What has been your experience with Army PSYOPs?

Some of the very best and the brightest men and women in the Armed Forces on the Active and the Reserve sides of the house. As with any branch - you always get a 5% who should not be there - but there is always those who are the exception to the rule despite the best efforts and how long it takes to get them departed.
So professional or competent as a question is something have to wonder what angle you are asking that from LT Fahey. Is it from Hollywood you seek answers or is it from history? Want to know more - take a long read of http://www.psywarrior.com/ . You will learn more there than you will from elsewhere and it is a long and proud history we have in PSYOP. (also PSYOPS is NATO - not US)
You have to be a 1LT (P) to request transfer to 37. Different worlds of what is next between the AC and the RC - but we do the same thing in the end - just supporting different folks is all. Perception shaping, narratives, themes and messages.... and alot of target audience analysis.
As a CPT in PSYOP - you are working either with a BDE CDR and his staff - or a Joint Element - a SOF element - or perhaps a US Ambassador. Chances are your also working hand-in-hand with a foreign military as well. Your experienced in Army and Joint planning, and your probably the closest thing anyone has to being an expert on the culture of where ever your at. (And it takes long hours of reading and studies to get to that point). You have to understand how your enemy thinks - and know the enemy by his or her names... and you know the population in ways to far to describe. Your soldiers are some of the smartest in the Army... many with degrees... and I have had junior NCOs with Masters degrees. I have seen CPLs advising levels that would require COLs in other units. They know their jobs very well and are highly effective when employed correctly. A SSG will often advise a BN CDR... or higher and be the key planner for PSYOP... or they may be doing the same for a Navy CAPT. Its hardest working with either Officer cultured services or foreign forces .. and how you succeed is part of the lore of lessons learned and the experience NCOs have gained in getting the job and having seen it before. No better professionals have I ever served with than PSYOP NCOs because of that.. and why they are often so trusted by a commander after only a short while with the expertise they bring to the table.
So I hope I answered your question. We have the right people - its our system and approval process that is 20 years behind the times and limits PSYOP effectiveness. We are still suffering from two items - first is that the US forces totally missed the revolution in communications that occurred around 2006-2010 in which the way people interact itself changed. The 2d is the "Good Fairy Idea" to split AC and RC PSYOP... which must be fixed if we are not to lose the Long War.

CPT (Join to see) - Worked with a few of the Soldiers from 4POG when I was in an Information Warfare unit several years ago. IO as a discipline was still very young in the Air Force in those days. The troops we coordinated with were some of the best at what they do. Every now and then one would go "Off the Reservation" but no more so than any other MOS. How effective they are depends largely on the guidance and restrictions placed on them by the Combatant Commander and DoD senior staff.

My take is they can be good, if they've been immersed. I presume those who talk about the Reserve side might be pointing out the limited time and exposure might not have the immersion level that's effective. Look, my PsyOps affiliation was somewhat limited. We were working on getting the last of the Khmer Rouge out of the jungle in the mid '90s. Since it's officially a RCAF show, the PsyOps liaison had some limits on what buttons could be pushed and how. Nonetheless, we did finally get Pol Pot out. What people forget is the tail end. What do you do with them if they hang it up? If you don't care for them well enough, make them believe they have a future, etc. they'd undefect and head back into the jungle. That's why the Khmer Rouge defector camps I was putting into the Oral Mountains were at a level of support that wouldn't encourage taking a hike. So many of the former Khmer Rouge became RCAF MIL types. And, like the rest of the RCAF who was underpaid because their drug lord Generals skimmed, they'd resort to other means of income earning. If we built a nice section of road, the RCAF would blow holes in it to slow the cars down enough so they could shake them down for "tolls". It'll still take awhile. First thing we did was force a paymaster system on the RCAF to isolate the pay.

I worked with them in 8th Army IO. They were not in the group at the time but as far as professionalism goes like all jobs we had some that were real professional and some not so. They like to play a lot of I am better than you games. Worked with them in supporting some subordinate units they did educate us on what they were doing.

Ask the 1,00's of Iraqi's who surrendered in GF1 with their leaflets in their hands.

I think the biggest misconception is that we do nothing but “leaflets and loudspeakers”. We’re beginning to focus on being “effects based planners” which is a more applicable to today’s fight and where we fit in the lineup.