Pete’s Truck

By Dan Stoneking
March 2008

 Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States at its time. Katrina formed on August 23 during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season and caused devastation along much of the north-central Gulf Coast. On August 28th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States with devastating effect. It was reported that more then 1,800 people lost there lives, and more then $81 billion dollars in damages occurred. The most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. By late morning on August 29th overtopping of levees and flooding in New Orleans had begun. Within 4 hours of Hurricane Katrina’s passage, Army National Guard Citizen-Soldiers were in the water saving lives. At 11:00 p.m. that evening I arrived from Washington D.C. and reported to the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) in Baton Rouge to offer help to my public affairs counterpart, Lieutenant Colonel Pete Schneider.

“The National Guard Bureau is here to help?” he questioned me, with particular disdain on the last word.” What began with understandable tension evolved into almost a brotherhood over the next eleven days.

Much has been written about Hurricane Katrina with considerable finger pointing. Now, more than 2 ½ years later as I write this, I still lack the energy to write a definitive expose on who was right and who was wrong. In large measure, I am somewhat disillusioned by all the blame and credit mongers. There is another story there of heroes and every-day citizens who made sacrifices to help. But I will wait for another time to address the bigger picture. For now, I simply want to touch on a few of my personal experiences and lessons learned specifically in the area of public affairs.

Personal Experience

Pete and I quickly formed a bond and worked together to tell the story. As the local lead for Louisiana National Guard support, he filled the role as spokesperson and coordinator there at the Baton Rouge EOC, while I took daily UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter flights filled with a mixture of local and national reporters and television crews. Each day we would take flights through the city, providing the aerial shots they all requested, and visited Belle Chasse Naval Air Station, where National Guard troops were arriving hourly and daily to help in the response and recovery efforts. Beyond that, we would make additional stops where these troops were deploying to assist community members.

A few things continue to stand out in my mind from this experience. I won’t forget the young sergeant who told me about the day he stepped into an elderly nursing home to find a few dozen senior citizens dead. He described them as appearing to have practically died in place, in beds and chairs, without seemingly having a chance to attempt escape. The sergeant went on to explain, with distant eyes not making contact with anyone in the group at the time, that what he saw in New Orleans was far worse than anything he experienced in combat. He had served a tour in Iraq the year prior.

I won’t forget the day Pete and I visited Jackson Barracks, the Louisiana National Guard Headquarters where many National Guard members had to evacuate from by boat from the second story before they could begin helping others. It was also where Pete’s office was and his truck was parked when the flooding occurred. The day we returned was about a week later. Most of the water had subsided. As we approached, Pete went straight to his truck. Like all of them in the parking lot it was battered pretty bad and likely “totaled” by insurance standards. The roof had sharp dents in it that were formed by the propeller blades of rescue boats when the truck was immersed beneath the water. Pete surveyed the situation, reached in to grab some personal belongings and then turned to me with a smile and said “Do you want to go see what my office looks like?”

The last observation I will share may be less sensational, but impacts me no less than the first two. Not only did I help the media get their aerial shots of downtown New Orleans and the Superdome and rooftops jutting barely above the waterline, but like millions of other Americans, I have seen them replayed enough on television to be somewhat jaded. Two other seemingly forgettable images are forged deeper in my conscience. One afternoon, while walking across a field more than 400 meters from the water’s edge, I saw some dead fish in the grass and smelled decay all around me. It probably would not translate well in a television news story. It may not translate here in print, but the sense of smell has a long memory and that one still lingers.

On another day, I took some media to St. Tammany Parish, North of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. I showed them a National Guard Engineering unit removing fallen trees, branches, and debris so a local elementary school could open back up. One of the national-level media crews was unimpressed and wanted to return to New Orleans, where “the story was at.” It reminded me of that allegory of the little girl who was throwing starfish back into the ocean. A man approaches her and says, “Look at how many starfish there are. You can’t possibly throw them all back into the ocean before they die. Why are you doing this? It’s not going to make a difference.” And the little girl replies, as she throws another starfish back into the ocean, “It made a difference to that one.” I wanted to explain that to the reporter, but didn’t. The repairs that day may not have made a dramatic television shot, but hundreds of young people were able to return to education and some normalcy – and that is a story worth telling.

Public Affairs Lessons Learned (or reinforced)

I could write a book on this topic. I’ve said that often on a host of topics and while I know it’s trite, it is no less true. So, I won’t try to capture them all or even explain in detail those issues that I do address. I will simply offer a few bullets for consideration. But if my thoughts tease you enough, drop me a note or buy me a beer, and, like Emeril Lagasse, I will try to “kick it up a notch.” If I had to sum the bullets below into one thought it would be this – there seems to be a certain ethos to public affairs professionals, and I think it needs to change. This may sound harsh, and I apologize in advance…wait for it…but I think, in general, we need to change from narcissist, sycophant, ethnocentric, verbose, self-indulgents….into strategically, tactically, technically competent, human resource-oriented, logistical, selfless, message-focused warriors.

Other lessons include:

• Public Affairs/Public Information Officers should be school trained
• We need to go where the action is, get dirty, and earn our stripes
• Command emphasis is critical
• Lack of command emphasis is not an excuse
• Organizational and administrative skills are as important as media savvy
• Email folder management
• Email distribution
• Who is assigned where
• Schedule for updates/briefings
• Desk/laptop/phone for each individual assigned
• Personnel rotations (shifts and tours)
• Lodging (cots) and transportation
• Communications is paramount (sat phones, cells, blackberry)
• Common Operating Picture (COP) must be determined and shared
• PAO/PIO’s must have an organizational structure
• Ability to improvise and adapt (as a PAO I had a dedicated helicopter)
• Access to the people and the story
• Need to understand what Media wants vs what Organization wants
• Must establish a public affairs battle rhythm
• PAO’s prefer being on camera or writing the story, but they should also…
• Read and know all doctrine and guidance
• Fill personnel vacancies
• Fill logistical shortages
• Know how to uplink/distribute the articles, photos, videos we take
• Respond to emails and voicemails
• Learn how to maximize resources
• Know the right players
• Perception vs Reality (I would devote a chapter of the book to this)
• PAO’s need more training on media nuances
• Need both national and local coverage (not mutually exclusive)
• TV personalities increase likelihood of airtime (over film crew only)
• PAO’s can/should influence what a banner or crawl will say
• Basics – Branding can and should be both visual and verbal.

National Guard Hurricane Katrina Talking Points

I drafted or contributed to most of the following:

• Guard forces were in the water and on the streets rescuing people within four hours of Katrina’s passing
• The nation’s governors dispatched more than 50,000 National Guard members from every state and territory to respond to Hurricane Katrina
• Rescued and evacuated more than 70,000 people from life threatening situations in the hours and days following Katrina
• The cumulative Army and Air National Guard air operations for Hurricane Katrina by 29 Sep were over 10,200 sorties flown, 88,100 passengers airlifted, 18,834 cargo tons moved, and 17,000 lives saved
• With over 50,000 National Guard personnel mobilized on 8 Sep, the Guard exceeded by three times its previous largest deployment ever for a natural disaster
• The Air National Guard’s air operations for Hurricane Katrina were over 2,200 sorties flown for 7,200 flying hours, airlifting 31,200 passengers, moving 11,200 cargo tons, and saving 1,400 lives
• The National Guard helped evacuate victims from the Convention Center as fast as civilian agencies could provide bus transportation–a rate of approximately 1,000 individuals per hour
• Stabilized Convention Center in less than 30 minutes without a shot fired; within 90 minutes, hot meals were served to 20,000 citizens; within 18 hours, over 20,000 evacuees were bussed out of the convention center

Conclusion

As I look back in years to come, the tragedy and sorrow will not fade. Nor will I ever forget the moment I saw Pete’s truck.