Let’s talk about my role. Many of you already know I’m a Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Navy. That means my role in the military is to tell the story – to support media seeking to embed and report on operations, to answer questions from the media and to produce content that shares what our military (and in this case the full NATO contingent) is doing.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’m assigned to Resolute Support headquarters. The Resolute Support mission was establis
hed and is overseen by NATO with the purpose of training, advising and assisting the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.
Because I’m assigned to th
e Public Affairs Office for the NATO Resolute Support Mission headquarters, I am not training a fellow Afghan public affairs officer, but rather am supporting the public affairs mission directly for the NATO operations.
The office where I work handles requests from media to embed with units and report on operations. As you can imagine it isn’t easy for reporters to travel around the country and we support as we can. You may have watched the recent National Geographic series called “Chain of Command.” This is a great example of the type of story that comes out of our media support.
Likewise, our office provides responses to reporters that call with questions and need a statement from Resolute Support leadership. For instance, just today one of our vehicles accidently hit an Afghan child while transiting across the city. A number of local media outlets, as well as some international reporters assigned here, called with questions and our office is responsible with providing responses to those questions.
Then there is the role that I’m specifically assigned to – content development and social media. This mission has a website that you can find at www.rs.nato.int. You’ll find our latest press releases, new stories and features there. This is my team. I work with five civilian contractors that generate the stories, videos and photos that we post. I’m also responsible for reaching out to the smaller commands around the country and ensuring their Public Affairs Officers (PAOs) are sending up photos and stories from the operations they are conducting.
I review all of this content and determine how and when we share it. We look at everything going on and ensure we are telling a fair story that covers everything from the progress of the Afghan Air Force to gender issues and NATO support.
I’m also tasked with updating and communicating through our social media channels including our Resolute Support Mission Facebook page, @ResoluteSupport Twitter handle, our U.S. Forces – Afghanistan Facebook and Twitter accounts and the commander’s accounts for Gen. John Nicholson. We also run the Instagram, YouTube and Flickr accounts. It’s been fun to really dive back into social media.
I LOVE this work. I LOVE telling the story. This is what attracted me
to public affairs. I think telling the story is so important. Everything from Afghan stories of success when they disrupt Taliban drug business to stories of wounded warriors that return as part of an amazing program called Operation Proper Exit.
So, if you’re looking to see what I’m doing on a day-to-day basis just follow us on social media! I look forward to bringing even more ways to share the story and offer glimpses of the life here this year.
