(37F) PSYOPS Vs. (38B) Civil Affairs -- what are the pros and cons of each?

Well I can't speak for PsyOp. But the training is different, definitely for CA. Reservists don't go through language and the 20 week Q course, Reservists don't have SOCM/CAMS qualified medics on every team, and they have 38Gs and lower enlisted soldiers. Active does not have 38G or lower enlisted, our lowest members are SSGs. Reserve enlisted do not attend the Sluss-Tiller CULEX with the officers and active duty.

I'm not saying active is better than reserve, just that there are differences. The reason I brought it up is because the OP is active and had gotten a bunch of reserve answers with reserve only information in it, and didn't resort to "CA just throws money at stuff and builds wells" as an answer. It is words and assumptions like those that most of the military still believes CA is hugs and wells and money. As well as medcaps and vetcaps, not the only thing CA does, it is a method and we barely do em anymore (and they are still effective without PsyOp messaging campaign).

Each of the 3 "tribes" can enable the others and none are better or more important. CA can do their job without PsyOp and SF, SF can do their job without CA and PsyOp, and PsyOp can do their job without CA and SF, but when they work together its a much better job.

WOW. I did reserves and active duty. I was big army and USASOC. We have butter bars and people in ranks that are NOT active CA. There are so many Reservists that THINK they know, but have NO clue as they don't do what the active folks do. Ugh... CA officers START with captain. LT's have no experience in real world Army and as such their comments need to be totally disregarded as uneducated. Anyone under E-6 is NOT on a team or have experience out in the field. They should be disregarded. I'm not trying to start fights, but I will fight them. Psyops drop flyers and spend most of their time chasing and chaptering Junior Soldiers. SFC Carroll, hey there brother. long time no see. I remember you as SSG Carroll. I miss 92nd land, and all of our long tab brothers. Take care, keep up the awesome work you guys do.

MSG(P) (Join to see) - Never had a reservist on my team and we were out 3 days for each day back, and days back, i was at schools 1.5 days for every 2 days back. That put me at home 30 days out of every 5 months. How many days are reservists deployed per year? 2 weeks 30 days? YES, I was a reservist. I KNOW... Yes, you guys DO fill an important part of the mission and it was ONLY reserves since Viet Nam until after 9-11. You guys have definitely earned your flaming feather sword. My hat is off to you, but you DON'T know what active folks do unless you have done it. You cant compare with the full timers without that critical knowledge. How many days per month do you sit in refresher language classes? I spent 2 hours 3 days a week for all weeks I was at Bragg and not on mission or all over the country in schools. I am not trying to be offensive. but with only half of the picture, how can you describe it? No one originally talked down the reservists. We started talking about what CA does verses all of the Psyops guys. Where originally did anyone say that the reserves sucks? you don't, its just part time. part time sucks. it doesn't pay the bills and doesn't give you exposure to USAID, State Department, NGA's and OGA's like the full timers. I don't do it anymore. It was the worst best thing I have ever done. More than half of my injuries happened AFTER i was 38B. ALL of my serious injuries were while a 38. IF i had stayed big army, I would be still in, I would be at 26 years and maybe a SFC, well, I would have to be as i would have been sent home if I was still an E6 at 22 years. Chem sucked. I was an excellent battalion Battle NCO but hated S3.

I have done it active duty. The army doesn’t have PSYOPS guys. The reserve PSYOP Teams deploy far more often and I’ll be honest, from working with both sides of the house, I’d take a reserve psyoper over an AC any day of the week.

CA has a unique mission and is comprised of adults with experience. Not some war hungry fool wanting to be a hero. I LOVED CA, I LOVED my team, my cohorts, everyone I worked or interacted with. My PSY brothers liked their jobs. None of them said that they LOVED their job or teams or working in austere environments... they don't! They complained about spending 90% of their time on 10% of their Soldiers below the ranks of SSG. Even SGT's who were promoted with minimum times had no real experience or even grew up yet; were faqing off and getting in trouble. 4th Psy is a great job if there are no other options. I wanted out of Big Army to get away from wasting my time counseling stupidity and laziness and to spend my time working with professionals and spending 99% of my time training or on mission. That is why i LOVED CA. Keep up the good fight and stay awesome SFC Fordham.

Amen brother

I was promoted in chemical with 790 points. Its not hard to do if you use your time wisely and not screw off during down time. Get the Army education, get the civilian education, do PT seriously and on your time, be at the right place at the right time, study military stuff, do practice boards, be just a little bit better than the rest, volunteer for crap details, offer to help the junior soldiers, work with the screw ups and get them up to standard, coach juniors bowling on Saturday mornings during the fall/winter league. talk to your leadership, Platoon Sergeant, 1st Sergeant and CSM. Spend time in the S1, S3, S4, S6 and learn some of what they do. Stop spending your time chasing the bearded clam and wasting your time on the xbox and learn. Ask your 1SG if you can do a practice run at the end of the promotion and other boards. try to get on the battalion or post Bataan death march team. run in the Army 10 miler, put in for ALL of the Soldier/NCO of the month boards. Win it once or twice. I promise you, if you do that, then in less than 3 years, you will have max points based on your PT score. If your not at max points it is all because you don't care enough to do what it takes. If I can do it, as an older soldier, with a family and kids, in the 3 shop which works later than the rest of the battalion almost every day, and being lazy as I was, then anyone can do it. the only reason I wasnt at absolute max points was because my pushups were a little weak. a few blasts in Iraq and a few bad landing during airborne operations has a tendency to mess up shoulders.

It started out that way, but too many people with small minds and a need to have a bigger chest have started beating their drums. People with less than 5 years in the Army started putting in their 2 copper nickles and they dont know crap about being a professional Soldier. Informative, Yes, but once it gets to the Were better, no were better, no you dont do shit, no we are the shit, type of stuff, stop reading as its beyond stupid at that point.

The biggest influencer may be what do you want to do when you get out

How would someone be able to join the tactical side of PSYOPS team when they go are selected? Also I believe there are Officers for PSYOPS as well,

That's the biggest issue with CA "we influenced" leave IIA, AIDO, IDO, etc to PSYOP. CA and PSYOP can work well together, but you CA dudes love crossing lanes. That's my biggest issue with CA, and sadly, yall are top heavy and can get away with it, which is why CA are able to steal PSYOP missions, just like *cough cough* East Africa where CATs are doing "Crowd control" and building "rapport" with the locals in certain areas.... interesting...

It sounds like you had a bitter experience, and if that’s the rationale for your down vote – so be it.

I cannot speak on the operational dynamics of what goes on in the east, specifically the HOA – Maybe 1SG Healy can speak to that if he feels inclined to do so. I personally have never had a bad experience with MISTs, as the ones I’ve worked alongside with have always been more than willing to see in which areas we could collaborate and increase effects achieved. I didn’t have a MIST in the country I was in on my last deployment, yet I still reached out to the closest MIST in another country and began coordination for joint training for a future training event.

To speak to the active duty side of the house, there are 12 special operations core activities (DA, SR, CWMD, CT, UW, FID, SFA, HRR, COIN, FHA, MISO and CAO), in which there will be operational overlap with some of the core activities. If you think PO is the only ones who “influence”…then I suggest you open the latest JP 3-05 and freshen up on what each entity is capable of doing and why the overlap is there. No one mentioned anything specifically about IDO, regardless of AOR.

Lastly – I’m not bashing MISO/PO, much less trying to infer to someone trying to make a career decision that CA is better than MISO or vice versa. However, I will correct any fallacy that is thrown out, as I would expect any member of our regiment would do. Again, between CA, MISO and SF…they all have their niche and again, when we all play nice together – a lot can be accomplished. It’s up to the individual who wants to cross over into our world, to figure out which branch/MOS s/he feels they can make the most impact in and be happy that they chose that specific career field.

I understand PSYOP is not the only influencer in the community, it is just a sorta buzz word for me, because you are correct, I have had a few bitter experiences.

That being said, I have had some great experiences. Example, Our co-located CA guys were rolling out with our local ODA, due to all three members of my TPT being actively engaged with a dense workload I coordinated with the CA team to disseminate radios for future IIAs.

So, I wasn't intending to completely bash CA. It's okay to aim at the same whole, but crossing streams is a no no sometimes.

^hole

MSG (Join to see) What do you know about the CA medical sgt job? How do you get it? What is the pipeline, etc, etc? Thanks!