History of the
2d Loudspeaker & Leaflet Co.
Ft. Riley, Kansas
November 1950 to June 1952
and
Ft. Bragg, North Carolina
June 1952 to November 1952
As published in
PSYD-LITES
A company Year Book published at Ft. Bragg, N.C.
The beginning was the 8th of November, 1950. And the word was an order from the Department of the Army which activated the 2d Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company.
It took about a month for this paper organization to become a reality. On December 6th the first morning report was submitted. On it were the names of ten enlisted men. On the 21st of December, 1st Lt. Howard C. Walters, Jr., was assigned to the 2d as commanding officer. And five days later 2d Lt. William Shepard joined the company-the only other officer to be assigned to the 2d until June, 1951.
The first half of 1951 were busy months for the new and growing company. Originally activated at reduced strength (5 officers and 67 EM authorized), a DA TO&E change dated 24 April 1951 authorized the 2d to build up to full strength of 8 officers and 98 EM (the bugler was dropped). Besides training themselves, the 2d was busy helping to train the 1st RB&L group from February until that group went overseas.
By the middle of June, the 2nd was a well-trained unit. But then, in the middle of that month, came a great face-changing switch. The 5th L&L, preparing to go to EUCOM, received an infusion of much-needed new blood when, on the 14th of June, 33 members of the 2d L&L were transferred to them, included were our 1st Sergeant, Chester Diamond, and our operations Sgt., Cpl Curtis Poole. In exchange, (and in a move to rid themselves of most of their ER's, the 5th transferred 32 men to us. Among others, this group included: M/Sgt (later Lt.) Raymond E. Fox, Sgt. George P. Spezze, Cpl. James J. Tamura, SFC Comer C. Wallace and Sgt Karl J. Hentschel (now with the 9th), and Dennis Guider and Paul J. Haronian (since discharged.) By publication time only Tamura and Hentschel, of all those involved in this transfer, will still be in PsyWar - and only Tamura in the 2d.
On the 26th of June, the 2d underwent the first of several changes of command: Capt Howard R. Clisham was assigned and assumed command of the company, relieving Lt. Walters. The next day, three more officers joined the company: 1st Lt. Jack Thiess, 1st Lt. Tom Stein, and 2nd Lt. Ivan Gilliam - assigned respectively to the propaganda, publications, and loudspeaker platoons.
Starting in May, the rains had come. Not the gentle spring rains of the North and East. This was a heavy, steady, business-like rain. Gradually, as the rains continued through June, the Kaw River rose. Fort Riley was in danger of isolation.
It was in the midst of the confusion of the exchange of personnel with the 5th (the dust of which had not yet quite settled) and the threat of flood, that, on July 2d, a detachment of five officers and 35 enlisted men convoyed from Fort Riley to Camp Mackall, N.C. (Fort Bragg reservation) for participation in Exercise Southern Pine. This was the first time that a psychological warfare unit had been deployed on a maneuver. Most of the men who were on that maneuver have long since gone the way of civilians, but their memory is with us still.
We will long remember: the yeoman-like efforts of Al Koots and Emil Schneider who were responsible, almost alone, for all of our leaflets. The artful revenge of the loudspeaker men when, quartered in tents next to the Aggressor High Command, they "tested" their equipment in the wee hours. Lt. Horne's expeditions to find his loudspeaker teams, during the course of which he got himself and an Air Force Lt. Colonel captured. Lt. Horne was an old hand at this sort of thing: he'd already been captured three times. The light colonel wasn't nearly as used to it. He had been assigned as an observer, and after 24 hours of interrogation at Division, Corps, and Army levels-with no food-he somehow lost his enthusiasms for first-hand observation of psywar. Rumor hath it that he observed the rest of the maneuver from the Fort Bragg Officer's Club.
Also unforgettable was Lieutenant Walter's memorable survey to find out whether the "enemy" liked our leaflets, 82nd Airborne "drops" - with equipment practically landing in our laps and "Lorelei, the Velvet Voice of Aggressor" - complete with swimming parties. All of this, plus a lot of hard work and good propaganda which put the 2d L&L on the map, and showed what psywar was and what we could do.
Back at Riley, amidst rising floodwaters, several new additions to the company were made. Lt. Kaye had been assigned as acting company commander when Capt Clisham left with the convoy on July 2nd. The 5th of July saw SFC (now M/Sgt) Spencer J. Huggins assigned as 1st Sgt., and Sgt. (now SFC) John Goodwin as supply sgt.
The rain-swollen Kaw had over-flowed its banks and low-lying areas of Fort Riley were under water by the second week of July. With roads blocked by floodwaters, Lt Thiess was the only officer present for duty from the 12th to the 15th of July. On the 28th, Lts. Thiess and Stein left to join the 2d L&L detachment at Southern Pine.
During this maneuver the 2d L&L produced and disseminated 485,800 leaflets for the Aggressor side. Most of the leaflet layouts, however, had to be flown to Ft. McPherson, (Atlanta), for printing when our presses proved recalcitrant in the humid weather. The propaganda platoon was successful in recruiting local civilian girls to pose for the leaflets. At the same time the loudspeaker platoon (with an assist by scripter Emil Schneider) was recording and broadcasting the now-famous "Lorelei" appeals.
Lt. Walters left the company from Southern Pine on September 2d on orders for the Army Language School, receiving his FECOM orders shortly thereafter. Lt. Jim Chandler joined the unit at Riley on the 13th.
On the 3rd of September the detachment, headed by Capt Clisham, returned to Fort Riley from Exercise Southern Pine, flushed with triumph. They returned to find a company in which they were virtually the only trained psywarriors. And most of them were enlisted reservists - due for discharge within a short time.
To replace these men, during the period from the 1st of July to September 30th, officers and enlisted men had been assigned to the 2d en masse for screening and permanent assignment. With the pick of these men, the 2d was about to start training itself for operational readiness once more.
On the 17th of September training began. Basic military subjects like map-reading and military courtesy were followed by courses on interrogation and psychological warfare-planning, theory and practice. Meanwhile, Fort Riley's Army General School was completing plans for the first enlisted men's course in Psychological Warfare. On October 22nd, while the rest of the unit continued it's training, 21 men from the 2d left Forsyth (to which we had moved from Bldg. 39 as a result of the flood) for the main post and Psywar NCO Course #1.
There we learned the tactics of strategic leaflets, and the strategy of tactical leaflets. We learned in what tactical situations to use contingencies leaflets and in what contingencies to use tactical leaflets. They told us all about words as a weapon - and some of us became anti-semantic.
But in the process we all learned a lot about psywar-both theory and application. And the people who gave the course learned a lot about how to teach it. The four-week course over, we returned to the 2d on the 21st of November.
The weeks that followed were busy ones: the 2d was scheduled for another maneuver. This one was to start shortly after the first of the year in the frozen wastes of upper New York State. While Christmas leaves were taken in shifts, the remaining men worked hard to ready loudspeaker and publications equipment for the convoy and for cold weather operations. Battered and bruised from an encounter with a tree the week before, Cpl. Gordon Roberts had gone to Camp Drum on the 17th of November to attend a special Winter Indoctrination School. His chilled body returned to us on the 8th of December; when he thawed out he was full of cheerful facts about life in the Northern latitudes. (Sample: Don't drink alcholic beverages to keep warm; it thins the blood and makes you colder when it wears off. Only answer to this one is not to let it wear off).
On the 3rd and 8th of January, two groups of the 2d left for Camp Drum and Exercise Snow Fall - the first group by convoy, the second by train. Together they comprised a detachment of four officers: Capt. Clisham, 1st Lts. Stein and Chandler, and 2d Lt. Gilliam-and 30 enlisted men.
Assigned, despite Aggressor objections, to the U.S. side, they were quartered in the 11th Airborne barracks. Publications men readjusted their equipment after the long rough convoy, and loudspeaker men prepared for the forthcoming maneuver with field problems. Back at Riley the propagandists were hard at work writing and preparing layouts for: first, the six issues of the Frigid Times, and later, leaflets for the U.S. and Aggressor Forces. Tactical psywar was conducted over some 1299 miles - probably the first time that this has been attempted!
For many members of the 2d, this was the first maneuver, and there were many memorable things about it: SFC Allen was 1st Sgt for the detachment. Never to be forgotten by the Snowfall group were such incidents as Collins standing in a stream repairing a break in a field phone wire, and Dutkanicz taking just that moment to turn the crank on the field phone; a shocking action to Collins!
Certainly Roberts (acting supply sgt. for the detachment) will never forget the night that Lt. Gilliam put in an after-duty-hours request for: 10 miles of field wire, a jeep with litters, and half a dozen parachutes to drop loudspeaker equipment from a plane. This", said Roberts, "was quite a blow, coming after 1700 when everything was closed! Lt. Gilliam finally agreed to settle for the ten miles of field wire-which we obtained from an astonished Signal Officer whom we roused at about 10 P.M." Then there was the night the chimney in the operations-and-publications tent got too hot and set fire to the tent. When the smoke cleared there as a foot square hole at the top of the tent which, patched as well as possible by Roberts, remained until the end of the maneuver. But what would happen when the tents had to be turned it? The problem was solved for them by Nature: a heavy snow the night before completely covered the top of the tent.
Then there was the time that Judy got picked up for speeding by no other than the provost marshal himself, and not only got himself acquitted but somehow wound up with that officer's parka ··· Everything at Snow Fall was simulated; they even had simulated guards at important installations. Piggot discovered how to get around this though - he showed his simulated area pass to the simulated guard, and passed right through.
There were serious moments to the maneuver too. During some of these some 45,000 leaflets were produced and dropped for the six day period. In others, loudspeaker teams made 15 broadcasts to the Aggressor "enemy".
The maneuver ended about the middle of February and the detachment, by train and by convoy, returned to the company. They rejoined the unit on the 24th of February, to find the company readying itself for departure on still another maneuver. Two new officers had joined the company and been assigned to the loudspeaker platoon - 2d Lts. Tom Pazell and Steve Ackerman. With the entire company due to convoy to Fort Hood, Texas, on the 28th, the four days between their arrival and departure were hectic ones for the returned detachment. Everything had to be cleaned up, packed up, and shipped off; we were turning in barracks and all of our buildings.
While the advance party (Lt. Jack Thiess, Cpls. Martin Kaiden and Joel Leavitt) were busy at Fort Hood requisitioning and readying barracks, mess, and supply for the company, the company left Fort Riley on February 28th. Arriving that night at Oklahoma City, they were quartered at Tinker Air Force Base. Perhaps the surroundings were a little too luxurious for our boys - at any rate a balance was achieved on the next night. Arriving at Fort Worth, our men found accommodations at a stock pavilion. The cattle had been thoughtfully removed by the townspeople, but their memory lingered on. Many of the men found some form of liquid anesthesia necessary - this was readily available at Fort Worth's numerous "watering-places". On the 1st of March, the unit arrived at Fort Hood, replete with hangovers. What greeted them was a sobering sight: barracks, messhall, supply and orderly room, and working area-all in a neat compact space: a better set-up than we'd ever had before.
Fort Hood had lots to offer: a golf driving range, horseback riding, a golf course, china dinner plates instead of trays, and a beautiful NCO club.
Fort Hood and Exercise Long Horn was also a challenge. It was the longest maneuver we had been on, with the tactical phase extending over a three-week period. It was the first time that we were preparing leaflets for civilian consumption. We prepared two such leaflets - an anti-consolidation leaflet when the Aggressor was in Lampasas, and a consolidation leaflet when we had retaken the town, to aid our military government.
Not including the four issues of the "Long Horn News" (a pre-maneuver orientation newspaper), but including three issues of a tactical newssheet, we produced 16 leaflets; eleven for the U.S. side, and five at the direction of the Aggressor Field Team. A total of half a million leaflets were produced during this period. Excellent tactical experience was gained by propaganda and publications men when they produced two tactical jobs in eight hours (from the time of the first intelligence report to the time of dissemination by air).
A part of loudspeaker's efforts on the maneuver was a simulated radio campaign. A WAC, Pfc Shirley Attebury, was selected to be the U.S. side's equivalent of Southern Pine's "Lorelei". Named "Laura, the Voice of the U.S.", she was coached by Loudspeaker's Pres Holmes and Propaganda's Ralph Davis who scripted and taped five programs for her. While other loudspeakers, both jeep and tank mounted, carried on a steady campaign of attrition against the "enemy", special tape-equipped loudspeaker teams broadcast "Laura's" programs along the entire front.
Several of our loudspeaker teams were led into ambush, and some were captured when U.S. lines collapsed around them. But the "Laura" teams had special difficulties. Commanders of front-line U.S. units didn't want them around because they drew too much fire. And Agressor patrols, thinking that "Laura" was actually there, attacked in strength on many occasions, trying to capture her. It was a rare occasion for these loudspeaker men (who lived out in the field for most of the maneuver) when they didn't get "killed" at least twice on a mission.
Piggot dropped 40,000 copies each of the consolidation and anti-consolidation leaflets on Lampasas (pop. 4000). Pity the poor street-cleaners. But he got his greatest saturation bombing of an area the time that he hit the safety strap while making a leaflet drop from a C-47. It looked like Christmas in April as 20,000 leaflets blanketed the plane from pilot to post. But that Piggot was able to drop as many leaflets as he did over the target was something of a minor miracle, considering the number of generals of all rank who (of course) had prior call on the planes, and the roughness of the air. And it was rough - ask anyone in the propaganda platoon, or Lt. Stein.
A near-tragic jeep accident marred the maneuver. A loudspeaker jeep carrying Lt. Steve Ackerman, Pres Holmes, and R.J. Johnson was hit by a 2 ½ ton truck. Johnson, thrown clear, emerged virtually unscathed. Not as fortunate were Lt. Ackerman and Pfc. Holmes who, badly injured, spent months in the hospital. Holmes has recently rejoined the company and it is hoped that, by the time that we go to press, Lt. Ackerman will once more be with us.
The convoy back to Fort Riley was pretty much a repetition of the trip down. Overnight stops were at the (ugh!) cattle barns at Fort Worth, and Vance Air Force Base outside Enid, Oklahoma. Remnants of Bauer's Folly clearly marked the trail.
Returning to Fort Riley on the 16th of April, we set up housekeeping once more. About all of our arrangements there was the feeling that this was a temporary, transient. For we knew that our move to Fort Bragg (about which we had been hearing since November of 1951), could not be far off. But our stay at Riley, short though it was, was sufficiently long to see several changes. On the 2d of May, Lt. Gilliam, who had shortly before been promoted to first lieutenant, received another promotion - to civilian. Lt Stein exchanged uniform for mufti on the 22nd of May. On May 19. Captain Clisham, our CO for almost a year, who had received orders for FECOM, was relieved of command. Captain Bleeker, 1st Lt. Storm and 1d Lt. Schmeidler were assigned - just as the company was preparing itself for a stiff IG inspection (which it passed with flying colors). Captain Clisham is now in Korea, where he is a Corps Psywar Officer (I Corps).
On June 6th Captain Bleeker was transferred from the 2d to the State Department and Lt. Chandler, acting CO, readied the company for departure on the 10th. (Lt. Kaye had left with Lt. Pazell, SFC Moore, and Cpls Leavitt, Kaiden, Davis and Roberts on an advance party, June 1st). On the 10th of June, the unit departed from Fort Riley for PCS to Fort Bragg, N.C. (via TPA). They arrived on June 17th to find a new CO, Capt George B. Blackstock was actually assigned and took command of the company on the 20th. Captain Clisham was officially dropped from our morning report on July 1st.
As all such things are, the long-awaited, long-looked-for move to Fort Braqg was something of a disappointment. Despite this, the company took but a short time to settle into their working routine. The months that followed had but few highlights: training of some ORC reserve L&Ls, Captain Blackstock, Lt. Chandler, and Lt. Pazell attending three months of psywar school starting the 1st of August (Lt. Thiess was acting CO), and finally, late in October, the arrival of the pilot model of the latest development in L&L equipment. This included a printing van which contains a new roll-fed, high speed press, new camera and plate section, etc. - completely contained within one 27 foot van. A second van for propaganda houses two of the newest kind of varitypers, and an electric typewriter. Both vans are completely air-conditioned and humidity-controlled. Some Loudspeaker men were a little jealous about the new vans. Looking at the "editorial" van in particular, they sarcastically inquired where the bar, lounge, chairs and television set could be found.
Had we tried, we could not have found any better time to prepare a yearbook; for the past several months the 2d has been undergoing far-reaching changes in personnel. The next several weeks will see further changes. Lt. Ed Kaye (acting CO for a longer period than any of our CO's) has already been discharged, and Lts. Chandler and Pazell are now civilians. Several new officers joined us late in September: Lts. Zumas, Feingold, Kitch and Mastrangelo.
Many of the 2d's old standbys have already gone; among them: Gladney, Walton, Bauer, Kaiser, Costanzo, Schroeder, Johnson (R.J.), David (Bubble) Baker, Kubilius, Reed, Judy, Speeze, Campopiano, Serrano, and Roberts.
Psychological Warfare's immunity to overseas levies was brought to a sudden and dramatic halt late in September when the first levy ever to hit the 2d L&L saw Collins, Martinez, Smitka, and Maksion on the way to EUCOM. They left the company October 1st. Since that time, successive levies have sent Valeri and Nakamoto to FECOM on 22 October, Lambie to FECOM on October 31st, Gillespie to FECOM on November 4th, Wiemer, Lewis, and Flynn to FECOM on 8. November, De La Cruz and Williams left on November 8th on orders to EUCOM, followed on the 13th by Abbott and Nakagawa. Bill Watt left for FECOM on 11 November.
Thus in the short space of a month and a half, 16 men were levied out on oversea's orders. Other psywar units at Bragg were hit as hard or harder. As key personnel were levied out of these units and the psywar center, ten more men were sent on special duty to replace them. By the middle of November, our present-for-duty strength was down to about 40 men. Men may come and men may go in the Army, but the details go on forever: Guard, K.P., C.Q., etc.
As this is written, new changes are in the making: Lt. Panzer, CO of the 9th L&L is scheduled to take command of the 2d on 23 November. It is expected that he will bring many of his officers from the 9th with him. There is talk of pooling the men from the other psywar units here in order to bring the 2d up to a strength of 140 men. And hanging over all of psywar at Bragg is talk of a new levy in January of some 150 men.
New Men have come in to take the place of the old; and new men will continue to be assigned and take their places in the 2d. Through all the changes, the 2d L&L will continue.
OUR COs
During our short existence as a company, we have had so many Commanding Officers, that one needs a program in order to keep them straight. Here then, is a program:
Howard C. Walters Jr., 1st Lt, Inf. 21 Dec 50 thru 21 June 51
Howard R. Clisham, Capt, Inf. 22 June 51 thru 10 May 52
Robert B. Bleeker, Capt, Inf. 11 May 52 thru 1 June 52
James H. Chandler Jr., 1st Lt, Inf. 2 June 52 thru 10 June 52
George B. Blackstock, Capt, Inf. 11 June 51 thru 19 Nov 52
Dwayne A. Panzer, 1st Lt, Inf. 20 Nov 52 thru present
Edward F. Kaye, 1st Lt, TC Actg CO while Capt. Clisham was at Maneuvers: Southern Pike - 1 July 51 thru 3 Sept 51; and Snow Fall - 4 Jan 51 thru 17 Feb 52.
Jack L. Thiess, 1st Lt, Arty Actg CO while Capt. Blackstock Was at Psywar School - 4 Aug 52 thru 10 Oct 52.
Edgar L. Feingold, 2d Lt, Inf. Actg CO while Lt. Thiess was on TDY to Wooster - 11 Oct 52 thru 27 Oct 51.
HISTORY PAGES FROM THE YEARBOOK
CLICK PAGE TO SEE LARGER VIEW FOR PHOTOS AND READ CAPTIONS
THEN CLICK ENLARGE BUTTON IN LOWER RIGHT OF IMAGE
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All text and pages are copied from the original. Many thanks to Bill Bellio, another former member of the 2nd L & L Co. (see Publications Platoon on Page 17), who supplied all scans of "The PSYD-LITES" and without whose help these pages would not be possible.
TO RETURN TO PREVIOUS PAGE CLOSE WINDOW. TO GO TO:HOMEPAGE Second Publishing: 27-Sep-2005 04:18 PM - Last Update: 16-Feb-2007 01:44 PM
© 2005 by Frank R. & Alina B. Haus - All Rights Reserved