Drone Psyops

August 12, 2009 6:03 PM

"This is Romeo Foxtrot. Shall we Dance?" Killer Drones to get sound system. Many different broadcasts were tried, including the celebrated “Wandering Soul."
posted by wallstreet1929 (6 comments total)

Yeah, because it worked SO well in Vietnam.

P.S. That Air Cav scene from Apocalypse Now would be my number one desert island clip.
posted by GavinR at 8:13 PM on August 12

[bit.ly link replaced. Please don't use url shorteners in metafilter posts, there's zero benefit and a number of drawbacks.]
posted by cortex at 8:31 PM on August 12

From the Killer Drones link:

"... The Wandering Soul tape has an echoing voice, supposedly of a dead Viet Cong, warning his comrades that his soul is doomed to wander forever and telling them to go back to their homes – you can hear it here. The Viet Cong soon realized that the voice was not really a ghost, but it certainly had a very disturbing effect on them, and in many cases provoked them to open fire on the helicopter carrying the speakers.

One Navy team got so fed up with taking fire every time they played the tape that they used it with a team of helicopters armed with rockets and 7.62mm Miniguns capable of spraying 4,000 rounds minute — “Killing was our business and the PSYOP tapes helped make business damn good. ...”

Would that we hadn't run out of ammo, and resolve, I suppose.
posted by paulsc at 12:34 AM on August 13

Fascinating post. Thanks.
posted by Liver at 6:27 AM on August 13

Romeo Foxtrot... Killer Drones... at first glance I had thought that these were some kinda trippy electronic music project thingys by the kids these days...

But,

'Wandering Soul' is possibly one of the most disturbing bits of audio I have ever heard in my life, and I have heard some pretty weird shi+ in my time.

I find it interesting that this compelling post has gotten so few comments. Maybe it is just freaking people out too much.
posted by ovvl at 8:58 PM on August 13

(not to be confused with 'Wandering Star')
posted by ovvl at 9:04 PM on August 13