As the Deputy Director for Public Affairs at the National Guard Bureau, I look constantly for innovative paths to improve our response capabilities and provide for a flexible approach to all contingencies. Hurricane Katrina provided the catalyst for a recent change I implemented. Overall, our public affairs approach to this disaster was remarkable. We educated and informed internal and external audiences on how 50,000 National Guard men and women deployed into the Gulf Coast and saved over 17,000 lives. We garnered more media attention than several other organizations combined. And yet, three weeks later, after many of us had returned home, I learned that the various National Guard states, among their deployments, included over 70 public affairs professionals, all telling their local story, but none of them connected to the senior Public Affairs officer or speaking with one voice.
The National Guard is a unique organization in that each Adjutant General reports directly to the Governor, so the Chief of the National Guard Bureau does not have the authority to “order” any of them to complete specific actions. As primary staff members at the Bureau, we have the same restriction. As a result, I could not compel our state counterparts to report and coordinate when and where I found it strategically useful. In addition, interacting with 54 separate and distinct organizations, albeit with common structure and mission, can be slowed by variant vision and diverse political considerations.
To respond better to future large-scale natural disasters and potential terrorist incidents, I developed a Public Affairs Rapid Response Team. The strategic objective was/is to augment state public affairs capabilities during incidents of national significance or during other emergencies that exceed local capabilities or resources. I designed the team to provide media relations, media escort, command and public information, media operations, media embed, and all capabilities normally associated with a Joint Information Center. The team has the ability to deployable within 12 hours, or less and is capable of sustained operations in austere conditions for at least 15 days.
I created it as a modular, expandable force package. I did not have a sufficient number of staff members in my national office to support a large-scale event. I could not demand participation from the field. So I developed a volunteer team drawing on all assets, locally and nationally. The motivation for the field was real-world training, experience working side-by-side with first responders, and upon a successful six month tour on the team, an added reference from our office. For each incident, the leadership for the team came from my office, the augmentees are drawn from the Bureau and non-effected states and they all work, in concert, for the effected state public affairs officer. Our office maintains a “fly-away” package that includes computers, satellite communications, and tentage. The team can be deployed by ground or air transport. Finally, I developed a password protected web site that enabled team members on the scene and at state and national offices to share talking points and media products without delay. The only costs associated with this team were the much needed equipment purchases.
After implementing this Rapid Response Team, I led them in a national-level homeland defense exercise with simultaneous events in Alaska, Indiana, and Rhode Island, with many more states participating. I led over 75 National Guard public affairs professionals, working together, with common themes and messages, and a shared vision. As a result, we garnered more local, state, and national coverage for our efforts than every other organization involved in the event, to include United States Northern Command, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and many others. Each of these organizations has lauded this Rapid Response initiative and many more, to include the Red Cross, have asked for briefings and guidance on how they can create similar capabilities. On a personal level, for my actions specifically in response to Hurricane Katrina and after, I was awarded both the Humanitarian Service Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal.
Stoneking Strategic Communications (SSC) 