February 2012
8 posts
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Epic Afghan Snowboarding
FNG: Man the Mountains here in Afghanistan are so beautiful...I'd love to come back here in a few years and snowboard those runs.
EOD: I wouldn't do that if I were you.
FNG: Why not? I'm sure once the violence calms down it'd be cool.
EOD: Most of those mountains are covered with landmines and UXO.
FNG: That would be EPIC!
Me: (SMH)
“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
– Robert Capa (via life)
Natasha VC: Do teenagers read this tumblr? →
Sage advice…a number of my compatriots left the military debt free and walked straight into medium sized publications or broadcast outlets while their peers were still struggling under crushing debt and fighting to get their foot in the door. The military ain’t for everyone but as a vocational training program it is damn hard to beat.
natashavc:
Here is my best advice to you, do not...
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January 2012
6 posts
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“In 1972, Rolling Stone reporter Timothy Crouse followed around Apple, Broder and...”
– Michael Calderone (via soupsoup)
PAONCO’s take:
Working in military Public Affairs is sometimes complicated because you are covering a lot of things that have national and international interest but your audience is often very local in nature. It is important to remember that the people you...
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““You now face a new world, a world of change. The thrust into outer space...”
– Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Farewell Speech at Westpoint, May 12th 1962
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Reporting from the Edges of the World →
PAOs, and the reporters we facilitate, tend to operate in rather austere environments and finding the right equipment for these environments is a full time job in and of itself (seriously, there are 2 guys at Ft. Meade, MD doing it for just the U.S. Army). During the beginning days of major operations we are often cut off from reliable electricity and internet in deserts, mountains, oceans,...
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The War No One Cares About Anymore →
At the core of the Public Affairs Specialist job is communication. We communicate with the American and International public to help make sense of seemingly senseless things. We act as a voice to explain what the troops are doing and provide the context for those actions. When I was in Iraq at the height of the war, this was difficult because of the sheer volume of interest…in Afghanistan,...
December 2011
13 posts
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“We need to treat news as if it were no different than booze, with moderate...”
– Columnist Trevor Butterworth says to be careful how much carnage, chaos and corruption you consume in the news. (via thedailyfeed)
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Blurring the ethical lines with Photoshop →
This link provides a great lesson in the civilian world of a fairly common discussion in the military photo production community.
When I started in this job we still did wet processing of film. It was the cusp of the digital revolution and the military had yet to transition to the latest in technology. Back in those quaint and innocent days it wasn’t hard to alter photos; It was just time...
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Descriptions of actions that earned Dakota Meyer... →
Damn it! And people wonder why the press is leery of PAOs…This is not how we are supposed to operate. “First with the truth” should be a mantra not a catchphrase.
Hours before this McClatchy report was published, the Marine Corps inserted a disclaimer into its official online account of Meyer’s heroic actions. The Web page now reads that the summary “was compiled in...
Soldier Highlight →
This is a Soldier I’ve had the pleasure of working with recently. She is an incredible natural talent. She wrote an op-ed piece shortly after arriving in Afghanistan and shopped it around to a few different outlets. HuffPo bit and was impressed enough to offer her a regular spot on the site. This is her profile page there and it links to her pieces…She has three so far and I’m...
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Diary of a killjoy
Other Guy: You amped up for the Army v. Navy Game?
Me: Not really.
Other Guy: Really? Why not?
Me: Westpoint and Annapolis are schools. I didn't attend either one. It would be like working for an technology company and cheering for Stanford just because my boss went there.
Other Guy: God, you're a killjoy
Me: Yeah, you might not want to ask me about Christmas either then.
Perfect Pitching: How She Got to "Yes" →
alexmontjohn:
I’ve been rereading this pitching guide from AIR over and over since it came out a few weeks ago. It includes pitching requirements for NPR, Studio 360, and Marketplace. Definitely worth a look.
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Passion in what you do →
I was struggling with trying to find a way to start this blog. I mean, one of the reasons I started it at all was that I love what I do and wanted a place to scribble down my thoughts on what has become, for better or worse, my life. Then I came across this article. It is a reminder to me that what separates the good from the great, the job from the career, the blasé from the exceptional is...