I want to take a second to explain why I haven't been blasting news of Dakota Meyer's soon to be awarded Medal of Honor here on SNAFU!
Understand that I'm extremely proud of the man and am in awe of his actions on that fateful day.
But also understand that while searching for information on him and his award I ran into something that I've rarely run into on Marine Corps websites.
They practically embargoed the news and I got the impression that they wanted tight control over how the news was presented...you either went to an official Marine Corps website or you weren't going to get the news. By the formatting of the stories to the design of the articles that was my sincere impression. I could be wrong but again that was my impression.
With that in mind I decided to let the Marine Corps run with the story and everyone that was truly interested could find it there.
That was about a month ago. Recently the reigns have been loosened and they appear to have reversed themselves and are going all out to publicize the upcoming event.
Right or wrong I was miffed by HQMC's actions on this.
Compare it to the 11th MEU's Public Affairs Office handling of their training for an upcoming deployment. They're practically taking the public along for the ride. But they appear to be more of the exception rather than the rule. Information about units down range is hard to come by. You get the fluff pieces of Marines building roads, schools or bridges but info about combat operations is more than hard to come by....its literally hit or miss.
Enough bitching. I'm proud of Meyer. I'm pleased that he's being recognized for his actions I just wish that HQMC was handling this with a bit more awareness of the need to educate the public of what her Marines are doing.
Understand that I'm extremely proud of the man and am in awe of his actions on that fateful day.
But also understand that while searching for information on him and his award I ran into something that I've rarely run into on Marine Corps websites.
They practically embargoed the news and I got the impression that they wanted tight control over how the news was presented...you either went to an official Marine Corps website or you weren't going to get the news. By the formatting of the stories to the design of the articles that was my sincere impression. I could be wrong but again that was my impression.
With that in mind I decided to let the Marine Corps run with the story and everyone that was truly interested could find it there.
That was about a month ago. Recently the reigns have been loosened and they appear to have reversed themselves and are going all out to publicize the upcoming event.
Right or wrong I was miffed by HQMC's actions on this.
Compare it to the 11th MEU's Public Affairs Office handling of their training for an upcoming deployment. They're practically taking the public along for the ride. But they appear to be more of the exception rather than the rule. Information about units down range is hard to come by. You get the fluff pieces of Marines building roads, schools or bridges but info about combat operations is more than hard to come by....its literally hit or miss.
Enough bitching. I'm proud of Meyer. I'm pleased that he's being recognized for his actions I just wish that HQMC was handling this with a bit more awareness of the need to educate the public of what her Marines are doing.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAn explanation. SNAFU!'s coverage of Dakota Meyer Medal of Honor winner.
ReplyDeleteshould be...
An explanation. SNAFU!'s coverage of Dakota Meyer Medal of Honor recipient.
It was once common to refer to these men as "winners" of the Medal of Honor. I'm aware that its now fashionable to refer to them as recipients but that in my mind leads to one thinking that they are being GIVEN the award rather than having earned it because of their actions on the field of battle.
ReplyDeleteYou're probably right but my personal belief system causes me to still refer to them as winners not recipients.