Sergeant Major Herbert A. Friedman was discharged in 1995 after 26 years of
honorable service. He has held numerous positions in the military, holds three military
occupational specialties, several special skills identifiers, and is an honor graduate of
the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy at Ft. Bliss, Texas.
He has 22 military awards and decorations and has graduated 26 military
courses, including Psychological Operations, the First Sergeant's Course, and the Senior
Battle Staff Course.
Since retirement he has been awarded New York State's most prestigious military
medal, the Conspicuous Service Cross. He has also been awarded the Town of Hempstead
Veterans Medal for his dedication "for the betterment of his brethren" and Nassau
County's highest decoration, the Executive's Distinguished Service to Veterans Award.
State Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. appointed him to his Veteran’s Advisory
Board to study various issues that affect the veteran community, legislation being
considered by the New York State Senate, and future programs and community projects.
The Vietnam War Veterans Association presented him with their 2006 Veterans of the Year
Award in recognition of his long-standing dedication and commitment to that organization
and veteran's issues. In 2007, his town Chamber of Commerce awarded him the title of
Community Person of the Year.
He is the mid-Atlantic spokesman to the press for the Psychological Operations
Veterans Association (POVA), and the PSYOP history editor of the Psychological Operations
Association (POA) journal Perspectives since 1990. He is the American
representative of the international Psychological Warfare (Psywar) Society. He has written
over 100 print articles on the subject of PSYOP and has been the expert source in close to
a dozen published books and numerous magazine and newspaper articles. He has been
interviewed on Japanese television, ITN, and on the American news show Extra. He
has appeared on both the British and Canadian Broadcasting Corporations (BBC and CBC) and
worked with the authors of articles in the New York Times, USA Today,
and other American and foreign newspapers. His interviews on psychological warfare have
appeared in Icon, Print Magazine, the Psychologist, Good Magazine
and Défense & Sécurité Internationale. The Ministry of Education of
Singapore uses his articles as resources in curriculum packages to support the teaching of
history courses in their curriculum.
He was interviewed and acted as a subject expert for the American History Channel Sworn
to Secrecy documentary on psychological operations, the British Channel Four
documentary on sexual propaganda during World War II embarrassingly entitled Sex Bomb,
The German TV documentary Songs of War, the Canadian Chum Limited television documentary Sex and Psyops, and the Tokyo Broadcasting
System documentary on American PSYOP during the invasion of Okinawa. He was a special
contributor to the Nova documentary “Missing in MiG Alley” His
article on the “Wandering Soul” PSYOP campaign in Vietnam was the basis for the
radio play “Mimi’s Guide” broadcast by Radio L.A. Theatre Works. He
was interviewed for the German documentary “Songs of War – Music as a
Weapon” which was nominated for an international Emmy (Best Arts Documentary) in
2012.
SGM Friedman (Ret.) presents an Afghan War Rug to
Major General Herb "Buzz" Altshuler
Commanding General, United States Army Civil Affairs
& Psychological Operations Command (USACAPOC)
He has guest-lectured on the history of PSYOP to both the United
States Army enlisted and officer's psychological operations training students at Ft.
Bragg, NC and was presented with a challenge coin by Colonel Jack N. Summe, Commander, 4th
PSYOP Group.
He has guest-lectured at Long Island University.
Taking part in ground breaking ceremony for the Nassau County
Monument to the Veterans of the War in Southeast Asia
Since retirement he has been a six-time Commander of his American Legion
post, President of the Board of Trustees, a County American Legion Division commander, and
the Commis Voyageur (Flag bearer) of the military Forty and Eight honor
society. He is a two-time Commander of his Veterans of Foreign War post and an
officer of the Vietnam War Veterans Association and member of the
51st Fighter Wing Association and the PSYOP Regimental Association.
PSYOP Regimental Association
He is a volunteer member, ex-captain, and ex-Secretary to the Board of Fire
Commissioners of his local fire department and rescue squad. He is the chartered
representative of Boy Scout Troop 577 and the chairman of the military committee of his
community Town Fair. He volunteers as an adult literacy instructor. In 2006 he was elected
to the Board of Trustees of his town Library, and became President of the Board in
2008.
SGM Friedman constantly researches and writes on the subject of psychological
operations. He currently has over one hundred and twenty articles published on various
sites on the Internet such as Psywarrior.com and Psywar.org. He is always willing to lend his expertise to
any project on that subject.
Readers with questions or comments may contact SGM Friedman (Retired) at sgmbert@hotmail.com.
