books
Book Review: Command Attention: Promoting Your Organization the Marine Corps Way
By Jack Paxton, Executive Director, USMCCCA
We don’t normally do book reviews even though we read constantly. We do write letters to the editor when provoked and stories on our favorite space-a flying trips for Leatherneck from time to time. Keith Oliver’s just-out “Command Attention” is a whole different matter, however.
Having served 20 years in Marine Corps public affairs, the first 16 enlisted, the last four as a PAO. I have said many times that the first 12 were a struggle, including the early days as a CC in Korea. My teachers were a mix of World War II vets and scribes from newspapers. Some good. Some bad. Until I worked for the late Bob Morrisey in the early 1960s, I had no idea what public affairs really meant.
When I started reading Keith’s “mighty-mite” two nights ago I could have sworn I was back in Mo’s office at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. This 129-page tome mirrors many of the things Mo espoused. Why not? Keith freely admits that we had the same great mentor who became the first “PA rabbi” for a Marine Commandant.