Will the Army ever learn good media relations techniques? Walter Reed as a case study

Military Review, May-June, 2008 by James T. Currie

In the final analysis, if senior leaders can see what went wrong in the Army's handling of this abysmal series of revelations, and then draw the right conclusions, perhaps some good will have come out of this episode, painful as it was. For example, will Army officers continue to whine about press coverage, or will we realize that the press is always going to be there, doing a necessary job for a free republic? It has a right to be there, and the sooner we embrace it, the better off we will be. We have to accept that having the press watching what we do and reporting on it will make us more accountable to our citizens and to Soldiers under our stewardship. Failing to accept that fact is the zenith of hypocrisy.

The upshot of this entire mess is that it was, indeed, a mess, and the Army is now doing what it should have done years ago: cleaning up. Would the Army have done so without the press revelations? Would commanders support the Army Wounded Warrior program with garrison budgets the way they do now had the WRAMC situation not surfaced? One would hope so, but the Post's stories certainly accelerated the process. Former DOD Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Torie Clarke wrote a book on this subject titled Lipstick on a Pig. (36) If what you have is swinishly dirty, as Clarke says, putting a shine on it will not fool anyone in an open society. Even states without a free press don't always get away with that.

NOTES

(1.) Dana Priest and Anne Hull, "Soldiers face Neglect, Frustration at Army's Top Medical Facility," Washington Post Magazine, 18 February 2007, A0.

(2.) Ibid.

(3.) Ibid., A03.

(4.) Anne Hull and Dana Priest, "The Hotel Aftermath," The Washington Post, 19 February 2007, A01.

(5.) Telephonic interview, James T. Currie with Howard Kurtz, 29 March 2007.

(6.) Telephonic interview, James T. Currie with COL Daniel Baggio, Chief of Media Relations, Army Public Affairs Office, 28 March 2007.

(7.) Howard Kurtz, "The Army's Preemptive News Briefing, The Washington Post, 24 February 2007, C1.

(8.) Telephonic interview, James T. Currie with COL Daniel Baggio, Chief of Media Relations, Army Public Affairs Office, 28 March 2007.

(9.) The Associated Press, "Head of Army's Walter Reed hospital acknowledges outpatient complaints," 17 February 2007.

(10.) Telephonic interview, James T. Currie with COL Daniel Baggio, Chief of Media Relations, Army Public Affairs Office, 28 March 2007.

(11.) Peter Spiegel, "Walter Reed couldn't handle wounded from Iraq, leader says," latimes.com, 18 February 2007.

(12.) Alia Malek, "Army Tries to Spin Walter Reed Story, Gets Bitten in the Ass," CJR Daily, 1 March 2007.

(13.) Telephonic interview, James T. Currie with COL Daniel Baggio, Chief of Media Relations, Army Public Affairs Office, 28 March 2007.

(14.) Howard Kurtz, "The Army's Preemptive News Briefing, The Washington Post, 24 February 2007, C1.

(15.) Ibid.

(16.) "Rotten Homecoming: This is no way to treat a veteran," The Washington Post, 21 February 2007, A14.

(17.) The senior chaplain at Walter Reed, John R. Kallerson, sent out a broadcast e-mail on 11 March in which he stated that immediately after assuming command MG Weightman had requested funds for repairs at Walter Reed and that it had taken the Army four months to come through with such, which was not very long before the stories broke in the press.