JEFFREY KAYE: Last week, army reserve troops based in Upland, California, were mobilizing. They were being issued supplies before heading out to Fort Bragg, North Carolina for expected deployment in Bosnia. Besides military gear, this company will be carrying an arsenal of public relations and marketing equipment. Major Thomas Fernandez commands the unit, the army reserves' 15th Psychological Operations Company. PSYOPS, in military parlance, is, in effect, the sales force of the U.S. mission, designed to target the hearts and minds of the civilian population.

MAJOR THOMAS FERNANDEZ, U.S. Army: We apply basic marketing techniques. Just as any advertiser or ad agency would approach disseminating a product or an idea, we use the same techniques of looking at the culture, looking at demographics, looking at the social structure, becoming a platoon to some idioms, maybe identifying certain themes, certain symbols that have meaning to segments of the population and put our ideas into that context.

JEFFREY KAYE: Those ideas involve selling the NATO mission.

MAJOR THOMAS FERNANDEZ: It will be to reinforce and promote the provisions of the peace plan that was signed in Dayton and to convey to the citizens of Bosnia or the surrounding area the purpose of the NATO force.

JEFFREY KAYE: The unit is ready to spread the message using any number of marketing tools, from high-tech to no-tech. One team will hand out leaflets or put up posters. Fliers could be dropped by plane. Privates First Class John Halfill and Eddie Moreno will design printed material for target audiences.

PFC. EDDIE MORENO, U.S. Army: It can be anything from a dissident group or a group not wanting to give up, not wanting to disarm in a specific area, in which case we can drop our leaflets over there, try to convince them to drop their, their guns, or to turn 'em in.

JEFFREY KAYE: The team will have to develop its materials in Serbo-Croatian. Staff Sgt. Rhonda Sneed will be handling administrative chores.

JEFFREY KAYE: Do you speak any Serbo-Croatian?

STAFF SGT. RHONDA SNEED, U.S. Army: No, I don't.

JEFFREY KAYE: So how are you going to be doing this in a foreign language?

STAFF SGT. RHONDA SNEED: Usually we will have linguists available to us, and then we've also brought some, some tapes to help us out, but basically, we're going to rely on, on linguists and in-country personnel that we can, we can manage to, to speak with to help us out with translations.

JEFFREY KAYE: The unit will be using portable broadcast facilities.

JEFFREY KAYE: It's essentially a mobile television control room.

SPECIALIST WILLIAM WALLACE, U.S. Army: Control room, absolutely, and it's all self- contained. You can see that this is really protected. This is armor.

JEFFREY KAYE: Specialist William Wallace will be producing some of the broadcast material. The challenge will be finding ways to deliver the television and radio sentiments.

SPECIALIST WILLIAM WALLACE: We may actually drop radios to them, transistor radios via an air drop or truck 'em into an individual town so that they can listen to a message from us. If we are able in a video mode to broadcast, telecast a piece, a news piece describing what we as Americans are trying to do to keep peace within the region and amongst the Serbs and the Croats and the Muslims, and they have an ability to see it via television or via video cassettes, that would be something that we would really work hard on, I would imagine.

JEFFREY KAYE: The company is also prepared to use a more conventional method of communication.

JEFFREY KAYE: So whatever message the NATO forces and the U.S. forces want to communicate, this is just another way of doing it?

SGT. FIRST CLASS BOB STYLES, U.S. Army: This is the ideal way to do it, exactly. This is our work horse.

JEFFREY KAYE: Sgt. First Class Bob Styles says the army's portable speakers can be mounted on vehicles or on the backs of soldiers.

SGT. FIRST CLASS BOB STYLES: We use the loud speaker to reach large numbers of people or small groups of people instructing them on how to get to refugee centers if they're on the move, for instance, instructing them how to maintain their health, if there's lack of sanitation, for instance, how to get a hot meal in the next hour, how to be reunited with their relatives, or to go-- how to find the Red Cross Center, for instance. We may be giving out pamphlets on health.

JEFFREY KAYE: However the messages are delivered, the unit is aware of its immense task.

PFC. JOHN HALFILL, U.S. Army: These people have been basically in an adversarial mode since, you know, 2,000 years, 3,000 years. They have been warring for that long, so, so it goes way back. This is rooted very deeply; therefore, that's why it's such a challenge for us. And that's why PSYOPS is being used now more than ever.

MAJOR THOMAS FERNANDEZ, U.S. Army: In my perspective, we're looking at generations and generations of, of set feelings and set attitudes that I have no illusion that we're going to change. But what I think I can do is explain what NATO forces are doing and why we are there, and help protect the force in that manner.

JEFFREY KAYE: The exact thrust of the company's public relations campaign is still being developed. In the meantime, the unit is taking its mobilization in good humor.

SOLDIER: (acquiring uniform) I need something in a nice, dark blue pin stripe.

JEFFREY KAYE: The unit's deployment schedule is uncertain. In recent days, company maneuvers were limited to convoys to local restaurants, but the unit knew it would soon face new challenges, a diet of military chow, and an ambitious mission to sell a peace plan far away from California.

JIM LEHRER: The unit is now undergoing training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and could leave for Europe as early as Friday.

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