"The public affairs program is an organizational process by which the Coast Guard explains its missions, goals, actions, etc., to its publics and receives communication from its publics. ... It is carried out at the command level with each commanding officer and officer-in-charge responsible for the establishment, maintenance and execution of a unit public affairs program. The public affairs program is divided into:
(a) Public Information—the preparation and dissemination of information and other material to the press, radio, television, and other media of mass communication.
(b) Community Relations—activities undertaken for or in cooperation with the people of (and organizations in) communities affected by a Coast Guard command or mission.
(c) Internal Relations—activities undertaken for the purpose of informing or gaining the understanding of military and civilian personnel of the Coast Guard and their families."
(Commandant Instruction M5728.2).
Twelve district public affairs offices are accountable to their respective district commanders, who are usually rear admirals. These field public affairs offices are staffed by designated specialists, E-4 through CWO-4, and include a "public affairs officer.” In all but two locations, the public affairs officer is a lieutenant (junior grade) or a lieutenant.
The Coast Guard Public Affairs Manual states that the Chief, Office of Boating, Public and Consumer Affairs is accountable to the service’s chief of staff and is “the direct representative of the Commandant for public affairs."
The hypothetical Coast Guard public affairs office has a four-man staff. Given a “normal” 40-hour work week, 160 man-hours are the expected output. Three men are veteran specialists, and the fourth is a new man possessing, perhaps, some degree of skill but virtually untested in an actual working situation. Two men work to their maximum, and expected, production levels. The new man, however, needs training and supervision which requires the third, experienced professional to spend 75% of his time training the novice. Therefore, this four- man staff garners 107.5 work hours, or a 67% efficiency reading.
What most concerns Coast Guard public affairs professionals are several, overlapping elements of the public affairs program, including training, leadership, continuity, guidance, and perceived attitudes toward the job at hand. A wide range of professional skills, work experience, and academic credentials is represented by the men who contributed to this discussion of the Coast Guard’s public affairs.
Dale Puckett is a warrant public affairs specialist and. in 1979, became the second Coast Guardsman to finish a one-year photojournalism course of study at Syracuse University. A 1966 graduate from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, CWO-2 Puckett also holds a Master of Arts degree in Management from Webster College.
Fundamental to any program is its management. Dale Puckett pinpoints the essence of the problem with the present method of managing the Coast Guard public affairs program:
“The overall Coast Guard Public Affairs program is structured in a manner identical to the many other staff functions at both headquarters and the districts. Unfortunately, the headquarters’ public affairs managers have no direct line of control to district public affairs staffs. They can suggest, but they can’t direct.”
Puckett also focuses on a prevailing problem found in most of the system’s leaders:
"... there is a problem because many men in the operational Coast Guard . . . find it very hard to recognize the journalistic profession within the service. ‘After all, these guys have never been to sea.’ This attitude provides a severe handicap to the operations of a public affairs system.”
In a 1976 issue of the intra- divisional “scoop” sheet (RAPport), a Chief, Public Affairs Division, disclosed just how ill-equipped top public affairs leadership is:
“I have very little experience and no formal training in public affairs. However, . . . what I lack in that area I am committed to overcome by dedicated aggressiveness. I know that you are the professionals and together we will propel our (sic) Public Affairs effort to a respected position in the overall Coast Guard scheme of things.”
To this officer’s credit, he acknowledged a “professional” presence amidst the public affairs specialists. Regrettably, in 1980, the man is in a nonpublic affairs post, and it is not apparent to most veteran public affairs professionals that their field has gained “a respected position in the overall Coast Guard scheme of things.”
Continuity at the top of the public affairs structure is nonexistent. Six men, all holding the rank of captain, have held the post of chief, public affairs division, over a 12-year span.
“A Study of Efficiency Measures Relevant to Coast Guard Public Affairs,” was commissioned by the controller of the Coast Guard and completed in early 1977. Titled “Considerations on Public Affairs Efficiency,” the study confirms that a continuity problem exists in public affairs: “An officer serving as PAO will not normally serve another assignment in public affairs unless it be at CG (sic) Headquarters in Washington, D.C.” Stability and continuity problems are also found at the district level. Bob Brown, who has a wealth of experience working with young officers assigned PAO billets, observes:
“It works two ways. If the young man or woman is willing to listen to the staff of experienced people for about a year and learn the business, then it will certainly work.
“Or, it could go the other way. It pretty much depends on the personalities of the officer and the staff. A good staff will make k work better.”
Chief Photojournalist Bob Brown is the senior enlisted public affairs professional in the Coast Guard. Master Chief Photojournalist Brown will retire within one year. Now the assistant public affairs officer for the Eighth Coast Guard district in New Orleans, Brown was a photographer’s mate before the rate merger. Browns Coast Guard career has taken him from coast to coast, and he has shot an estimated 200,000 feet of motion picture film.
Joe Amato was a journalist before the January 1973 merger with photographer’s mate made him a “photojournalism Now a chief photojournalism Amato serves in the Cleveland public affairs office, home of the Ninth Coast Guard District. He is a veteran of 12 years’ Coast service and is soon to be promoted to warrant public affairs specialist.
Joe Amato summed up the feelings of his colleagues by taking direct aim at the dual-role PAO concept:
‘‘A distressing trend recently is a return to the old policy of having the public affairs officer also serve as the aide-de-camp to the district commander. Hence, the staff becomes social secretaries and gets involved in lots of last-minute crash pf°' grams, not in the least related to public affairs.
“The officer is endlessly running around, trying to please the adroit with hotel reservations and cocktail party starting times, and the public affairs portion of the assignmentcomes in a distant third.”
In conjunction with the concern about the lack of stability at the district and headquarters level in public affairs system is the actual perception of public affairs.
During the 1975 area and district commanders conference, the them public affairs division chief made thiscomment:
“The role of the photographer will diminish as we begin to use the new, super cameras. We will have all of the technical expertise that we had in the past, plus, we will get into videotape. You will then be able to give a camera to an engineer to record right on the scene. There are many ways to minimize the former roles of the photographer.” Jimmy Stephens is still looking for a super camera and cites training as a major public affair problem:
Jimmy McNeil Stephens closes out a 20-year Coast Guard career in December. He soon will assume a vice presidential position with a Miami advertising/multi-media firm. A CWO-3 public affairs specialist, Stephens earned bachelor's and master's degrees in film from New York University while on active duty. He has taught photography at Staten Island Community College. Stephens is in the advertising branch of the personnel procurement division at Coast Guard headquarters.
“There was no concrete guidance given district public affairs offices about how to train the photojournalist. The rate merger was instituted, and about five years later, the first correspondence course was issued.
"In our rate, we can't physically hurt anyone or anything. We just take lousy photographs and write unintelligble copy. This is not a disaster in the command's eye because the ‘in charge’ people have never had to work professionally in the field of photography or journalism. So, they aren't capable or trained to recognize deficiencies in those fields.”
As for public affairs’ standing in the eyes of Coast Guard leadership, Stephens says, “My experience has shown me that it is obvious that no matter what tokenism public affairs is given by what commandant, we always end up at the bottom of the totem pole, and it remains a fact that officers do not look at public affairs as a‘career-enhancing’ job.”
Until a little more than three years ago, there was no inducement to make public affairs a career-enhancing field for Coast Guard line officers. Then, postgraduate public affairs training was opened. Three men have completed masters degrees; two are currently enrolled in masters degree programs; and two more have applied.
Formal training for enlisted members wishing to specialize in the field of public affairs is limited. Defense Information School, operated by the Department of Defense at Indianapolis, is the principal source for a general public affairs education. In cooperation with Syracuse University and the U. S. Navy, Coast Guardsmen (E-5-E- 7) can apply for an intensive, one-year residency in photojournalism. The fourth Coast Guard member to attend is currently enrolled.
Training is a primary concern of all public affairs specialists interviewed. In the words of one, “The Coast Guard has long seen the public affairs business as a collateral function rather than a formal, professional presence, and there is nothing on the horizon indicating a change.”
John McElwain is the public affairs in Seattle, home of Thirteenth Coast Guard district headquarters. A 1969 graduate of Montclair State College, McElwain's Coast Guard assignments have included duty as operations officer at Group Long Island Sound and public affairs officer in Boston for the First Coast Guard district. Lieutenant Commander McElwain received a masters degree in Communications: Journalism and Public Affairs from The American University in Washington, D.C. in 1979.
John McElwain fervently hopes he doesn’t die on the vine with his academic and applied public affairs credentials in hand. PAO billets for lieutenant commanders number two and McElwain wonders what will happen to him as well as to the entire public affairs structure:
“Are we meeting the needs of the Coast Guard, public affairs wise? The decision to merge the journalist and photographer’s mate may have been a good one, at the time. Sometimes you spread yourself too thin and get into trouble. We, in the Coast Guard, seem to be more interested in quantitative product than qualitative successes.”
McElwain believes that the Coast Guard needs to answer two difficult questions: "Does it [the Coast Guard public affairs program] meet the real needs of our public affairs and public relations demands? And, is it working?”
McElwain does not believe the training presently available to the Coast Guard public affairs specialist aspirant reaps the maximum return. He has some suggestions:
“We ought to run our own public affairs school. By placing it at the Academy, we could tune into the marvelous teaching systems available there. I see the instruction staff taken from the rank-and-file experienced professionals in our brotherhood.”
Guidance from the top level of the public affairs structure was another important concern of those specialists interviewed.
Dale Puckett says, “Organization of our public affairs program is critical. If you’re going to manage a program, it has also got to be controlled.”
Joe Amato characterizes guidance in this fashion: “When a guy is getting ready to go into the wringer on network television, Washington will get on the phone. Or, they conduct inspections every two or three years by coming out and looking at the serial numbers on the back of our stock photos. With a quick look around the shop, everything is proclaimed to be in good shape. What does that do for the program?”
Paul C. Scotti s service career includes Air Force and Coast Guard active duty. Now a chief photojournalist and the assistant public affairs officer for the Seventh Coast Guard district in Miami, Scotti’s book, Seaports: Ships, Piers and People, was published earlier this year. Within two years he will retire and pursue writing full-time.
Paul Scotti summarizes the consensus sentiment proffered on policy guidance from Coast Guard headquarters’ public affairs division, by saying, “It is a revolving door. No continuity. No stabilization. No continuous leadership and very little guidance. They either tell you what not to do, or hesitate to say ‘yes.’
If these professional public affairs specialists are right, the Coast Guard public affairs program is in need of a major overhaul.
In order to regain what may be fast becoming lost crafts, those interviewed and this writer believe the Coast Guard needs to structure its public affairs program in a manner similar to the U. S. Navy’s. Such an organization would provide for the control necessary to effectively manage Coast Guard public affairs.
Public affairs enjoys a position of recognized prominence in the Navy. The Chief of Information (CHINFO) oversees the Navy’s public affairs/ public relations effort. The Navy Internal Relations Activity (NIRA) and the Navy Information Offices (NAV- INFOs) are accountable to CHINFO.
The control and management of the Navy’s public affairs system are direct and thorough. Those in management positions at the CHINFO level are public affairs professionals, as are those in the field. Customarily, a lieutenant can consider public affairs as a specialty. Once a line officer applies and is accepted into the field, he carries that specialty designation until separation or retirement and is all but assured of staying in the public affairs field.
Policy and guidance originate from instructions issued by the Secretary of the Navy and CHINFO. NIRA coordinates and administers in-house publications and broadcasting. Navy Information Offices are located in Boston, New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles—i.e., near the top media markets.
If the Coast Guard has any hope of building a core of public affairs professionals, an effective training program is needed. A Coast Guard public affairs school would offer a balanced curriculum providing the student with a Coast Guard-public affairs education. Students would have the opportunity to specialize in film making, photojournalism, writing, and other disciplines of Coast Guard public affairs.
Enlisted public affairs specialists would attend Syracuse University for one year of study in photojournalism at a rate of five a year, instead of the current one per year quota. Syracuse graduates should be assigned to top media cities and required to produce photojournalistic feature material.
A qualified force of public affairs managers should be built. More, qualified and willing officers need to gain postgraduate credentials in public affairs. Correspondingly, make PAO billets available to the resultant group of professional specialists.
An intensive internship program for all Coast Guard public affairs professionals and public affairs staff employees should be established with newspapers, radio and television stations, magazines, and wire services. Such an internship would enable the Coast Guard public affairs community to see how “it is done” so that it might better focus its day-to-day operations.
Finally, abolish all collateral duty public affairs officer posts. Make all district public affairs officers only district public affairs officers. Telling the Coast Guard’s story is an important and a full-time job. Let’s do that job.
AUTHOR'S Note: Veteran Coast Guard public affairs specialist Larry Wright and Photojournalist Second Class Brice Kenney, U. S. Coast Guard also contributed to this discussion.