1980's 18A Study Guides

[Dozer523]

Back in the mid 80's, when I was in the Special Forces Detachment Officers Course, I was a big note taker -- filled a few spriral bound ones. My perferred way to study was to make up / try to guess questions that would be on the test.

I recently ran across those notebooks and study guides from what was then called Phase 2.

So maybe someone will find them useful or maybe they can go in the historical archive.

All of this is from non-classified classes.

[Dozer523]

1. What is a Resistance?
a. An effort by individuals or groups to resist, oppose or overthrow the established government or occupying powers.

2. What forms can a Resistance take?
a. Passive non-cooperation – boycotts, strikes and civil-disobedience or
b. Active – sabotage, terrorism, guerrilla warfare

3. What is a Resistance Movement?
a. The organized effort by some part of the civil population to resist

4. What are the pre-requisites of a successful Resistance Movement?
a. Unity of effort, Support of the people, Will to resist, Leadership, Discipline, Intelligence, Propaganda, Favorable Environment, Outside assistance, Will to win

5. What are the five general stages in the development of a Resistance movement?
a. Clandestine organization, Psychological offensive, Expansion phase, Militarization phase, Consolidation phase

6. What are the basic elements of the Resistance Movement?
a. The Underground, Auxiliary, the Guerrillas

7. What is the Underground?
a. The clandestine, covert element

8. What is the Auxiliary?
a. The element established to provide organized civilian support for the guerrillas

9. What are the Guerrillas?
a. The overt military arm, organized along military lines to conduct operations in enemy or enemy held territory

10. Who designates the Un-conventional Warfare Operational Area (UWOA)?
a. The Unified Command

11. What are the seven phases of a US sponsored resistance?
1. Psychological Preparation
Purpose is to accept sponsorship by and the presence of US personnel
2. Initial contact
Allows accurate ascertainment of Resistance potential, arranges reception and ensures initial assistance
3. Infiltration
Clandestine infiltration, contact with the resistance, como with the SFOB, movement to the Guerrilla Base, Area Assessment begins.
4. Organization
Rapport established command structure and relationship defined, Cadre traing programs
5. Build up
Expansion of the resistance elements and activities
6. Combat Employment
Numerous and wide scale raids, ambushes, and demolitions, Continued Psychological Operations, and expansion
7. Demobilization
After the mission has been accomplished, Arms and ammunition are collected, Resistance force aided by government to return to previous occupations.

[Dozer523]

1. Who provides Psyop guidance?
a. The President in conjunction with the NCS

2. How is Psyop guidance relayed to Psyop units?
a. President > DOD > JCS > Theater Commander > Psyop unit

3. Why must Psyop guidance be provided to all personnel engaged in UW?
a. To ensure their actions and conversations enhance US government credibility

4. When does Psyop play a passive role in UW?
a. When advising UW forces.

5. When does Psyop play an active role?
a. When assisting the UW force in the development of Psyop campaigns (Phase 1)

6. What is the most common UW activity supported by Psyop?
a. Subversion, sabotage, Escape and Evasion, and Guerrilla Warfare

7. Why is the main thrust of the Underground psychological?
a. Because it acts to demonstrate enemy vulnerabilities

8. What is the Psyop mission in UW?
a. To create, re-enforce or sustain attitudes in the target audience which will cause the target audience to act in a manner beneficial to itself and to US interests.

9. What are the four target audiences encountered in the UWAO?
a. The Uncommitted, Enemy Sympathizers, Enemy Forces, Resistance sympathizers

10. What is the Psyop theme directed against the Uncommitted?
a. Stresses that the Resistance and its Allies share the populations political/social goals

11. What is the Psyop theme directed against the Enemy Sympathizers?
a. To instill fear and doubt

12. What is the Psyop theme directed against the Enemy Forces?
a. Instill fear, doubt, distrust and a feeling of isolation

13. What is the Psyop theme directed against the Resistance Sympathizers?
a. An appeal for the population to actively support or at least passively cooperate with the Resistance.

14. What are the inherent factors of any appeal?
a. A rigid code of conduct by Resistance members which ensures that the people, their sensitivities, culture, customs and needs are respected

15. What are some common themes?
a. Subversion – potential members are reminded of patriotism and nationalism
b. Enemy forces – stress is on self-preservation, immorality of their own acts
c. Sabotage – Acts are just because freedom demands sacrifice; sabotage is moral because the government is illegitimate.
d. E&E support – Humanitarianism, altruism, rewards and reprisals

16. What is the role of Psyop during the eight phases of a resistance movement?
a. Psychological preparation – for the presence of US Forces
b. Initial contact – generate support for planned operations
c. Infiltration – develop good relations and rapport
d. Organization –increase size, develop and define organization
e. Built up – support expansion
f. Combat employment – exploit successes downplay failures
g. Link-up – Encourage cooperation with conventional allied forces
h. Demobilization – assist and cooperate with an orderly transition

17. What is Psychological Warfare?
a. The planned use of propaganda and other actions to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes and behaviors of HOSTILE foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of US national objectives.

18. What is Psychological Operations?
a. Those political, military, economic, and ideological actions planned and conducted to create and sustain in NUETRAL and FOREIGN groups the emotions, attitudes, and behaviors to support the achievement of US national objectives.

19. What is propaganda?
a. Any information, idea or doctrine or special appeal in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes or behaviors of any specific group in order to benefit the sponsor either directly or indirectly. Propaganda is controlled information.

20. Operationally speaking, what is Psyops?
a. A force multiplier.

21. What are the characteristics of Psyops?
a. Psyop is a supplemental weapon; it employs propaganda and kinetic actions. It is offensive across the spectrum of warfare. It is consistent with national policy; is integrated within strategic and tactical planning.

22. What are the limitations of Psyop?
a. Political – US laws preclude use on US citizens
b. Cultural – must incorporate target culture, not violate
c. Security – Must not compromise HUMINT
d. Media – Is it available; is the product susceptible to enemy manipulation?
e. Personnel – 87% of Psyop is Reserve

23. What are the three types of Psyop?
a. Strategic, Tactical, Consolidated

24. What are the three types of propaganda?
a. White – source is correctly identified
b. Gray – source is unclear
c. Black – source is deliberately incorrectly identified

25. What is learning?
a. The process by which experience or practice is incorporated into relatively permanent changes in behavior

26. What are the three types of learning?
a. Classical, transfer a response to one stimulus to a previously neutral stimulus (Pavlov)
b. Social, combination of classical an operant conditioning, observational learning
c. Operant conditioning, desired behavior is rewarded,; undesired behavior is ignored or punished

27. What are psychological drives”
a. Status, group approval, self-esteem

28. What are physiological drives?
a. Hunger, thirst, sex, wasted removal, fatigue

29. What are three five levels of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs?
a. 1 Psychological needs, 2 personal needs, 3 social acceptance, 4 esteem, 5 self-actualization

30. What are motives?
a. Desires by individuals to attain goals.

31. What are frustrations?
a. Blockages to or the inability to achieve goals

32. What are the three motivational conflicts?
a. 1 Approach-approach 2 Avoidance-avoidance, 3 Approach-avoidance

[Dozer523]

1. What has been cited as the primary reason for the success of many Communist led insurgencies?
a. Operational effectiveness

2. What does Area Command depend upon?
a. Local conditions

3. What are the factors of the area organization?
a. 1 Effectiveness of the Resistance element, 2 Cooperation of the local populace, 3 Enemy activity and tactical situation, 4 Topography, 5 Desired degree of development with regard to future operations

4. What is the Area Command?
a. A combined structure with representatives from the Guerrilla Force, the Auxiliary, and the Underground under one command.

5. What is the role of the Area Command?
a. To control, coordinate and support all resistance activities in the UWAO

6. What are the basic elements of the Area Command?
a. 1 The Command Group, 2 Resistance Force, 3 Special Forces representative

7. What is the initial role of the ODA?
a. To establish a good working and command relationship with the area command. This helps to develop a higher degree of cooperation and some degree of control over the Resistance Forces

8. What must the SF Detachment Commander be in order to establish a good command relationship?
a. Extremely perceptive, diplomatic and yet forceful, persuasive, knowledgeable and professional

9. How does the Area Command ensure its security?
a. By remaining small and mobile with decentralized functions; planning is centralized; operations are decentralized; meetings are periodic or “on-call”; for long-range planning SOPs or Operational Plans / Orders are used.

10. What are the planning considerations when preparing for an Area Command meeting?
a. 1 security, 2 Present organization and chain of command, 3 competent personnel in key positions, 4 invitees, 5 agenda, 6 UW interests during planning and preparation

11. What is the purpose of the Command Meeting?
a. 1, Establish the chain of command, 2 establish operational boundaries, 3 establish priorities of training, 4 Intelligence (available and required) 5 Support, 6 establish rapport, 7 logistics 8 communications, 9 interdiction plans, 10 targets, 11 money

12. What is the Area Complex?
a. A mobile series of bases with intangible lines of communication established by the Area Command

13. What are the key elements of the Area Complex?
a. 1 organizational bases, 2 mission support sites, 3 cache’s 4 drop zones, 5 landing zones, 6 training areas and sites, 7 safe areas, 8 intell system, 9 security system, 10 E&E mechanism

14. What is the Guerrilla Base?
a. A temporary site where command and control headquarters, installation facilities, and operational units are located. There are usually more than one guerrilla base in the sector area

15. How is security of the area maintained?
a. Use of remote, inaccessible area, all approaches should be well guarded and concealed. Approaches and locations of key areas should only be revealed on a need to know basis. Alternate bases must always be established.

16. What are the considerations for choosing a Guerrilla Base?
a. 1 size of the G-force, 2 geographic location, 3 enemy situation and location, 3 security, 4 attitudes of the local population, 5 resistance potential

17. What is the purpose of the Mission Support Site?
a. To extend the operating radius of the guerrillas, provide a secure place prior to and after an operation, receive and cache’ supplies

18. What is a Training Area?
a. Areas large enough to support training activities, that are protected by local guerrillas, and monitored by an SF member / SME

19. Describe the Guerrilla Hospital?
a. Small, isolated, well-hidden; protected by local Guerrillas and warning nets. Decentralized and dispersed. Depends on the Auxiliary for support and uses simple, battle-tested surgical procedures.

20. What is the objective of the Area Complex security system?
a. 1 prevents the enemy from identifying the organizational structure, mission, and location of the Resistance, 2 prevent neutralization or destruction of the Guerrillas, 3 develop the Area Command to minimize vulnerabilities from enemy action.

21. What is the preferred method for Guerrilla Security?
a. The bi-zonal system

22. What is the bi-zonal system of security?
a. Consists of two zones – an Inner Zone and an Outer Zone, The Inner Zone is an active system maintained by the Guerrillas and includes patrols, LP/OP’s and sentries. The Outer Zone is passive and maintained by the Auxiliary and the Underground. The Outer Zone emphasis is to discover indications of future actions by the enemy in sufficient time to permit the Guerrillas to withdraw to safety.

23. What should be stressed / determined during the ODA Commander-Resistance Leader Conference?
a. 1 emphasize agreements between the US and his country, 2 discuss ODA’s limitations, 3 establish judicial responsibilities, 4 emphasize security systems, 5 establish priorities of training, 6 personnel, 7 command and organization, 8 logistical requirements, 9 training and operational requirements.

[Dozer523]

1. How is the Auxiliary usually organized?
a. The Auxiliary will usually be organized to coincide with or parallel to the existing political administration system. This way each community is responsible for providing and maintaining an Auxiliary.

2. Is a person who unwittingly provides support or is coerced into providing aid to the Resistance a member of the Auxiliary?
a. No

3. How do members of the Auxiliary derive their safety?
a. In two ways – a compartments structure and operating under cover.

4. What is the principle mission assigned to the Auxiliary?
a. Support. 1 reception of supplies, 2 supply acquisition, 3 intelligence, 4 coordinating civilian support, 5 part-time guerrilla operations, 6 providing curriers, 7 raise funds, 8 recruiting 9 providing medical facilities and expertise

[Dozer523]

1. What is the Underground?
a. A clandestine, unconventional warfare organization established to operate in areas denied to Guerrilla forces or to conduct operations not suitable for Guerrilla forces.

2. What is the mission of the Underground?
a. To plan, conduct and support clandestine UW operations and Special Operations against hostile occupying forces

3. How is the Underground organized?
a. 1 Operational, 2 Intelligence, 3 Auxiliary.

4. How are operational cells organized?
a. With a branch leader, a cut-out who has direct contact to the cell members (usually 3-8 members)

5. How are the Intelligence cells organized?
a. Similar to an Operational cell but with cut-outs at all levels

6. How are the Auxiliary cells organized?
a. In two ways. 1 Parallel cell. Two identical cells assigned the same task that report to the same leader or 2 Cells in series. A number of cells each doing part of a multi-part task.

[JJ_BPK]

Originally Posted by Dozer523

Back in the mid 80's, when I was in the Special Forces Detachment Officers Course, I was a big note taker -- filled a few spiral bound ones. All of this is from non-classified classes.

I see an Oprah Book Club Selection in your future..

I'm jealous,, my Team Momma throws out everything not in the safe..

Thanks for sharing..

[Roguish Lawyer]

Holy HFCUI!

[Dekadenz]

Copying them all down as we speak. Thank you.

[Aoresteen]

Thanks.