t my goal, nor was a target rank. Which means I couldn’t be manipulated through conventional methods, such as living in fear of the Chief of Staff colonel. My only career goal, since the second week of basic training if you’ll believe it, was to be a company commander. As a 2LT, company command was a sure thing at this point in my career. I was just marking time.
I was an anomaly, and the chief of staff didn’t make any effort to explore this possibility.
Mind you, I didn’t think I’d have a success at Team Spirit. I just had a well-developed talent for giving it my best based on years of successes with exposure to many solid leaders and leadership styles. While a reservist, I didn’t have the years of grind like the active guys. But those 5 years of temporary active assignments exposed me to great leaders, big exercises and big challenges. It is only in hindsight that I see that I offered far more than the rank on my collar suggested.
Chief of Staff: “Welllll FUCK! Bragg didn’t send me anybody so you’re it [until you’re dead or I find someone better]. I know what it’s like to be a second lieutenant. I don’t expect ANYTHING from you, nor do I want you to do ANYTHING other than watch and learn. Attend the morning briefings, stay quiet, and stay out of the way. Clear?”
Me: “Yes sir.”
I could have left it at that. Who doesn’t like being told to do nothing?
Those morning briefings were incredible. The officers briefing the 3-star were the creme. I had seen more than my share of field-grade officers who only wore the rank because they stayed out of trouble and did the time. Still mostly good guys, but these weren’t them. That general was getting the best service from his staff and I had a front-row seat. And I was getting paid! Stupid Army – I would have paid for the experience.
One morning the intel guy is briefing the enemy units. Where they’re at. What they are doing. What they are expected to do. Just a routine review of the battlefield. Then he gets to a battalion-size unit that has suffered 40% losses. That is combat ineffective in military-speak, but it is something else to PSYOP. His message to the general and the message the general correctly took: Ignore this unit.
But I heard a different message. That unit is ripe for desertion/surrender. A PSYOP campaign, targeted to that unit’s unique characteristics and conditions, could remove it from the general’s big map board altogether.
We all know what happens when a 2LT gets an idea…
After the briefing I go to the intel guy and get the unit info. Their conditions: food quality and quantity, medical care, hygiene, leadership, what part of N. Korea they are from, etc.
My team and I then develop a leaflet similar to the one used in Iraq.
I then go to the Air Force guys and ask for 2 bomb slots on a fighter for the next day. My plan is to use two leaflet bombs, similar in size to a 500lb bomb that can be delivered by an F-16. They ask what I’m dropping and why, and when I tell them, they laugh at the stupid lieutenant and tell me they only drop things that go “boom”. “Come back when you’re ready to inflict more damage than a paper cut.”
The NK battalion is too far from friendly lines to conduct a loud-speaker campaign. In this case, playing the tape of one or more interviews with recently surrendered NK soldiers over the loudspeakers would produce similar results as the leaflets. But the loudspeakers weren’t an option.
A radio campaign wasn’t an option either. If we could drop radios, we could drop leaflets. A radio campaign, in this scenario, is where we’d parachute radios pre-programmed to our frequency into the unit’s area and then broadcast those same interviews. Imagine hearing the voice of a fellow countryman explaining a shower, seeing a doctor, 3 meals a day, etc. as you’re picking lice out of your hair, eating your daily bowl of rice water, and being reminded by your officers that you will be shot if you run in any direction other than towards the US and ROK forces.
I have two options left. 1) figuratively (as this is a computer exercise) I could hike out there and accept the unit’s surrender. Or balloons.
I go to the weather guy and ask for weather conditions for the next 24 hours. Specifically, I want to know the predictions for wind speed and direction. In 12 hours, overnight, the wind will be moving NE.
Perfect.
I then go to the supply guy and order 1,000 leaflet balloons. Yep, it was an Army supply item. I order the balloons released SE of the target unit at the appropriate time. The order is entered into the computer. And then I call it a day.
And I forget about it. This was just a project that gave me something to do for the day. Remember, I was under orders to achieve the absolute lowest expectations possible.
The next morning the intel guy is briefing the general again. He gives his update on enemy units, gets to my target unit and mentions the entire unit surrendered. The general asks why. The Intel guy says “PSYOP dropped leaflets on the unit and convinced them to surrender.” The chief of staff snap-looks at me from across the room with the most blood-curdling hateful look ever. If he had been within bayonet range of me, I’d be dead right there.
I still have scars from that look. As we used to say: “PSYOP, because physical wounds heal.”
And that is how I nearly died in an exercise.
Photos: Me at a DMZ tour, and me at a leaflet collection box in Seoul.
X: @KarlUshanka
Also published at Substack.
Best. Story. Ever! And it’s true! This is the kind of stuff that wins wars in real war.
Very kind sir! Thanks!
Mr Ushanka I believe you knew my brother. He had a blog years ago called Your Crazy Uncle. He was from Indiana. I know he talked about you.
Either way, very good story.
Good for you, and fuck that guy. Assholes like him are why I left playing Army after 13 years.
Ya I hear ya.
I hope I conveyed that he was a stud, he reacted correctly to my butter bar, and he ran an incredible team.
Speaking of assholes, here is a post I wrote 9 years ago about the reason I got out: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/07/fbi_resignations_where_are_they.html
I would not have made it today’s Army…
As a former 4th Group inmate, I totally understand that story.
Well done Airborne!
Thanks. I’m a leg, btw. Reserves wouldn’t send us to airborne school. Which reminds me of another story… Stay tuned!
Good story. I assume you did pretty well in the real world once Army was done
I was reserves and started my first corporate job a month after Team Spirit. Did ok as a project manager. Could have done better. But my f**king attitude rubbed mgmt the wrong way, despite delivering on their projects.
Memories of times I was told “Sergeant, we aren’t having a conversation, that was an order”. Then later being told by others “WTF were you thinking, you knew better than that”.
Thanks for sharing that story.
Ya, good times. I did ok as an NCO and officer, but they were different. I liked being an officer. I was proud to be a NCO.
Bravo Zulu, Lieutenant!
Great story, Mustang!
At my last job my e-mail PW was PSYOP1. I promised myself that I’d resign at PSYOP10 as we had to update the PW on an IT determined schedule. I lasted to PSYOP16 as they kept throwing money at me. In the end I was turfed by the New Troglodytes of the recently minted MBA. Did me a favor, they did.
Spin
Great story! Team Spirit, been there, done that, times 3.
yeah………… here’s the real psy-op
everyone who votes can think about that right before they die…
“Trump has a very important role to play in these END OF TIMES.”
https://henrymakow.com/2025/06/patrick-ocarroll—sanhedrin-h.html
Thoroughly enjoyed the story – thanks!
Good job!
Air Force left at 4 in 1971 after refusing to screw over a first term e4 that said something to Mrs General who cut in front in the Commissary line and the general told the group commander to tell me to take a stripe
Thought the colonel was going to deck me when I said with all due respect sir if you want to take his stripe you will have to do it yourself
I am the squadron commander and I am exercising my command prerogative
Got orders to Viet Nam two weeks later
Never regretted that decision you just have to do what is right
Damn. I never took a risk like that. Never had the chance.
You find that in every branch of fedgov. After a different fellow first-term visa officer refused a B1 (standard tourist) visa to a local, he complained to someone in the local govt. , who then complained to the DEI US Consul General. Who then instructed the head of nonimmigrant visas, who then tasked me with doing the re-interviewing. So I did. And the guy was the standard lying local third-world POS who was no tourist but someone who planned to get to the US and stay. So I refused the visa. Wrote everything up by the book, etc. Word came back that Consul General wanted the visa issued anyhow. I politely but firmly refused to do so under my name/authority. My boss (head of nonimmigrant visas) also refused (she was retiring shortly and didn’t give a f**k). So DEI Consul General had to issue the visa herself. The local POS promptly flew to the US and immediately filed to adjust status to immigrant (i.e. never was a potential tourist and lied repeatedly just to get to the US one way or another). She felt ‘disrespected’ (and not a little embarrassed).
The whole thing bit me in the backside later on but I never regretted standing up for myself and my integrity. Learned quickly I had no desire to get more power and influence like all the other scheming cat ladies in the State Department. They all lived and died alone. I am a happily married mother and grandmother. Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.
Thanks for not getting killed in our Imperial, Satanic, death/blood/humiliation ritual for profit.
I was was just a jet mech ’69-’73. Found a good wife in Kansas, ’70, and had a great time in Iceland, manning the 5 minute Alert Barn,’72-’73.
“I can’t complain, but sometimes I still do, life’s been good to me so far!” relatively…
From one mustang to another, well done. I give you Jeff “Skunk” Baxter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZKefHuiiOo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xN0hmNS_IU
Thanks! I’m 30m into the first link. Incredible story!
Interesting little snapshot of .MIL life there, which I never got to experience. And just as well I missed out, my congenital lack of respect for authority (which at this stage in history would appear to be well founded) wouldn’t have served me well in that capacity.
Yea me either had someone that knew the score about what was happening and advised against it even though they were recruiting me hard… Blessed for that and Yea never been big on having to follow someone off a cliff just because they said so…
Hi, I was in that exercise. I believe it was the last Team Spirit for a long time. I was flying B1s out of Guam up to South Korea. Had a grand time torturing the NK’s air defenses trolling along the DMZ.
Do you remember the real world scare at the end of the exercise? The SK President wanted to see ALL the aircraft involved in the exercise. So, we took a two ship of Bones up to Seoul. Scared the liviving crap out of North Koreans. They moved 4 Divisions right up to the DMZ. I was still in Guam when we got the order to fully arm the 4 B1s still at Guam. Must have been a little nerve wracking for you in country? I’ve always wondered…
WOW! I don’t suppose you would have dropped some leaflets for me?
Things I wanted to add to this story, but they didn’t fit. Until now:
Yes, I think it was the last Team Spirit.
Yes, Kim Song Il pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to protest Team Spirit. That pic of me on the DMZ was the day after. Clinton just took office. A little later, he gave them a reactor for “peaceful” purposes.
That SK president came through our HQ. He mostly hung out with the ROK division guys (there were 2 US divisions and 1 ROK).
I did a little work with the ROK ops guys. The seriousness they brought to the table was off the charts. These guys were ready to go every moment. That was the only “nerve wracking” thing for me. I could do serious, but never at that level.
The Suwan ROK F-16s were amazing. The building would shake with every take off. They’d max their engines at standstill, take off straight up and turn toward the DMZ at a couple hundred feet at full blast. There was no “practice”. It was always war for them.
The reason I asked about the end of the exercise is I was hanging out with in the OD’s office when the call came in to arm up. My Squadron Commander was in Seoul and he sounded pretty stressed out on the phone.
Leaflets? The B1 is probably the wrong platform for that. Unless you need a shit ton of leaflets dropped. Plus, I was too busy scuba diving at Guam on my days off to actually pay attention to the “war.” So much for serious on my end.
The reason the AF guys wouldn’t help is that they already had assigned targets for every mission. Way too many targets to hit even with all the assets involved. We often had to hit multiple targets to fulfill our role for the war gamers. Pretty ingenious move with the balloons though. It’s always a joy giving the finger to arrogant generals.
Thanks for the good story. The FBI one, too. Army’s pretty foreign to me, so I like to learn. I’ve always been a water baby, out in the waves really young, swimming during practically infancy.
But bureaucracy is the main reason I joined the USCG, figured smaller would be less red tape.
But hey, they’ve all got their problems. I don’t like the CG boarding private vessels without probable cause, or at least reasonable suspicion. Imagine if cops could just enter your home like that…
Looking forward to more.
Ya, you either master the bureaucracy, or it masters you. I’ve avoided it everywhere else in my life, sometimes to my detriment. But I saw the leaders who tricked the system to help the mission and/or the troops, and I was in emulation mode on day #1.
Hell, I only had a 2LT dyslexic gun-bunny drop a 105 barrage at the breach site we were supposed to be “guarding”… but the grunts let us guard trench corners and we didn’t leave PTA in ziploc baggies.