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LEWISVILLE, TEXAS - AS THE 345(TM) PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS COMPANY PREPARES TO DEPLOY TO THE HORN OF AFRICA, THE FOCUS WILL REMAIN ON AN EXPANDED MISSION REQUIRING MORE THAN 20 SOLDIERS.
Our team is triple the size of the PSYOP team we are replacing, said Maj. Matt Perritte, the detachment s commander and an Austin, Texas, police officer who deployed with the 344th PSYOP Co. to Afghanistan in 201 1 . Our mission will expand and morph once we get there, but we 11 conduct atmospherics, analysis of local attitudes pulse of the people, so to speak and assist in communicating as appropriate with the local population.
The unit will deploy to the Horn of Africa for roughly nine months following 10 days of theater-required training and PSYOP collective exercises at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., early this summer.
Perritte explained that because of the increased size of the team and the fact that the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa hasn t had large PSYOP assets in the past, the mission will have to grow to allow for fully functional tactical PSYOP teams. We may have to take comfort in knowing that we are setting up the next group for success, he quipped.
in the past, much of the 345th's deployment training would have taken place at a Regional Training Center away from home. But now most of it will be conducted as home station training at the Reserve oenter just prior to deployment. By conducting the training at a unit...