December Director’s Cut

Col. Bryan Salas

The Director’s Cut: DivPA’s Monthly Newsletter to the Marine Corps’ PA Community is now online you can download it here

Marines
Many thanks for a great year. There was tremendous accomplishment from the 2009 Thomas Jefferson Awards – those who are the very best across the entire Defense Department:

Sgt Mark Fayloga was named the Military Photographer of the Year.

In April, Marines also placed first in three of the four top outstanding individual categories for the 2009 TJ Awards Program. Staff Sgt Luis Agostini, public affairs chief, Regimental Combat Team 7, was announced the Department of Defense Print Journalist of the Year.

Sgt Todd Hunter, production chief, Marines TV, Defense Media Activity-Marine Corps, was announced the Department of Defense Broadcast Journalist of the Year. Lance Cpl Jad Sleiman, combat correspondent, Marine Forces Reserve, earned the title of Outstanding New Writer. The last year a Marine earned this title was in 2006.

And for the third year in a row, MARINES magazine, the Marine Corps’ official magazine, earned the award for Outstanding Flagship Publication.

The award-season is gearing up; this is a great opportunity to share the accomplishments of our Marines.

As we go into the New Year, HQMC Division of Public Affairs is doing a self-examination to ensure we do not “confuse hard work with results.” One of the challenges is to move from “current operations” to “future operations” and plans. I encourage you to review the Expeditionary Energy Office’s strategic communication plan as an example. The key to this plan’s success was the drive and determination of the program director with the assistance of the PAO. Examine the plan and see if it is appropriate for your use.

Finally, many thanks for your service this past year. For those deployed in Harm’s Way, thank you for your work, and for your family’s sacrifice. You will be in our thoughts this Holiday Season.

Always in our thoughts is the ultimate sacrifice of 20-year-old LCpl Ralph Fabbri, combat camera Marine, who was killed in action this year in Afghanistan. Wounded in action were combat correspondents Cpl Eugenio Montanez and Sgt Dorian Gardner.

The commander of Marine Forces Reserve best described their sacrifices in a speech this year when he said: “Most wearing the Eagle, Globe and Anchor today joined the unbroken ranks of American heroes after that fateful day not for money, or promises of bonuses or travel to exotic liberty ports, but for one reason and one reason alone; because of the terrible assault on our way of life by men they knew must be killed and extremist ideology that must be destroyed. A plastic flag in their car window was not their response to the murderous assault on our country. No, their response was a commitment to protect the nation swearing an oath to their God to do so, to their deaths. When future generations ask why America is still free and the heyday of Al Qaeda and their terrorist allies were counted in days rather than in centuries, as the extremists themselves predicted, our hometown heroes—soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines—can say, “because of me and people like me who risked all to protect millions who will never know my name.”

Thank you for your anonymous and selfless service.

Semper Fidelis! — Colonel Bryan Salas