A hopeful female named Erni asked me a question in one of my articles. She's interested in the Special Operations community, but didn't know of any that would accept a female. It is relatively common knowledge that females are not accepted into spec ops fields. However, I do know of one really great job ("Job"= MOS- military occupational specialty), and it's my MOS in the Army. I chose it because it sounded great, and I'm yet to be disappointed.

I am a 37F Psychological Operations Specialist. A Psyop Spec is available in the Army Reserves and the Active Duty portion of the Army. Psychological Operations is a combat multiplier and a peace time contributor across the range of military operations. Psyop is rising in the Army ranks right now, because of the new tact our military is taking in Afghanistan and Iraq. Active Duty Psyop is considered to be special operations, because at times we support special forces in their missions. Being female, one may or may not see much action. I've met females who've been with the guys in the action, and I've met females who were not so lucky. Yet you'd still have more of a chance to see action compared to other Army jobs.

Psychological Operations Synopsis

In Psyop you are expected to have higher learning capabilities and you must be in top physical shape. You would go to Fort Bragg for your job training, which is awesome!

As an Active Duty PSYOP-er you would go to 10 weeks of basic, 15 weeks of Advanced Individual Training, up to 4 weeks of Airborne Training, and 6 months or more of language training. All of this is mandatory and consecutive for an active duty Psyop soldier.

As a Reservist PSYOP Specialist, you'll go to basic and AIT for the same amount of time- you will train with active duty soldiers, there is no distinction between an active duty soldier and a Reserve soldier during training. However, after AIT the reservist goes back home to his/her unit. A Reservist has the choice to go to Airborne training and language training, but the location of the language training would be at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California; whereas, an Active Duty PSYOP Specialist would learn his/her language on base at Fort Bragg. Reserve units encourage more training, so unless the unit is low on money, going to Airborne and language training is not difficult to accomplish.

A Psyop Specialist holds a Secret level security clearance, which affects this article in its capability for information. Meaning that there's not much more I can write on this job. Everything else just needs to be experienced.